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See bottom of question for edits elaborating on original question

A SATA hard drive suffered mechanical failure (a little while after percussive shock) and OSX declared it unreadable despite correctly ascertaining it's existence and storage capacity (see links below).

Testdisk software, and presumably all other recovery software does not recognise it. How does one manually recover, byte-by-byte if necessary, the contents of such a hard drive using (physical) tools other than a PC?

Message on plugging in HDD with SATA cable:

Message on plugging in HDD with SATA cable

Result of initializing anyway:

Result of initializing anyway

First Aid does nothing despite returning an 'operation successful' message.

Responses to questions:

@Aganju yes it is still spinning, the HDD vibrates slightly when plugged into a computer. @fixer1234 I believe my question differs in that

  1. The freezer trick is noted as a last resort but potentially harmful (a biased source I admit but it makes the same argument as other sites)
  2. There are new software solutions suggested here, which I will elaborate on ASAP

I am having trouble discerning whether it is spindle/controller/flash memory from the linked question's only answer to mechanical failure.

@davidgo Ddrescue is available for OSX... however, taking your suggestion to put the drive directly into a computer (I have the original laptop which due to insurance has a new drive - I am not attached to this laptop or it's new drive) - presumably I would need to boot a Linux OS (any OS?) from a USB drive?

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  • I have gathered that it require some serious sweat which is something I am willing to invest :)
    – jMan
    Mar 20, 2017 at 22:45
  • You create a dd image then mount the image but even that isn't guaranteed to work
    – Ramhound
    Mar 20, 2017 at 22:59
  • if the data is really, really, really important to you, you disconnect the drive immediately and contract with a professional data recovery service. if it's not, you keep testing as long as you like, and then buy a replacement drive.
    – quixotic
    Mar 20, 2017 at 23:19
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    I'd suggest trying it outside the USB dock its in. USB docks sometimes fail, and a direct connection is always best
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Mar 21, 2017 at 3:18

4 Answers 4

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Boot up a Linux rescue system, attach the disk + another equal or larger size disk and use (gnu) ddrescue to make a bit copy of the drive as best as possible. Then use photorec or whatever is appropriate on a copy of the drive.

ddrescue is designed to try pull as much data off the drive as possible.

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  • Looking closely at the screenshots, I'd suggest putting the drive directly into a computer to use ddrescue on it - the initialisation message which pops up definitely seems to indicate it is readable - and, echoing @JourneymanGeek, USB drives are not ideal for data recovery because of the added electronics and interpretation.
    – davidgo
    Mar 21, 2017 at 6:35
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Try to find out if the disk is still spinning. To do that, put a finger on it softly, start the computer, and fell if it starts to (and continues to) vibrate slightly.

If yes, the disk is still working, and you might be able to retrieve the data with low-level acces routines, like dd, or recovery tools.
If it doesn't spin anymore, it is Dead, with an uppercase D. The only option is then a professional service; expect several thousand dollar for this. They will disassemble the disk drive in a clean room under vacuum, and transfer the magnetic storage discs into a special chassis that can read them out (if you open the disk yourself, it is trash).

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  • The drive will spin as long as there's power.
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Mar 21, 2017 at 1:28
  • No, if it had a head crash, it will not spin anymore.
    – Aganju
    Mar 21, 2017 at 1:32
  • or make a terrible racket ;p. I've had an old deathstar that basically scrubbed itself of all the magnetic coating.
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Mar 21, 2017 at 4:31
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This doesn't look like data is being pulled from the drive's main method of storing data.

Drives may also have "integrated drive electronics" ("IDE"), where the controller can provide some information to the BIOS. For instance, information that allows the computer to know the size of the drive. However, that tiny amount of information may be in a ROM chip on the drive's circuit board.

If the drive isn't able to get any data off the main platter, this isn't fixable with just software. If data can be retrieved, this is not done using techniques that typical residential consumers typically choose to pay. (e.g., I've heard DriveSavers charges thousands, so the figure in Aganju's answer matches what I've been told, or maybe just a few thousand if you're lucky).

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  • Are you sure about IDE - My understanding was that SATA drives could emulate the IDE of the old PATA drives, but were way more advanced, and used AHCI to support command quueing and other SCSI like features (which, I surmise, is why SATA and SAS are almost, but not quite, interchangeable interfaces)
    – davidgo
    Mar 21, 2017 at 6:43
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I can give you a short and good answer since you don't have a professional labor at home:

  • In switzerland/germany I suggest to send your drive to the company: Knoll On Track data recovery
  • Find a local professional labor which may try to recover your data (even if you pay 10'000$ at a professional, it would still cost less than 1% of what it would cost to even try it by yourself, what most probably destroys your data irreversible, to do it by yourself).
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