Re: Is this disk dead?

[David Morrison]

Thanks Adrien. I was thinking about that. However, I understand some of them 
are not SATA - the manufacturers put their own simplified (and cheaper) 
controller in the the case, so it is not clear how it could be connected to a 
computer.

I could open the case to see, but that would void the warranty, and the owner 
may want to make a claim to get it replaced. Although maybe a replacement would 
be just as bad....

Cheers

David

On 25/8/2023 18:52, Adrien Cordonnier wrote:
> Hello David,
> The disk is probably dead as suggested by the clicking sound.
> If you really want to recover important data which are only on this disk, I 
> suggest that you open the USB enclosure and connect the disk directly to the 
> computer. The USB controllers are usually not the best to handle defective 
> disks.
> Cheers,
> Adrien
>
> Le ven. 25 août 2023 à 10:56, David Morrison <davidmorrisonlist@gmail.com> a 
> écrit :
>
>     A friend bought a WD Elements 2TB external portable disk, ie, USB powered. 
> It worked ok for a day or two, then she could not get some files off it. She 
> asked me to help.
>
>     When I first plugged it in, it would mount. However, trying to copy files 
> off it would start, and sometimes copy some files. Often, though, it would 
> start copying then there would be a click from the drive, and it would just sit 
> there, no error message, but not copying either. The disk was still spinning, 
> as the vibration could be felt.
>
>     So I started copying it using ddrescue to see if it could be recovered.
>
>     bash-3.2# date ; ddrescue -n -f -s 2001GiB /dev/rdisk1 /dev/rdisk2 
> Jenni.log ; date
>
>     After nearly two days, it is reporting this:
>
>     Press Ctrl-C to interrupt
>           ipos:    4938 MB, non-trimmed: 4939 MB,  current rate:       0 B/s
>           opos:    4938 MB, non-scraped:        0 B,  average rate:       0 B/s
>     non-tried:    1995 GB, bad-sector:        0 B,    error rate:   32768 B/s
>        rescued:        0 B,   bad areas:        0,        run time:  1d 17h 59m
>     pct rescued:    0.00%, read errors: 75369,  remaining time:         n/a
>                                    time since last successful read:         n/a
>     Copying non-tried blocks... Pass 5 (forwards)
>
>     The fact that it is on pass 5 and has still not rescued anything at all 
> makes me think that the fault is not on the disk surface, but somewhere in the 
> electronics. If so, then I suspect I am unlikely to get anything off it.
>
>     The way it is going, it looks like it will take several weeks to finish. If 
> this is going to be fruitless, I might as well stop now.
>
>     Does this analysis sound reasonable? Is there any chance of recovering 
> anything?
>
>     This is ddrescue 1.23.
>
>     Cheers
>
>     David