Pity. At least you've tried everything you could. BTW F8 has reached EOL. Not safe to run anymore: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-linux-524948/.

How old is the drive.. I assume it is NOT under warranty.

If it is not tooo old, or used, then possibly it is still a configuration issue.

If you're calling it quits, then I guess you and whoever, must decide if it is worth fixing, or recovering the data.

What about SMART monitor tools.. what does it say (if anything).

When you said you saw the term 'HAWK' come up.. you believe that was an indication that the drive was 'fried'.. but somewhere else in your logs, it seemed to simply be giving the name of the drive (Hawk).

And of course you must surmise, that if it is not a configuration problem, that it is probably an electronics failure...and not a physical platter issue.

If you do decide to get a replica.. make sure you get ALL the exact manufacturing DATES of the components.. (right up to the day it was created..) so as to ensure you will not have any further issues after replacing the parts, and thereby ensuring you can recover your data..

Keep us up2date

I wish I could do more, but the drive is in a data center and I do not have physical access to it. If I could have physical access I am sure I would be able to get some data (you know what I mean...I certainly would never give up) - SMART says nothing by the way tried all of that stuff a number of times.

Like I said before the data center will not ship the drive to me and the warranty is irrelevant really because the drive is technically not mine - the call center is not sending it for an RMA - they are 'shredding' the drive.

I wish there was more I could do...

Well.. if you are that desperate to 'continue on'.. then I'm sure there is always an old drive candidate around.. which you can continue to hack into

Take care.