hard drive data recovery using microcontroller

[cubdh23]

Hi, does anyone know if it is possible to get data from a computer hard drive using microcontrollers? I remember a long time ago seeing a link on this site for an article about how to do it.
If anyone knows where i can find info about this. I would appreciate it.
thanks

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hi, does anyone know if it is possible to get data from a computer hard drive using microcontrollers? I remember a long time ago seeing a link on this site for an article about how to do it.
If anyone knows where i can find info about this. I would appreciate it.
thanks

The main problems are the amount of data involved, you need a considerable amount of RAM to buffer the data read from the drive.

 

[cubdh23]

I would think speed would be a much bigger problem

For space, you could transfer data to another PC, while reading the bad hard drive. What i think would be a huge problem would be speed of the microcontroller to read lets say data from a 6 GB hard drive.
At maximum possible baud rate to send retrieved info to a good hard drive
115200 bps. IT would take 6 days nonstop to read and send 6GB of information. Most hard drives these days are 40 GB and 80 GB. I wonder if this reading and sending can be done in parralel to spead things up.
I know of this guy that charges obscene amount of money to retrieve hard drive data that has gone bad. Thats why i was wondering.
I dont know much about microcontrollers that can use USB. perhaps this can speed up the data transfer to a good hard drive?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Re: I would think speed would be a much bigger problem

For space, you could transfer data to another PC, while reading the bad hard drive. What i think would be a huge problem would be speed of the microcontroller to read lets say data from a 6 GB hard drive.
At maximum possible baud rate to send retrieved info to a good hard drive
115200 bps. IT would take 6 days nonstop to read and send 6GB of information. Most hard drives these days are 40 GB and 80 GB. I wonder if this reading and sending can be done in parralel to spead things up.
I know of this guy that charges obscene amount of money to retrieve hard drive data that has gone bad. Thats why i was wondering.
I dont know much about microcontrollers that can use USB. perhaps this can speed up the data transfer to a good hard drive?

You have to read the data in fairly large blocks, so you need to store it before transferring it.

Why not just use a PC to read it?, you have a far faster processor and plenty of memory! - pointless trying to do it with a micro-controller?.

 

[cubdh23]

If the PC was able to read the data then there would be no need for data recovery? I know there are software available to retrieve overwritten data and other types of damaged data from hard drive but after a certain point of damage, there is only so much an operating system such as windows will do to get data from that hard drive. Thats why i was thinking maybe a microcontroller could be used as a more brute force method to get the info out of the hard drive when the PC wont do it. I could be completely wrong and probably am wrong with assuming this. This is why i am asking.
thanks

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

If the PC was able to read the data then there would be no need for data recovery? I know there are software available to retrieve overwritten data and other types of damaged data from hard drive but after a certain point of damage, there is only so much an operating system such as windows will do to get data from that hard drive. Thats why i was thinking maybe a microcontroller could be used as a more brute force method to get the info out of the hard drive when the PC wont do it. I could be completely wrong and probably am wrong with assuming this. This is why i am asking.
thanks

Why mention Windows at all?, boot the PC from a DOS floppy and write programs under DOS to do what you want. By using a PC you have the interface already there, plus plenty of power and memory, and can probably download various existing tools as well.

I doubt the commercially available recovery programs use Windows API calls to try and recover data - they most likely work at a far lower level.

 

[zevon8]

may have some luck with one of these:

https://www.ntfs.com/products.htm

 

[tsking1177]

I may be wrong...

but I think he is talking about when even the bios will not detect the hard drive. Perhaps due to faulty or corrupt firmware on the drive itself.

 

[Exo]

In that case the only option is try to find a replacement pcb from a another hard drive of the same type.

If the firmare/hardware of the drive is damaged it won't interface to anything.