So I just had a HDD die on me. Do I have a backup that I can restore from? Of course not; though before you chastise me too severely perhaps I should explain my system configuration. I run a custom-built PC with two RAID arrays for storage. The first array is a RAID-0 array of two Western Digital Raptor (10,000 RPM) disks and is intended to be used only for things like OS and program installation. The second array is a RAID-5 array using 4 Seagate (7200 RPM) disks, and is intended for storing pretty much everything else. Now I’ve had disks in the RAID-5 array fail multiple times in the past, and it was no big deal because I could just RMA the disk and pop in a replacement drive and the array would rebuild itself and all would be well.
The problem is that this time it wasn’t one of the RAID-5 disks that failed, it was one of the RAID-0 disks. And although I had always recognized that volume as being vulnerable to spontaneous destruction in the event of a drive failure, the gravity of the thing when it actually happens far outweighs the mere recognition of it as a possibility. Yes, I treated the contents of this volume as expendable. But no, I wasn’t perfect about it in practice. There were some non-expendable things that I allowed to linger on the RAID-0 volume, such as my Eclipse workspace and inside of it all 64 of my Project Euler solutions, and now that they’re suddenly gone it stings just a bit. And even ignoring that, I’d rather not have to install and configure all of my software all over again. Particularly since I was also in the middle of playing through Fallout: New Vegas on hardcore mode, and my save-games got wiped out with the program install.
So I did some investigation of my own into the failed drive, hoping that I might find some way to bring it back to life, at least for long enough to get my data off of it. Standard home remedies such as tapping, dropping, and shaking the drive were all tried, along with the fabled freezer-trick, to no avail. Eventually I decided to go out and get a Torx set so that I could remove the drive’s controller board, and I located the problem:
Looks like the “SMOOTH” processor isn’t feeling too smooth anymore. On the bright side, this does open up one possible avenue for resurrecting the drive. If I can track down another model with an identical firmware version, it should be possible to swap their controller boards. So if anyone has (or knows where to find) an old Western Digital Raptor, working or non (so long as the controller board is intact), that you’d be willing to part with, please let me know. The exact details of my failed drive are:
Model: WD1500ADFD-00NLR1
Manufacture date: 05 June, 2006
DCM: HBCA2AB
Firmware revision: V7353 (can only be found by removing the controller board)
I know this is a long shot, but who knows. The Internet is a very large place, after all. In the mean-time, perhaps I’ll seek some estimates from professional data-recovery companies. I’m sure their rates will be laughably unreasonable.
Sigh. Time to rebuild.