Advanced data recovery on a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3200827AS

Today I want to highlight the benefits of  the microscope as a necessary tool for any engineer recovering data from a damaged hard drive.
It seems strange that a lot of professionals who have been recovering data for a long time don’t have a microscope and don’t take advantage of this tool.  It is as elementary as opening the hard drive only in a clean room environment and using the proper data recovery tools.

I have received a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3200827AS hard disk for the purpose of recovering same important files. The client said that he turned off the computer as always but couldn’t start Windows the next morning. Working on this job made me think how crucial it is to have the right tools to successfully recover this data.

After connecting HDD to the diagnostic terminal I have seen the following:
4096k x 16 SDRAM
F>
F>/load app code/
Buzz – Head Mask FFFF – Switch to full int.
Spin Ready
F>/start app code/
3.AAE 12-09-05 11:29 AAE,35_S_5_S1,3A
T>/load adaptives /
$Head Mask FFFF – Head Mask FFFF – Head Mask FFFF -

The problems are related to one of the back heads. The hermetical zone’s opening has shown that there were no defects on the platter’s visible areas and the filter is clean. It seems that you should take a donor disk and change the heads assembly. But then you would be surprised to find that the disk still doesn’t work.

Seagate HDD failure
Hermetical= (protected from or preventing any outside interference or influence)
Platters = the recording surface of a hard disk

Some people don’t use the wonder of engineering – the microscope. As for me, my rule of thumb is always: after taking the heads assembly off the client’s disk, study them carefully under the microscope. Maybe you will learn something new.  Dissemble the head assembly, observe it in this picture. The reason for the failure is found.

Dusty head of Seagate HDD

I have added the photo of the working system had for those people who have never seen a healthy head that is used for reading and writing.

Correct head of Seagate HDD

Under the microscope you will notice immediately: that the head has particles of metal dust. It is obvious that the metal dust is an evidence of the incipient damage on one of obscured platters.
In this case the second platter is damaged beyond repair for the price range the customer is willing to pay for 90% of the data to be recovered. What will happen if a new head assembly is set in such a disk? Most likely heads will be covered by dust, damaged and continue scratching the platters.

What should you do in this case? Dismantle the package ( use specialized tools for taking the platters out), estimate the  location of the scratch and make a decision about further actions.

You may decide that you will read most of the sectors after disabling that head or avoid reading from the damaged area. This type of reading is possible only with specialized hardware and software tool in tandem.   For many people it is surprising but in this occurrence you can use the native heads. Before using them you should clean off the dust and particles under the microscope .

If any so-called professional advises you to take a scrap of paper with a drip of alcohol and start poking between heads, know that this uncivilized method is outadated and should never be used by a high rank specialist in data recovery. It will drastically decrease your chances of full recovery of data.

Tool for cleaning head on HDD

You should use this useful tool, a brush and the process is to be controlled by microscope.

This article was written and edited by Data Recovery Specialist Makarov Artem, and Data Recovery Expert Emanuel Popa,
Copyright: E-man Data Recovery LLC
Any copy of the contents of this article need to be referenced by a direct link to the source.