Recover .mp4 file from 4TB WD with bad sectors

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Boxhamster

New member
Hi there,

I am helping a friend with her WD MyPassport WD40NMZW-11GX6S1.

She's a videographer and has an incredible important file on the disc that started to throw up errors reading and writing. HDD Sentinel confirmed bad sectors.
Certain files can be copied, but some not due to bad sectors and it's exactly this one .mp4 file she needs. Disc is formatted in HFS+ she's been using with her MacOS on Catalina.
I am on PC and have since been able to extract a 4GB fragment of the file via UFS Explorer Professional Recovery by reading out the hex code.
I was then able to restore 6min of the video successfully using this "recover_mp4": *****://***.videohelp.com/software/recover-mp4-to-h264

But the sad thing is that the show was 30min long. Hence I need your assistance on how to proceed.

I am now thinking to use ddrescue via linux to clone some of the disc (is that possible?) and then try further restoration/fixing methods on the image.

Very thankful for any suggestions here before continuing.

Boxhamster

P.S.: We checked the SD card. Unfortunately my friend used the camera, including formatting and filming. So it's not there anymore. Wish she told me about the problem earlier before trying to doctor around herself. She thought it was just a MacOS issue.
 
Jared

Jared

Administrator
Staff member
First off, before you try too much stuff, ask your friend if it's worth a few hundred dollars to have it professionaly recovered. A hardware imaging tool will definitely get the best result and pose less risk of causing the drive to totally fail in the process.

That having been said, GNU ddrescue or HDDSuperClone in Linux could certainly do a good job copying that file. You should be able to even just target the one file rather than trying to clone the whole drive. You'd just need to mount the volume to the Linux OS so you can add the file location to the path of the ddrescue terminal command.
 
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Boxhamster

New member
Thanks for your comment.
Great. I will clear that with her first.
In terms of using ddrescue/HHDSuperClone: I am a few hours away from setting up a Linux Live environment and will have the evening to do that. In order to utilise my time efficiently, could you help me in advance already how to target that file specifically? Or is it relatively self-explanatory once I got it running?
 
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Boxhamster

New member
Great. Thanks for your help.
Will check in with her first.
Apart from that, as I am a few hours away still from setting up a Linux Live USB stick and getting ready, the targetting of that file with ddrescue/HDDSuperclone will be self explanatory or could you give some guidance there? I just want to be ready and use my evening as efficiently as possible.

Thanks.
 
Jared

Jared

Administrator
Staff member
There's a guide here about how to mount an HFS+ formatted drive in linux: https://sdatic.com/mount-hfs-on-linux-w ... mand-line/

After it's mounted you just point ddrescue to the file in the mount point. So if you mount /dev/sda1 to mountpoint /media/external (as used in the article I linked to), then your ddrescue command would be something like:
Code: 
sudo ddrescue /media/external/ExampleFolder/ExampleFile.mp4 /home/user/desktop/DestinationFile.mp4 log.log

It's always going to follow the same format: ddrescue [source file/folder/drive/whatever] [destination file/folder/...] [LogFile]

Just remember the log isn't just a log, it's how the program tracks bad sectors to retry on subsequent passes. So don't skip using a log.
 
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Boxhamster

New member
Unfortunately, I didn´t get to try the recovery.

They brought it to a recovery specialist. Let´s see what they'll manage. My bet is on "an .mp4 file with missing parts due to the bad sectors".

Thanks for your help.
 
Jared

Jared

Administrator
Staff member
Well, if this is work they need, professional service is the safest route to go. I just hope they don't take it to some place that's scammy and will demand thousands of dollars and effectively hold the drive hostage if they don't pay. Sadly there are companies out there who operate that way.
 
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danielk85

New member
Hey,

Just reading all this now - was in a similar situation with my own WD drive.

I tried to recover the data myself first using ddrescue, but ended up damaging the data directories even further so it's definitely good that your friend decided to find a professional!

But I have to second Jared - I contacted DriveSavers and they gave me an insane price estimate while also being very vague about what exactly was wrong with my drive so I didn't end up going with them.
I'm now considering sending my drive to San Jose - my logic was that since Silicon Valley is the center of tech they might have the best people / companies for something like data recovery.
Reached out to a few based on reviews and one of them (Kotar) offered me a free shipping label for the drive and a free evaluation of the case so I'm trying to decide whether to go for it or not.

I know this is slightly off topic but have either of you maybe heard of them / used their services? I'm from Illinois so California is very far and I don't want to send my drive unless I have some sort of feedback on the company.

Thanks!
 
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