How to save data on HDD?

Question

Hard disks

A year and a half ago I bought a 1TB WD My Passport Ultra. I wrote down everything I needed on it, about 1/5 of the entire volume, put it on the shelf and forgot it. Now I needed to throw a bunch of family photos on it, but it does not work. When connected, it starts to rustle and for some time is not displayed as a connected device. And when it is still displayed, it does not open (the computer starts to hang, and then gives an error), and also does not show a scale with information about the volume.
I will say right away that he was never dropped or beaten. In fact, I only used it 1 time when I made a backup on it. The rest of the time it lay in a closed case on a shelf.
Started testing with Victoria. A quick scan, which others (they say) takes about 5 minutes, is very slow for me. In 2 hours, only 50 gigs were scanned. Approximately 80% of the sectors are red (read more than 3 seconds), the rest are equally divided - either ok or with an error.
Now I have stopped the check, because at the moment I do not have the opportunity to wait for a full check, which may take an unknown amount of time. I want to continue tomorrow. In the meantime, I would like to know how I can save information from the disk myself ? The further fate of the disk itself does not bother me, repairing it is a third-rate task. The main thing now is to get as much information out of it as possible, since there are a lot of important and personal things on it.

PS I will answer questions that you may have in advance.
1) why not take it to the professionals? Because on the disk, for the most part, family photos that I don’t want to transfer into the wrong hands (masters). As well as various kinds of documents on the work of the father, which I also would not want to transfer into the wrong hands.
2) if the information is so important to you, then why do you store everything in one copy and on one disk? There was another HDD from SeaGate that also stopped working. True, I recently dropped it.

Answer 1

get as much information out of it as possible, since there are a lot of important and personal things on it

It is not clear why, when solving this problem with a disk that

When connected, it starts to rustle and for some time is not displayed as a connected device

you started

test Victoria. A quick scan, which others (they say) takes about 5 minutes, is very slow for me. Only 50 gigs were scanned in 2 hours

Those. in fact, the disk, which is clearly already bad, was tormented for another two hours.
I'd say you're pretty lucky that the drive didn't disappear from the system entirely, or start clicking its heads at all.
Stop such checks of the hard drive with any programs, otherwise there is a risk of finishing it off completely.
If the hard disk still appears in the system in a reasonable time, then show SMART from Victoria or from R.tester . If it is not visible as a device for a long time, then do not hold it - in our practice, even attempts to turn it on regularly end sadly.
The exact model of the drive inside the box is unknown, but one can assume either bad or "weakened" head(s). After two hours of work, the probability of the latter option increased.

How can I save information from the disk myself?

Unfortunately, if you have absolutely no experience, then the chances are low. Inside there is a hard drive with USB soldered on the board, and for normal operation it needs to be connected via SATA.
There are two options to do this:

1. Find them on the board and solder the SATA connector to the desired points. We have a completely hardcore version on our blog: https://blog.rlab.ru/peredelka-plati-usb-3-0-v-sat...
   
2. Adapt a SATA board from an appropriate 2.5" drive. This will require the selection of electronics, as well as the transfer of a ROM chip or its contents.
   

And this will only be the beginning, after which you will generally understand how the block of heads is still capable of reading.

family photos, ... As well as various kinds of documents on the father’s work, which I also would not want to transfer into the wrong hands

If the data on the disk is important and needs to be rescued, then the best advice for you now is to contact specialists without even checking SMART and not turning on the disk at all.
This needs to be checked with the HDD on hand, but so far the likelihood that it is still not entirely bad seems to be quite high. It is possible that a noticeable amount of data can be read without replacing heads, respectively, the price will be quite acceptable.
In order not to miss this moment, avoid "laptop repairs" and similar offices. Immediately go to those who are engaged only in the restoration of information. Here is a universal guide to choosing a specialist: Data Recovery.rf
Regarding confidentiality: we regularly work under NDA (non-disclosure agreement), so we know how to handle secrets. In addition, if you decide to contact us, you will see your order number. It should be the best illustration that engineers have not only zero, but negative interest in anyone's data. Since 2002, so many terabytes have passed through us that another one will not be visible at all.
All reports are generated automatically, we can open for verification those files that you specify.

the fate of the disk itself does not bother me, repairing it is a third-rate task

It’s better to forget about repairing a hard drive altogether - it’s very unlikely to use it in the future, and advice on self-repair can end sadly.

Answer 2

Well, you yourself will not recover the data - this is a fact! Well, if you don’t want to carry it to professionals, then you can take it apart, there are neodymium magnets there. They can be used at home. Pancakes can be hung on a Christmas tree, just now is the time.

why not take it to the professionals? Because on the disk, for the most part, family photos that I don’t want to transfer into the wrong hands (masters). As well as various kinds of documents on the work of the father, which I also would not want to transfer into the wrong hands.

Haven't read such nonsense in a long time. Or do you think that the owners of companies personally restore information from disks. I can also assume that you are using a phone (probably). But how so, after all, an employee of the operator can record the recordings of conversations, and then they will be freely available. Or another example - a photo studio. People take films there for processing with family photos, with work photos, with blackmail. And nothing, they live somehow.

Answer 3

Well, for starters, I would take out the disk and try to connect it with a sata cable directly to the PC ... maybe it's stupid in the box controller .... or somewhere there option would be

Answer 4

You will not be able to remove this drive from the case and connect it to the computer, since there is no SATA.
Have a look at switching from built-in USB 3.0 to SATA .
Article on Habré .

Answer 5

In the meantime, I would like to know how I can save information from the disk myself?

No, moreover - by your actions you have probably already damaged it. Take this to the professionals. And get over your paranoia.

Answer 6

Connect a disk to the computer via sata and boot the computer with a USB flash drive with Acronis utilities. These utilities will not once again interrogate the disk, as the OS does at boot, there is a chance to do something with files or a disk partition in one or two movements, without requiring 100% performance from the disk.
Specifically, use the Acronis Disk Director utility. On the disk partition, use the "View files" option. If the utility reads the section, it will open the preview. With it, you can copy files to another drive.
If the partition is not defined, then you can try to restore it.

Answer 7

In this case, apparently it was dropped, but not you))), ask the household
If the data is important, then of course only to the data recovery
office to get data

Answer 8

You can, as an option, try using data recovery programs. I got rescued a couple of times. Once, even with the usual total commander, the data was pulled out when the disk in Windows did not open. You can learn more here https://www.user-tech.ru/computers/programmyi-(po)... . An article about data recovery at home.
If you wake up to dig further without turning to specialists, then I strongly recommend that you do not open the top cover of the hard drive !!! This is for experts only!