R-Studio finds HD but no info; can't scan/image drive

[martin]

I have a 250GB SimpleTech NAS drive that had 3 shares. The drive stopped working recently, though I never heard any clicking or abnormal sounds. The NAS software works, but it can't connect to the HD (it's "broken" in SimpleTech's language). I pulled it out of the box and it's a WD Caviar SE (WD2500JB) drive. I hooked it up to my computer with an IDE/SATA-USB cable. Windows 7 Computer Management finds it and wants to initialize the disk (I didn't). R-Studio 5 finds the disk, but it can't provide any information about it (see link for screenshot below)--the size is "-1 bytes," it has no "Name," etc. Some other partition program said the disk was formatted FAT12.

R-Studio doesn't let me scan, create an image, etc. (they're grayed out). My thoughts are that the disk is damaged to the point of needing professional help. What about "initializing" the disk in Win7 or just recreating the MBR, making a new partition, and then running undelete software (as I don't think the data is worth hundreds of dollars to send it to a pro)? What do you think?

Screenshot:

(http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.p ... a53cc8.jpg)

Thanks for any help,
-martin

[Alt]

Am I understand that there was a kind of RAID where the drive was a component?
If yes, you should take all drives and create a virtual RAID out of the three drives.
If not, well, the drive might be damaged to the level it needs a professional help.
I don't think initializing will help, though it may really damage the data further.

[martin]

There was only one HD in the NAS enclosure, so no RAID (nor in software, if that's possible). If anyone has other suggestions, I'm open to try them; if not... I'll see how expensive a professional service is, or just throw it out....
Thanks,
-Martin

[Alt]

We need some information about your computer to find out what is wrong with your drive.
Go to Tools -> Save system info and save it to a file. Then send it to me raptorbck (at) gmail (dot) com.
This is not actual data, just information about the hardware.

[Alt]

I've received the info and passed it to our developers.

[Guest]

Did you ever find out what the issue was and how to fix it? I am having the same issue with a laptop drive.

[Alt]

Most likely, this is a hardware problem with your disk. You need to go to a data recovery professional to solve the problem.