2024-12-22

Hard Disk Repair

Hard Disk Repair, hd repair, hdd repair, Hard Disk Repair Technologies

Hard Disk Details (2)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM04 mins

The hard drive knows nothing about your files and is not aware in any way of the content. That is the job of the Operating System (OS from here on). When the OS asks for a file, the OS will request a logical block from the drive; the drive will translate that to the physical location in CHS. An example is that it might request data from Cylinder 2500 at head 2 located on sector 234. The drive has many spare sectors and sometimes spare tracks to be used to compensate for errors and relocation of data. NOTE: Look at $BadClus on a NTFS File system for what the OS thinks is bad.

In a previous speech here at Defcon 14, I gave the basic inner workings of a hard drive and several ways you can repair it. I am sure that you can get that previous speech on DVD, find it on the web, or on www.myharddrivedied.com and it will give you a large amount of info that I am not going to discuss here today.  Additionally, there is a whitepaper on the CD that includes more data and notes about repairing a hard drive.

Since my last speech one of the most common questions I get everyday is “What is that clicking noise? How do I fix it?” This is not a simple problem by any means.  So my goal today is to give you more insight into the inner workings your hard drive and explain how this problem occurs and what you might be able to do to fix it.

Slide 1208: In this speech we are looking at the platter assembly where the heads are located, through the area of the preamp and the IC Logic Board down to the PCB.  This is the area that affects what is causing the clicking noise that you hear.  I am now going to explain how each of these things works and walk you through the drive functions.

Part of what causes this clicking problem is related to the power on routine functions.

The boot sequence of a drive is as follows:
1.      Power on chip returns status
2.      Self check
3.      Spindle spin up
4.      Un-mounting heads from rack
5.      Servo timing reads – firmware
6.      SA reading – firmware
7.      Firmware extensions reading
8.      Error – read SA from other secondary copies

Read More

Hard Disk Details (1)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM03 mins

Data recovery is necessary when source material fails and where no good backup exists, either Physical or Logical. There are two types of data recovery in the standard basic sense.  One type of data recovery is when there is damage to the media and the pre-existing data need to be retrieved. This will usually require the media to be repaired.

The second form of data recovery is when files were purposely or accidently deleted.  When this type of data recovery is necessary there is usually no damage to the media and standard software can be used to recover the data.  This is the process that most software performs. Very few software programs understand damaged media. Because most software relies on calls and functions from the operating system for its input, it has no control itself over error correction or any functions that the operating system performs on the drive. I believe there a four phases to any data recovery.

Four Phases of Recovery
1. Repair the Hard Drive so it is running in some form, usually requiring hardware or special equipment.

2. Image, Copy or recover the physical drive and sectors primarily by bitstream imaging. If the drive is functioning, it is possible to do this with software, however there are some hardware solutions that work very well; i.e. DeepSpar Disk Imager. This is a situation where some software is better than others, such as dd_rescue (use with dd_rhelp script) on a Linux system has a special feature that allow it to image backward (understanding why you need to image backwards is very important in data recovery).

3. Perform Logical Recovery of files, partition structures, or necessary items; usually this is by software and is the most common type of application sold.

4. Repair of files that might 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, if whole or not. This is also applied in data recovery for corrupt Word and Excel documents.

Read More

The reasons of a Hard Disk Clicking Sound

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM03 mins

Head Crash This is a physical damage of the disk platter when the head of a hard disk scratches the surface of the disk. This is the result of the grinding sound you hear when this occurs. Firstly, turn off your computer and do not attempt to power it up. Prolong power to the hard disk will only cause it more harm and causing further complications. Consult a data recovery firm immediately and avoid dismantling the disk to repair the problem yourself. Operating without the correct tools and a lab environment can result in further extensive damage that complicates the data recovery process.
Bad Sectors Typically bad sectors are physical damage of a span of disk area. When the head make several attempts to read from the same area of disk multiple times but fails, it generates the clicking sound. This can also occur when the head is unable to calibrate with the media servo tracks due to the gradual weakening of the magnetic domains on the platter that causes the drive to reset continuously. Perform a disk surface scan if the condition of the hard disk is not too bad. This helps to mark all bad sectors and prevent your system from writing new data on the marked sectors of the disk.

Mechanical Faults This is a physical damage and these sounds can be caused by a malfunctioning spindle, Read Write head or loose components. Backup your data immediately if you are still able to access data on the disk. Your disk is near the end of its life and will stop functioning anytime. If your disk stops spinning after a period of clicking sound, you may wish to send your disk to a reputable data recovery firm to recover your data.

Read More

Hitachi(IBM) HDD Firmware Download

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM04 mins

Here you can download Hitachi(IBM) firmware collections, you can make use of them as donor for your damaged hard drives or your Hitachi(IBM) harddisk firmware update!

Hitachi(IBM) firmware:
4212,4240,5410,5412,5416,5425,5480,7260,atmo

,atmr,aver,avv2,avvn,dara,dbca,dcya,djsa,dkla,dla3,dtca,dtla,dyla,pla3 series

firmware free download!

