From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mon Sep 18 18:31:34 2017 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ACD28E24784 for ; Mon, 18 Sep 2017 18:31:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: from lb1-smtp-cloud9.xs4all.net (lb1-smtp-cloud9.xs4all.net [194.109.24.22]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "*.xs4all.net", Issuer "RapidSSL SHA256 CA - G3" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4BBA2757F5 for ; Mon, 18 Sep 2017 18:31:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: from slackbox.erewhon.home ([83.162.243.5]) by smtp-cloud9.xs4all.net with ESMTPA id u0pHdcGqwmRxPu0pIdpRS8; Mon, 18 Sep 2017 20:31:24 +0200 Received: from rsmith (uid 1001) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) id 12463 by slackbox.erewhon.home (DragonFly Mail Agent v0.11+); Mon, 18 Sep 2017 20:31:23 +0200 Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2017 20:31:23 +0200 From: Roland Smith To: Shamim Shahriar Cc: freebsd-questions Subject: Re: Recovering data from a broken HDD Message-ID: <20170918183122.GA5137@slackbox.erewhon.home> Mail-Followup-To: Shamim Shahriar , freebsd-questions References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-GPG-Fingerprint: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 X-GPG-Key: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/pubkey.txt X-GPG-Notice: If this message is not signed, don't assume I sent it! User-Agent: Mutt/1.9.0 (2017-09-02) X-CMAE-Envelope: MS4wfNxSkmAS21aqWvwiuWFwGnXS14VbE+nlmxIRBhXEcI1PJGCBsO7WUPyWfE/4+l+OVyfzNA3e9GfH9gJGfjEqOZEgnB+7qRd4ZY7Q/zxrbvMl+Wy5DATE I98wW6dPo3ilMhThrQiQW5/m+6hrXHPq+QyyOwgp8KRfMsUMIktlJw61JRKV/RHBM3s6gWBH/xVJYg== X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2017 18:31:34 -0000 On Sun, Sep 17, 2017 at 11:39:20PM +0100, Shamim Shahriar wrote: > Good evening all, hope everyone is well. > > Last week, another HDD slipped through the hands (literally). This one too > is showing the same/similar symptoms as the previous one. I believe that the > data is still there, but somehow the alignment has shifted and hence the HDD > controller is unable to provide the data. I am wondering, can anyone please > suggest a data recovery programme that I can try on the drive? The HDD being > not in the western/relatively-more-techy region cannot be sent to a data > recovery company (and I have been told they cost you a fortune), but have > access to m$ or Mac or Linux or BSD systems. So if anyone could please > suggest something to try on (Yes, I had been on google, and found a huge > amount of tools -- but I would much rather try out something that someone > has already tried and can give some insight on). It depends. If the heads are bent and/or stuck on the parking ramp, you will need a recovery service to get anything back off that drive. Trying to use the drive in that case will cause irreversible damage because of the bent heads dragging across the surface of the platters. Since you don't want to use a recovery service, try to make an image of the disk as Polytropon suggested. If that works, you can probably retrieve a lot of the data from that image using the mentioned tools. How easy you can retrieve data depends on the extent of the damage and the filesystem used. Whatever you do, *do not try to write to the disk*. That will almost certainly make things worse. Roland -- R.F.Smith http://rsmith.home.xs4all.nl/ [plain text email much appreciated]