XPost: aus.computers   
   From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Thu, 11/27/2025 3:02 AM, Felix wrote:   
      
   >   
   > I've been asking about getting the drive working.   
      
   I had a failed disk a couple months ago, in fact   
   it's the same drive model as is currently in the   
   Test Machine being ddrescued, and it was clean looking   
   inside. It would be hard to guess (without resorting   
   to a microscope), exactly why the surface on these   
   (while attempting to read) is such a mess.   
      
   There used to be disks, where when you opened them up,   
   the filter pack on the circumference of the HDA, instead   
   of being a bright white, was covered in dark particulate.   
   And the wonder back then, is how the disk had been able   
   to function while that stuff was flying around inside.   
      
   But the more recent disks, the perpendicular mode recording   
   (PMR) ones, the surface doesn't seem to do that. The filter   
   pack on mine was clean.   
      
   The thing is, your disk is identifying itself, which is   
   a sign it is able to load the ATA command interpreter off   
   the platter. The head is loaded. You have heard the thing   
   humming as it spins. These are all signs it is working   
   from a mechanical perspective. It isn't "stuffed" in   
   the normal way, where it won't talk to you.   
      
   But at a guess, it's been doing a lot of sparing out of sectors.   
      
   It's in a bit of a bad mood inside.   
      
   There is no obvious way to improve its mood, as without   
   a pool of spare sectors, there are limited things you   
   can do to it.   
      
       [Picture]   
      
        https://i.postimg.cc/GhC86fKg/ddrescue-not-going-well.gif   
      
   One of the reasons that disk is in a bad mood, is it is a 250GB   
   drive with a single platter, and it is a CSS disk, it does not   
   use a landing ramp. Apparently the landing area near the hub is   
   laser patterned, so the head won't stick to the platter   
   ("stiction"). The head isn't stuck, but the practice of landing   
   on the platter, isn't a best practice. If they had build the   
   disk with a landing ramp, it would last for more service hours.   
   I thought this practice of doing CSS had stopped, basically,   
   back when landing ramps were invented. But I guess $0.05 for   
   a piece of plastic, was too much for them. The landing ramps   
   are plastic.   
      
   Anyway, that picture shows you an attempt by me, to recover   
   data off one of my rubbish disks. I think I can see partitions   
   on it, but the partitions won't mount, and it won't even   
   begin a benchmark run (errors out at the beginning). And   
   the ddrescue is quoting an absurd number of days to finish   
   the job (and even then, the percentage of recovered material   
   might not be sufficient to do anything).   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)