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Checking if a drive is completely dead?

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  • #1

    Checking if a drive is completely dead?

    My original S3 drive was making horrid clicking sounds and not booting up in the TiVo. I was hoping beyond hope that mfstools might be able to salvage the contents. In the PC, it makes the same clicking noises, but "mfstools info" is able to read the partition table at least. "mfstools mls" however gives an "unable to read" error.

    Is this conclusive proof the drive is toast? Is there some other diagnostic I can try?

    (Why don't I just try to copy everything? Well, it would require the purchase of a 2nd SATA cable and another jumper to put the 2nd drive into 150MB/s mode to work with my motherboard, and I'd rather not waste the extra money if it's a lost cause.)

    Thanks...
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  • #2
    "Horrid clicking sounds" are typically signs of a completely dead drive, yes.

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    • #3
      yeah, that's what I thought at first, but then I was heartened because mfstool was able to read the partition table, and I was under the impression that the partition table is stored on the drive itself, so if the drive's totally dead, how can it read the partition table?

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      • #4
        Mechanical problems don't preclude the drive from being read in its entirety, but you are not likely to be able to get any material amount of data off the drive. You can always try if you want, but the chances are pretty low.

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