Bad HDD & RAM Causing Odd Issues - Need to Recover Data

[Appletax]

**While writing this, I powered off the PC so I could run tools from UBCD. It will not power back on now.**
Wonder how I would go about troubleshooting this issue. It's not a standard computer setup.


I'm working on a Dell Inspiron Zino. A RAM module was bad so I replaced it and it made some weird issues go away; however, I am unable to gain access to the HDD to try to repair it/test it/recover data.

Hard Drive

• Windows 10 won't fully load - eventually stops on a black screen. Can't repair itself.
• Saw a BSOD saying "Unmountable Boot Volume"
• USB to SATA - usually does nothing, when it does something it just says there's USB malfunction
• Connected to my mobo - Windows gets stuck and will not load - I have seen this happen before and it makes no sense.
• Linux Mint error
  • https://imgur.com/2YfDZim
  • Tried mounting as read only
    • https://imgur.com/wIpN0KE
• Gparted error
  • https://imgur.com/puxY5Yz
• When connected, the Windows 10 USB & DVD get stuck on a purple screen, so I cannot try to repair Windows using the Windows 10 installation media
• I can hear the read/write heads moving back and forth. Sounds like there may be a mechanical issue.
• The built-in diagnostic tests plays me a song when testing the HDD
  • https://imgur.com/CRkKB31

RAM - With Bad Module Installed

• No display/black screen
• Huge amount of MemTest errors (and black lines forming when testing)
  • https://imgur.com/zUohwGr
  • https://imgur.com/UxxON1W

This thing is a cluster fu*k!

The CPU benchmark score is 406, which is among the lowest I have ever seen.

At this point the computer is not worth fixing but the customer wants their data off the HDD.

 

[Markverhyden]

You should image the HD and then work from the image. Personally I'd probably try to p2v it and see if booting the vm helps things.

 

[Appletax]

How do I image an unmountable HDD? I use Acronis True Image for cloning. Would it just work?

P2v?





Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

 

[Larry Sabo]

the customer wants their data off the HDD

Sounds to me like it needs a data recovery specialist. With all the testing/trial/error and the unmountable status, odds of recovering any data are rapidly diminishing.

 

[nlinecomputers]

If you have to ask how to image a drive then you need to stop and hand this to a professional data recovery company. Hard drives that make weird noises are NOT recoverable by average techs. Stop and hand this off to a specialist.

 

[Appletax]

If you have to ask how to image a drive then you need to stop and hand this to a professional data recovery company. Hard drives that make weird noises are NOT recoverable by average techs. Stop and hand this off to a specialist.

I know how to image a drive. Clonezilla, Acronis. Easy peasy.

I will try to image it when I get home. I have not been able to mount it so I don't see how Acronis could work with it.

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[Markverhyden]

The file system does not have to be mountable to clone if it's a block level clone.

 

[Appletax]

The file system does not have to be mountable to clone if it's a block level clone.

Block level = sector by sector?

The HDD is 500GB so that'll probably take awhile.

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[nlinecomputers]

The HDD is 500GB so that'll probably take awhile.

One of the reasons that data recovery is so expensive. It is very time-consuming. Lots of labor/bench time.

 

[Appletax]

Anyone have any recommendations on how to deal with the power button doing nothing?

I think that with the standard 20 pin power connector you can manually start the computer without a power button.

Not sure how I would do that with this PC since it doesn't have that.

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[Alexey]

The file system does not have to be mountable to clone if it's a block level clone.

The reference to "USB malfunction" suggests the problem is worse than filesystem damage.

I will try to image it when I get home.

Connect it to SATA. USB-to-SATA does not work with bad blocks. If imaging does not start well, stop and send to a proper lab for recovery. Trying to image a drive with certain head or surface defects will progressively damage the drive further.

 

[Appletax]

The reference to "USB malfunction" suggests the problem is worse than filesystem damage.



Connect it to SATA. USB-to-SATA does not work with bad blocks. If imaging does not start well, stop and send to a proper lab for recovery. Trying to image a drive with certain head or surface defects will progressively damage the drive further.

Very helpful. Thank you

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[DataMedics]

Block level = sector by sector?

The HDD is 500GB so that'll probably take awhile.

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Yes, data recovery is crazy tedious and time-consuming to do it the right way. As @nlinecomputers said that's part of why data recovery is so expensive. Today I spent pretty much my entire day babysitting a 640Gb Toshiba drive which is hooked up to a $10,000 hardware imaging tool and is only able to read at around 260Kb/s or it goes unstable and starts getting errors. I'm targeting just the 160Gb with data, but even so it's taken all day and is only at 36% now. So it'll be a babysitting job for the next two days as well...all to earn $450 (deduct overhead from that) and have the customer think I'm ripping them off because they imagine that I just plug it into a magic machine and press copy and it's done in 10 minutes.

Hit me up via PM if you'd like. I'll give you a good deal on data recovery for your first case.

 

[lcoughey]

You may want to take a look at the resources section of this site and look at how to triage a hard dive.

 

[DataMedics]

As an update to my awful case I'm working on, it now seems that the read/write heads are just about toast.

Since I can't very well go back to my customer and ask for more money, I'll probably end up buying a donor drive (at my own expense) and escalating this to a clean room case. Goodbye profit....poof!!!

Fortunately, they aren't all this bad.

 

[Krynn72]

Fortunately, they aren't all this bad.

Out of curiosity, is it known whether that drive had been to another shop for "recovery" before you got it?

 

[DataMedics]

That is a question I have on my forms (not that customers ever lie haha) but there was no indication it was anywhere else prior to this. The top cover hasn't been opened. At first I just thought the drive had a firmware issue and some bad sectors when I was able to get it reading by doing a little bit of manipulation on my tools. But, now it's just getting slower and slower, so I think the heads are too weak.

 

[lcoughey]

To be honest, our getting drives after being assessed by other data recovery labs is for less a problem than the damage cause by inexperienced techs trying to run software recoveries against physically damaged drives. It amazes me how little some techs understand basic knowledge of hard drives. If the drive was bumped or dropped, why do they think it it is just a software recovery or, worse, think it is something that can be fixed with garbage like HDD Regenerator or SpinRite?