Simviation Forums

So I've been working on this a couple of days now, and I need to hear from someone else. I have a HDD problem, and can't figure out a way around it.

One day, suddenly, the computer took longer to start than normal. After some looking around, I found in the "My Computer" window that one of my HDDs isn't there anymore. I thought maybe it just started up weird, and tried a restart. Still not there. Now the work begins.
I open the side panel, and can feel the HDD spinning, so it goes, but BIOS and windows both don't show it. Windows always takes longer than normal to start with that HDD plugged in, and the CPU fans even start to spool faster than normal. I unplugged the power and data cables, and we have a normal start. Windows is on an SSD, and it starts fairly fast, unless that HDD is plugged in.

I've tried moving the cables around to alternate ports, and swapping cables with others, and nothing. BIOS nor windows see it.

I bought an external SATA-USB 3.0 adapter, in hopes that I could just plug it in and at least get my data off of it, but nothing. Still doesn't show in BIOS or windows.

Now the scary part: I figure that if I can't even use a manufacturers diagnostic tool (because it won't populate on any list), I figure I have nothing to lose. I opened the cover, and took a look at the platters, the head, and anything else I could see that would be obviously broken. I know I've contaminated it by opening it now, but nothing else I can think of is working. I then powered it on. I watched it spin up fine, and could see the head move, then it (I assume) detected the cover was off, and stopped spinning. Just as it stopped, it made that "you plugged in a USB thingy" sound. I did this a few times. I navigated to the "device manager", and it sees a generic PnP 500GB USB mass storage device. It isn't spinning, and won't do anything from there. I saw that there is a yellow triangle showing that troubleshooting will be needed, and that something is wrong with it, even in windows. Of course, troubleshooting this with the windows tools available was useless.

After this, I figured that I should at least try to plug it back in, and see if it recognizes it, but nope. Same slow start as before, and simply gone from "My Computer"

Is there something I'm missing, or should I try something else? Anybody ever lose a HDD? I've never seen one go before, and it would be a first for me. It seems odd that it does everything I think it should.

Ideas?

Too late now, but a long time ago I used to recover disks like that with a program called SpinRite.

It's actually very cheap ($90 now) for what it does.



I'm sure you have it figured out by now, your OS is trying to find a file or programs on the bad disk.

It'll keep trying so the best thing is to clean the registry. The free version of CCleaner will do that for you.

It will also clean out the cache of remembered names/passwords too if you don't tell it not to.

Until you learn how to do that, just let it make a backup of the registry. It'll prompt you, just say OK.


What it'll do is to search for associations in the registry that are no longer valid, such as those files/programs on you old disk.

I have collected a pile of HDD's over the years, and now realise that HDD's don't last forever!

Once they have decided to throw in the towel, and no longer make an appearance, my only choice was to accept the inevitable that everything on there is lost, and pop out and purchase a new HDD!

Sometimes my little gismo works >>> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/25134568 ... 0&ff14=108

..to extract individual files...but not always!

Bite the bullet!

Paul.... ...!

Fozzer:
I bought something similar, and you are correct. Maybe it will work, maybe not. This time, not so much.
So, before I start to replace the PCB on it, I think I'll just have to let it go.
All those years of music, movies, pictures, flight sim things, irreplaceable stuff. That's the real kicker. Damn.
Well, I guess that's it then.
Thanks for your help, anyway.

Coincidence. My main hd on my main PC went south this week. Yes I back up all essential stuff but it's still a pain BIG TIME.
Even more painful is the crap service from UPS overnight next day order of windows discs >>> NOT next day - days later and still ot received) and Dell not including windows CD's wih PC's since years ago.

This is the 1st time in god knows how many years of PC's & intensive use that, my main HD has gone south .....

I've seen this a lot ,Try to replace this cable

http://www.forensiccomputers.com/media/ ... hi_res.gif

and also check this one http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnec ... aindex.jpg

it could be a fail contact

Alex

As an idea of how to avoid the loss of complete data, here is what I do:

Since hdds don't last forever but regularly double in size, I keep buying new external drives every two years or so and I add what was on the old one to the new one, thus keeping a backup that gets bigger and bigger and is always on a relatively new hdd.

In case you still didn't manage to revive your disk, you could try something odd: wrap it up in clingfoil and then put it in a zipper bag and then deep freeze it for a night and try to revive it while it is still very cold. Sometimes, that works as the last resort and you can at least copy your files from it in one last shot before you can finally throw it away.