2. ì
Data
Recovery
Diagnostics
By
Scott
A.
Moulton
/
www.MyHardDriveDied.com
3. ì
Who
is
Scott
Moulton
ì I
own
two
companies;
forensics
and
data
recovery:
ì MyHardDriveDied.com
ì Forensic
Strategy
Services,
LLC.
ì Skills
ì Produced
hundreds
of
videos
and
podcasts
for
DIY.
ì Performing
Data
Recovery
and
Forensics
for
10
Years.
ì Speaking
on
topics
at
major
conferences
for
at
least
seven
years.
ì Wrote
&
Teach
a
“Data
Recovery
Forensics
Class”.
4. ì
Goals:
Identifying
Problems
Is
the
problem
a:
ì Firmware
Problem?
ì Head
Damage?
ì Board
problem?
ì Motor
Problem?
ì Pla'er
Damage?
6. ì
Two
Types
of
Recovery
1. I
-‐
Physical:
Drive
Failure,
Controller
Failure,
Passwords
or
EncrypVon,
and
CorrupVon
2. II
-‐
DeleVon:
Purposeful
or
Accidental
7. ì
Five
Phases
of
Data
Recovery
1. DiagnosVcs
of
the
drive
is
the
first
step.
If
the
drive
can
be
imaged
go
to
step
3,
otherwise
conVnue
with
step
2
2. Repair
the
hard
drive
so
it
is
running
in
some
form,
usually
requiring
hardware
or
special
equipment
3. Image,
Copy,
or
Recover
the
physical
drive
and
sectors
primarily
by
bit
stream
imaging.
If
the
drive
is
funcVoning,
it
is
possible
to
do
this
with
so[ware;
however,
there
are
some
hardware
soluVons
that
work
very
well
with
damaged
drives
4. Perform
Logical
Recovery
of
files,
parVVon
structures,
or
necessary
items;
usually
this
is
by
so[ware
and
is
the
most
common
type
of
applicaVon
sold
5. Repair
files
that
might
be
corrupt
or
have
existed
in
damaged
space
or
sectors
to
recover
what
is
possible.
This
is
usually
the
requirement
in
Forensics,
to
be
able
to
re-‐assemble
data
to
display
what
was
there,
whether
full
or
parVal
data
is
present
8. ì
FIRST
MISTAKE!
Thinking
about
swapping
parts?
STOP,
UNDERSTAND
FIRST!
9. ì
Our
Recovery
Goal!
Imaging/Cloning
the
SECTORS
is
the
most
important
process
and
can
be
used
for
diagnosVcs.
Forget
about
files!
(Well,
for
the
most
part)
13. ì
BASICS:
What
about???
ì Topics
to
get
out
of
the
way….
ì DiagnosVc
Tools
like
Microscope,
&
Vendor
Tools.
ì What
about
so[ware
repairs
tools
like
SpinRite?
ì Commercial
Imaging
Tools?
ì USB
Devices?
ì Doesn’t
SMART
tell
me
if
the
drive
is
bad?
14. ì
Claims
to
be
Diagnostics
ì Microscope
and
QT,
etc.
other
tools:
ì They
don’t
do
much
to
tell
you
anything
if
the
drive
is
not
funcVoning.
ì Vendor
Tools
ì They
are
easy
to
use,
straight
forward
test,
but
usually
even
the
tech
support
people
from
the
drive
manufacture
don’t
know
what
the
error
messages
mean!
17. ì
Absolutely
Never…
ì ..run
any
uVliVes
on
original
or
unVl
a[er
you
image
(it
will
only
get
worse)
your
drive:
ì Chkdsk
ì Fixmbr
ì fixboot,
or
whatever
other
OS
tools
ì JUST
SAY
NO
TO
SPINRITE!
ì They
are
all
useless
on
damaged
drives
and
can
possibly
do
more
damage.
20. ì
On
damaged
hard
drives….
Most
Off
the
shelf
imaging
uVliVes
usually
FAIL!
i.e.:
dd,
SelfImage,
Ghost,
Acronis,
FTK
Imager…
21. ì
Imaging
with
USB??
ì USB
does
not
work
for
data
recovery!
ì You
are
relying
on
some
cheap
Chinese
boards
or
chips
made
by
the
lowest
bidder
of
the
day
that
got
installed
in
that
device
you
have.
ì You
cannot
talk
directly
to
the
hard
drive
unless
you
have
control
of
the
ATA
Adapter,
which
does
not
happen
in
USB
drives.
ì Get
a
good
ATA
Controller,
or
at
least
connect
directly
to
motherboard
and
will
solve
some
of
your
issues!
23. ì
What
can
can
help
imaging?
ì Be'er
ATA
Controllers,
or
even
using
one
if
you
are
trying
to
do
things
over
USB!
Use
tools
that
talked
to
the
ATA
Controller
instead
of
through
the
BIOS.
ì See
Status
with
MHDD
/
Victoria
(and
copy
sectors)
ì h'p://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/be_hdd.html
ì eSATA
works
with
Victoria
for
Windows
w/Driver
Installed
ì PIO
Mode
instead
of
UDMA
–
even
sepng
it
in
Windows
can
help
with
recovery
of
some
drives.
ì Reverse
Imaging
i.e.
