Linux to the rescue!

[Splinterdog]

A customer arrived today with a hard drive (Seagate 1Tb), completely at his wits' end, having been told that the firmware was screwed and he'd have to take the drive to a lab somewhere at vast expense.
Turns out that the drive came out of an eight year old Sony Vaio all in one and 15 years of his family photos were on the drive, with no back up of any kind. Could I try to get his photos back, please?
I said I'd try, so he left the drive with me, I plugged it in and as expected, Windows couldn't find it, at least in Explorer. Admin tools found it, but reporting 2Tb instead of the actual 1Tb, but no way to open the drive.
I ran Seatools and it failed at the short test, so I disconnected all my own drives, booted to Linux Mint, found all his folders and began copying them once I'd reconnected a drive big enough.
What is this magic with Linux?
To say that the bloke was delighted would be an understatement and I'm not entirely sure how Linux was able to rescue the data, when Windows couldn't.
I've advised him to replace the drive, of course and also to use the cloud, as well as to buy an external drive for the back up.
I'm delighted, but left scratching my head somewhat.

 

[Ahhzz]

That's pretty nice! I've not seen anything like that, but then I've not dealt with a shot firmware that I can recall...

 

[lexluthermiester]

What is this magic with Linux?

It's not so much magic as it is likely a malware problem. That drive is likely infected with something that Linux is either immune to or simply ignores. I would guess that if you used Seatools from a bootable USB it would be able to wipe and refresh the drive. Would still replace it of course.

buy an external drive for the back up.

This. Also, get him a Bluray MDisc burner and teach him how to use it. For critical backups, there is no substitute for MDisc.

I've not seen anything like that, but then I've not dealt with a shot firmware that I can recall...

It's not common, but happens from time to time. I use PartedMagic for such things, however any LiveDrive version of Linux can work wonders.

 

[Bones]

It's not so much magic as it is likely a malware problem. That drive is likely infected with something that Linux is either immune to or simply ignores. I would guess that if you used Seatools from a bootable USB it would be able to wipe and refresh the drive. Would still replace it of course.

Personally speaking I'd give Dban a try before tossing it, could well save it so it's useable again.

 

[Splinterdog]

I knew I could rely on this forum for good advice, so thanks for the feedback.
I've managed to copy 99.9% of all his files (130Gb) to another hard drive, as there were some that simply wouldn't copy over, so I skipped them. As per usual, this happened when the copying process had reached about 98%, right at the end.
In fact, the drive was beginning to click very noisily at the end of the process, when finally Linux reported that it couldn't read the drive contents. Of course, it's entirely possible that I may still have access to the drive, so until the customer sees the results, I'll hold off on any drastic measures such as Dban and other wiping processes.
He's bought a new internal drive and also a portable (which I'm not a big fan of to be honest as I've seen loads of them fail) for the backup. I'll also be installing Windows on the new drive once I've fitted it into the Sony AIO.
This was word of mouth recommendation by the way, from a Belgian bloke I haven't seen in yonks, so hopefully I'll get a few more recommendations in future.