[TriLUG] Hard drive recovery

[Owen Berry]

The latest on this is that I managed to boot Knoppix running the bad drive
on a PCI IDE controller. The BIOS detects the drive, and so does Knoppix,
but complains bitterly about it.

Here are some messages from dmesg:

Probing IDE interface ide2...
hde: WDC WD2000, ATA DISK drive
ide2 at 0xf8802080-0xf8802087,0xf880208a on irq 11
Probing IDE interface ide3...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
Probing IDE interface ide4...
Probing IDE interface ide5...
...
hde: max request size: 64KiB
hde: 16514064 sectors (8455 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=16383/16/63
hde: cache flushes not supported
hde:hde: recal_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hde: recal_intr: error=0x02 { TrackZeroNotFound }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hde: recal_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hde: recal_intr: error=0x02 { TrackZeroNotFound }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
ide2: reset timed-out, status=0xd0
hde: task_in_intr: status=0x19 { SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
hde: task_in_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hde: status error: status=0x11 { SeekComplete Error }
hde: status error: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hde: drive not ready for command
hde: status error: status=0x11 { SeekComplete Error }
hde: status error: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hde: drive not ready for command
hde: status error: status=0x11 { SeekComplete Error }
hde: status error: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hde: drive not ready for command
ide2: reset timed-out, status=0x90
end_request: I/O error, dev hde, sector 0
Buffer I/O error on device hde, logical block 0

Trying to mount it:

root at 0[~]# mount -t ntfs -o ro /dev/hde /mnt/hde
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hde,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

In dmesg:

end_request: I/O error, dev hde, sector 0
NTFS-fs error (device hde): read_ntfs_boot_sector(): Unable to read primary
boot sector.
NTFS-fs error (device hde): read_ntfs_boot_sector(): Mount option
errors=recover not used. Aborting without trying to recover.
NTFS-fs error (device hde): ntfs_fill_super(): Not an NTFS volume.

I tried some other tools like SalvageNTFS, but they all failed with IO
errors, and there were lots of Buffer I/O errors in dmesg. Interestingly
enough, the clicking noises stopped once I was in Knoppix.

So, any suggestions? Anyone think there is a chance of recovery with some
of that expensive, powerful software out there?

Thanks,
Owen

On Fri, Aug 26, 2005 at 10:22:37PM -0400, Owen Berry wrote:
> I think that's what's happening. They're on different channels, and I
> tried a few mixtures of jumper settings, but no luck.
> 
> I'm keen to give the PCI controller a try, but I'll have to get my hands
> on one. Maybe now is the time to go for RAID with 2 hard drives. Only
> problem is a lack of funds. This drive is only a few months old! Should
> be under warranty at least.
> 
> In the mean time, anybody know of good/reasonably affordable data
> recovery services in the area, that might have a better go at it? I'd
> have to weigh cost against data, but there are some photos of my 7 month
> old son that hadn't made it to a backup yet that I wouldn't mind getting
> back. I see Intrex advertises that they do some data recovery. Any idea
> how good an option they would be? Any location a better choice?
> 
> I guess this has become OT, but it did kind of start off as a Knoppix
> question. Apologies to those who mind.
> 
> -- Owen
> 
> On Fri, 2005-08-26 at 20:36 -0400, Jason Tower wrote:
> > a hosed hdd can interfere with other ide devices, i've seen this kind of 
> > behavior before.  make sure they're not on the same channel, and be sure 
> > to try different jumper settings.  if that fails try using a pci ide 
> > controller for the hdd.  if that doesn't work you're probably sol.
> > 
> > jason
> > 
> > Owen Berry wrote:
> > > This morning my wife's computer crashed, the hard drive started making
> > > clicking noises, and, when rebooted would get past the BIOS startup and
> > > then stop with a flashing cursor in the top left hand corner of the
> > > screen. The only good sign is that the BIOS detects the hard drive.
> > > 
> > > Seems pretty bad. My first thought was to try to recover whatever
> > > possible using Knoppix. Tried booting off the CD, but all I got was the
> > > flashing cursor. Went into the BIOS and double checked that the CD drive
> > > came before the hard drive in terms of startup devices - it was. To be
> > > sure, I changed all 3 options to be the CD drive. Still the same result.
> > > 
> > > I tried unplugging the hard drive and then booting off Knoppix, and
> > > everything worked fine. Any ideas what I could be missing here?
> > > 
> > > Thanks.
> > > 
> > > -- Owen
> > > 
> > >