Initialization Error USB Hard Drive

[on2valhalla]

I am a Marine deployed to Iraq on a small team with little to no support, so I come to this forum as i have exhausted all other resources. We have a usb hard drive that will not initialize. I have removed the drive from its initial enclosure and tried it through a direct usb link cable, and another enclosure to no avail. When in an enclosure the drive spins up then stops, but fails to even register on the computer. Through the direct connect cable, it spins up and stops the same, but can be seen by windows. Under windows disk management feature there is immediately a notice to initialize the hard drive in either MBR or GPT. Both of these options fail when attempted. The drive was used for 2 weeks successfully by less technically inclined persons, and was claimed to have suddenly stopped working. I have two questions. Is the drive salvageable or could it be a ruined drive? Also what could cause this so that I can brief everyone on what was done wrong. I have tried Western Digital's diagnostic utilities which obviously failed with a cable error. Thank you all for your time.

The drive by the way is a WD Caviar(Blue) SE 500GB Drive: WD5000AAJS

 

[cckens]

Based on the specs (and the fact that you are a Marine, which leads me to believe NMCI-based hardware) you may just have a bad drive.

This being asked in earnest, is the drive encrypted? When I left NMCI they were just getting on the bandwagon for total drive encryption. This may or not be the case, but it is something that could cause an issue to disk reads...

Otherwise, I hope that no one had valuable data on that. You would need to get that puppy out in a clean-room and have them direct-read the platters. Someone in the military would have the means to do that.


cckens

"Not always my best shot, but I hit the target now and then"
-me

 

[on2valhalla]

Sorry about the confusion, but this drive is a standard civilian drive pulled from an usb enclosure. no encryption, no nmci involvement(thank god). There is no desperate need for that type of recovery, no sensitive files, simply a cornucopia of already translated classes for the iraqi army (they were a pain in the ass).

 

[G0AOZ]

It's a SATA drive so I guess you've tried a different SATA cable to connect it directly to the motherboard/add-in card interface. Recheck the power connector just to be sure, but the fact it spins up and and then stops doesn't look good.

I'll assume at this point that the USB enclosure had its own PSU rather than trying to draw power from the computer. What about the computer's PSU - is it man enough to power what you already have in there plus this drive you're temporarily adding? Be worth checking out the Wattage rating of the computer's PSU...

Failing all that, as Cckens says, it sounds like a clean room jobby if the data turns out to be important...

Good luck.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[Prydonian]

On2Valhalla;

Is it possible to try it with a different PC just to definitively narrow it down to the box or the drive?

And Marine - Thank you for your service, and God Bless.

Mike

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran!

 

[deenap]

why not try this site

http://www.dposoft.net/

guys claimed it works in a previous hread to resore HDD,