Hitachi Deskstar 180GXP Family (20,30,40,60,80,120GB) Hard Drives
FW update for HTS5480xxM9AT00 mobile hdd(20->80Gb)
FW update : IBM IC25T060ATCS05 (60GB) Mobile Hard Disk Drive
firmware update Travelstar 14GS/10GT/6GN ATA Mobile 2.5
PLA3-PF2OA6FA-HDS728080PLA38040Y9028LEN
PLA3-P21OABEA-HitachiHDS721680PLA380
IC35L090AVV207-0-V23OA66A-VNVC02G3DT1DZT
IC35L060AVVA07-VA3OA50K
IC35L060AVV207-0-V22OA66A
IC35L060AVV207-0-V22OA63A-VNVB03G2GGPSRJ
IC35L060AVER07-ER6FA46A
IC35L060AVER07-ER60A46A
IC35L060AVER07-ER60A44A
IC35L040AVVN07-0-VA2OAF0C-VNP210B2G86DTB
IC35L040AVVN07-0-VA2OAF0C-VNP210B2G7YYBB
IC35L040AVVA07-0-VA2OA52A-VNC212A2GXY2UB
IC35L040AVVA07-0-VA2OA52A-VNC202A2L6AERA
IC35L040AVER07-ER40A46A
IC35L040AVER07-ER40A45A
IC35L040AVER07-ER40A44A
IC35L040AVER07-0-ER4OA46A-SXNSX199624
IC35L040AVER07-0-ER4OA44A-SXPTXP43070
IC35L040AVER07-0-ER4OA44A-SXNSX199624
IC35L040AVER07-0-ER4OA44A-SX0SX042770
IC35L030AVER07-ER30A45A
IC35L030AVER07-ER30A44A
IC35L020AVER07-ER2FA44A
IC35L020AVER07-ER20A46A,IC35L020AVER07-ER20A45A
IC35L020AVER07-ER20A44A,IC35L010AVER07-ER1FA44A
IC35L010AVER07-ER10A44A,IC25N080ATMR04-0-MO4OAD4A-MRG405K4H0AS9H
IC25N080ATMR04-0-MO4OAD4A,IC25N040ATMR04-0-MO2OAD4A-MRG257KBEV9DGH
IC25N040ATMR04-0-MO2OAD4A,IC25N030ATDA04-0-DA4OA70A
ic25n010atda04,IBM-DTLA-307045-TX6OA50C-YMDYMH34857,IBM-DJSA-210
…

Hitachi(IBM) Firmware Download

Read More

Seagate HDD Firmware Download

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM03 mins

Here you can download Seagate firmware collections, you can make use of them as donor for your damaged hard drives or your seagate harddisk firmware update!

Seagate Harddisk Firmware:k2,k3,k4,k5,k7,k9,Momentus,Neptune,u5,u6,u8,u10,ux series Firmware Free download!

Seagate Disk Firmware Download

Seagate Momentus hard drive firmware update SP35474 SP33937
Firmware update for ST94813A, ST96812A, ST98823A, ST9100824A, ST9120821A, ST9402112A, ST980829A, ST9100825A,

ST9210824A, ST960812A, ST94813AS, ST96812AS, ST98823AS, 9100824AS, ST9120821AS

Seagate Barracuda 7.200 11 ST3500320AS ; ST31000340AS ; ST3750330AS
Seagate Firmware Update

Latest firmware update for Seagate ST3320620AS 3.AAE Tested!
Seagate Firmware Update

UX-UXX307B
Seagate Disk Firmware

UX-UXX307A
Seagate Disk Firmware

UX-UX20307
Seagate Disk Firmware

u8-U88303B
Seagate Disk Firmware

u8-U88303
Seagate Disk Firmware

u8-U84303
Seagate Disk Firmware

u8-U817303B
Seagate Disk Firmware

U8-U817303
Seagate Disk Firmware

u6-U640G339
Seagate Disk Firmware

u6-U640533
Seagate Disk Firmware

u6-U640399D
Seagate Disk Firmware

u6-U640399
Seagate Disk Firmware

u6-U640334D
Seagate Disk Firmware

u6-U640334C
Seagate Disk Firmware

U6-U620G399
Seagate Disk Firmware

U6-U620334A
Seagate Disk Firmware

U6-U620334!
Seagate Disk Firmware

U5-6.55
Seagate Disk Firmware

U5-3.58
Seagate Disk Firmware

U5-3.57
Seagate Disk Firmware

U5-3.54
Seagate Disk Firmware

U5-3.53
Seagate Disk Firmware

U5-3.39
Seagate Disk Firmware

U5-3.35
Seagate Disk Firmware

U5-3.11
Seagate Disk Firmware

U5-3.07
Seagate Disk Firmware

U10-U105302
Seagate Disk Firmware

U10-U1015302
Seagate Disk Firmware

U10-U1010302
Seagate Disk Firmware

ST380817AS-3.42-4MR1MNEN
PCI PC3000 v2.27 Firmware

ST3802110A-3.AAH-5LR57566
PCI PC3000 v2.27 Firmware (LDR included)

ST380011A-8.01-M14-248-5JVF40LF
PCI PC3000 Firmware

Read More

What is a bad sector?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM04 mins

A sector is a small area on the surface of a hard drive or a floppy disk.

Hard drives usually have several platters. The platters are the discs which are covered with magnetic material which is used to hold data. Floppy disk drives contain only one platter.

Platters are divided into a set of concentric rings called tracks. A 1.44MB floppy disk has 160 tracks. Hard drives have thousands of tracks.

Each of these tracks is divided into smaller storage areas called sectors. A sector is the smallest storage area on a disk.

What is a Bad Sector?

Hard drives are contain millions of sectors. It is very normal for some of these sectors to be bad sectors, even when the drive is first manufactured.

In addition, a small number of sectors will normally go bad during the lifespan of a drive.

When this happens, the data in those sectors may be lost, but the data on the rest of the disk will be unaffected and the disk is still completely usable.

A bad sector cannot be repaired, but it can be marked as unusable. Once marked as unusable, the Operating System will know not to attempt to store data in that bad sector. The storage capacity of the disk will be decreased by the amount of storage space in the bad sector.

If your hard drive develops a bad sector, back the hard drive up immediately. If the bad sector was caused by a faulty drive head, the problem can quickly spread to other sectors on the disk.

Read More