Previously OK hard drive not being recognised to full capacity

[Baughb]

I recently moved to a new apartment and my previously fine WD 80GB hard drive is now only recognised as 8455MB in raw format and asks to be reformatted every time it is accessed. I've tried this drive on 2 different computers, both with current BIOS' installed, on a controller card, and off, on primary and secondary IDE channels, Master, Slave, and cable select all with the same results. Its very important I get this data back off the hard drive. Do you think there may be something wrong with the circuit board, or the storage disks themselves? If it is a circuit board problem can it be repaired/replaced so I can access my important information again? I have two other WD 80GB drives in the system that work fine. thanks for any help.


Here is what BIOS says about the drive.
Cyl - 16383
Head - 16
Sector - 63
Size - 8455MB
LBA Mode - Large (my other drives say LBA)
32 Bit Mode - on
Block Mode - 16Sec
PIO Mode - 0 (my other drives say "4")
ATA Mode - N/A (my other drives say 100)

 

[johnjkr1]

You could run the diagnostic from western digital to confirm the drive is ok, but that will not bring you data back, of course. Was the data NTFS? Perhaps you could try chkdsk or one of the other recovery console tools.

 

[Baughb]

I believe the data was on a FAT32 Partition...but Its also possible it was on NTFS. I ran the diagnostic disk from WD and It booted with an "error/status code 0132" advising me to contact technical support with that code (I'll shoot them off an email now).

I found someone else with a similar problem to mine (even with the same error code) but he ended up just getting an RMA since the data wasnt too important to him. For me the situation is reversed. I care nothing about the drive..just the data on it. Here is a link to his article.

I used a Easy Recovery Professional and it found some stuff. Curious thought it found 8GB worth of data on the now 8GB drive. Thats why Im thinking the storage disks on the drive may be okay and the controller board might be screwy. If I can get the drive to be recognised properly it might get access to all 80GB.
I tried running the Quick diagnostic test from that same program and it said the drive was working fine. The Full Diagnostic test however found errors in a bunch of sectors and said the drive was basically toast. Windows disk diagnostic tools wont even load on this drive...i select them and the window closes like I was never even in the program.

 

[johnjkr1]

If it fails the wd diagnostics, its dead for sure. You can try swapping the controller boards, but you'll have to find a drive that is exactly the same to steal it from.

 

[Baughb]

I have three 80GB WD drives.

The model number off the damaged one is - WD800BB-00BSA0
the other two are - WD800BB-00CAA1
and - WD800JB-00CRA1


none of these match exactly, but what is the most important part? the top two both start with WD800BB but the endings are different. Are those compatible enough to swap out or do I need to find one with the EXACT same model number?
Thanks for all your help.

 

[Cheetah8799]

The model number off the damaged one is - WD800BB-00BSA0
the other two are - WD800BB-00CAA1

Those are the same model. You should be able to swap the controller boards. I've never done it though, so you'll have to ask around on how to do this procedure. Keep in mind that if you mess the whole thing up you may have 2 dead drives...

 

[nanaki333]

you could always try the drive in a usb2 or firewire enclosure. i had to recently recover data from a bad drive that was converted to dynamic disks that wouldn't even boot up anymore. stuck it in an enclosure, used EasyRecovery Professional on it, BOOYA! all the data was there for the taking.

 

[Baughb]

Thanks for the tip. I'm almost positive I have a USB drive enclosure lying around somewhere. I'll try that before I swap the controller boards.

I'm not too worried about these drives being damaged by swapping out the controller boards. These are about 3 year old drives and I've already replaced them with three 200GB seagate drives. just need to back up the data before I begin. I'm heading out to the hardware store later today to get the next size up Torx wrench (I only have a torx 6 and thats too small for the screws on the hdd PCB). I'll let everyone know how it goes.

I've taken a few calls for data recovery quotes from some outside sources. They estimate around $700-$1200. My data is important to me....but I was thinking more like under $300. I guess this is my best bet.

 

[Baughb]

I tried using a USB drive enclosure but that didnt yeald any results. I also tried swapping out the controller boards from my other wd800bb but all I got was a terrible clicking noise so I shut off the computer right away and replaced it with the other controller board. I didnt damage it any further as far as I can tell.....still the same old problems it always had. I think it may have something to do with the fact that the endings are different on the two drives model numbers. I'm going to try to find one that matches exactly on ebay...see if that helps any. Wish me luck.