ì
ddrescue
&
Media
Tools
Pro,
or
X-‐Ways
Replica
ì Hardware
Imagers,
i.e.
DeepSpar,
PSIClone,
Ninja,
etc.
26. ì
Why
S.M.A.R.T.
doesn’t
work
ì Smart
compares
parameters
to
predict
failure
ì SMART
lacks
standards
and
much
is
le[
up
to
the
manufacturer
ì The
BIOS
SMART
warning
only
does
basic
SMART
test
and
is
only
capable
of
a
simple
OK
Status
ì SMART
and
its
tests
are
usually
turned
off
in
most
hard
drives
/
motherboards
due
to
the
fact
It
decreases
boot
Vme
considerably
ì SMART
TABLE
PROBLEMS
–
Can
actually
causes
errors
making
the
drive
fail!
27. ì
BUT:
what
SMART
can
tell
you…
If
Smart
can
be
read
it
means
you
probably
made
it
though
the
System
Area,
which
means
the
board,
probably
the
firmware
and
the
System
Area
Head
are
good!
(there
are
a
few
excepVons)
28.
29.
30. ì
Add
one
that
could
help…
I. Serial
Number
II. Model
Number
III. Geometry
(Size
of
the
Drive)
IV. Drive
to
Come
Ready
V. +
Any
SMART
data?
32. ì
Goals:
Identifying
Problems
Is
the
problem
a:
ì Firmware
Problem?
ì Head
Damage?
ì Motor
Problem?
ì Board
problem?
ì Pla'er
Damage?
33.
34. ì
Special
Exceptions
To
Know
ì 3.5”
Seagate
ì F3
Firmware
–
7200.11
and
7200.12
ì Serial
Port
and
you
can
read
status
like
Head
Mask
Error
ì CPU
Usage
–
Problems
with
Pending
Bug,
reads
every
other
sector,
slowly
ì 3.5”
WD
ì Head
Alignment
Issues
if
lid
removed
ì Serial
chip
such
as
the
U12
or
U5
need
to
be
soldered
swapping
boards
ì Royal
Board
Problems
–
Need
firmware
copied
–
Reads
Half
the
drive
ì All
Can
Have
ì Bad
Heads
ì Stuck
Heads
ì TVS
Chip
Problems
ì Motor
Problems
ì Board
Problems
ì Scratched
Pla'ers
35. Seagate
F3
Firmware
–
7200.11
and
7200.12
Serial
Port
Status
CPU
Usage
–
Problems
with
Pending
Bug
40. ì
Example:
Seagate
Pending
Bug
Seagate
750
7200.10
drive
and
terminal
–
Processor
Lock
Bug
CE
Log
ErrCode=37
LBA=1e9f69
Type=5
Add
To
Pending
1e9f69
AT
Er
00
Nwt
Er
43
RdWr
000c2.06.02ce
ATA
St
50
Er
00
Op
ec
a,0000/0/00,00
00
00
Niwot:
9ff79ff7
b6
9ff79ff7.3.640
0000
005f
0000
0000
CE
Log
ErrCode=43
LBA=1e9f70
Type=4
Remove
from
Pending
1e9f70
AT
Er
00
Nwt
Er
37
RdWr
000c2.06.02d2
ATA
St
50
Er
00
Op
ec
a,0000/0/00,00
00
00
Niwot:
9ff79ff7
b6
9ff79ff7.3.640
0000
005f
0000
0000
DiskAccess
ReadSector
EC=43
at
0000c2.06.02d2
42. Western
Digital
Head
Alignment
Issues
if
lid
removed
Serial
chip
such
as
the
U12
or
U5
need
to
be
soldered
swapping
boards
Royal
Board
Problems
–
Need
firmware
copied
–
Reads
Half
the
drive
then
starts
to
fail
49. ì
Sounds
Tell
You
A
Lot
ì Clunking
vs.
Clicking
Heads
ì Might
also
take
3
to
4
minutes
to
come
ready
ì Clunking
Sounds
for
a
Bad
Head
ì Tools
That
Can
get
Around
Bad
Heads
ì Problems
if
you
change
the
heads
before
someone
else
does
an
image
ì Hardware
to
control
the
heads
i.e.
Deepspar
Disk
Imager
55. ì
Does
the
Motor
Spin?
ì If
Not
then
Look
At:
ì Do
you
hear
Phasers?
ì Does
it
have
TVS
Chips?
ì Are
electronics
or
a
chip
burnt?
ì Does
it
smell
burnt,
even
with
no
visible
damage?
ì If
it
does
then:
ì Does
the
Motor
Sound
Correct?
ì Or
whine?
70. ì
Damaged
drive?
ì Does
the
Drive
come
Ready?
ì Can
I
see
Serial
Number
or
Smart
InformaVon?
ì Does
the
Drive
Click?
Or
Clunk?
ì Does
the
Motor
Spin?
ì Does
the
Motor
Sound
Correct?
Or
whine?
ì Do
you
hear
Phasers?
ì Electronics
or
chip
burnt?
ì Does
it
smell
burnt?
ì Does
it
have
TVS
Chips?
ì Does
it
make
a
sound?
ì Is
it
scraping?
ì Check
the
Silver
Label?