Hard drive dead?

**afccarl666** · 08-05-2009, 04:03 PM

About a year ago, my 2nd hard drive was no longer accessible in Windows. It said the drive is corrupted and needed to be formatted.

I formatted the drive - format failed. Tried again a few times and it finally worked.

Decided to run chkdsk on the drive and it found loads of problems and said it fixed them. Back in windows - drive corrupted and needed formatting. Thought it might be best to leave it off for a while.

Later on, started the computer again, and now the drive was not listed under my computer

Great!!!

I then used Acronis True Image Home to see if that found the disk = found it fine but reported the drive as having no partition, just all unallocated space.

I tried mant times adding the disk using the wizard but still it did not appear in Windows after re-starting once the drive was added and formatted.

This then started to cause problems in XP - countless BSOD errors and lost data as a result. A few weeks ago, I unplugged the drive - no BSOD since, and faster start times in Windows.

Im guessing the drive is completely dead

but I thought I should check first if it can be saved. After all, Ive got nothing to lose.

The drive is a 13 year old (ancient - came with Windows 95 installed!!!) Fujitsu 3.25GB drive and I basically used it for backups of my data - theres nothing really important on there. Im willing to try anything really.

**tosh9i** · 08-05-2009, 04:29 PM

If you want to retrieve the data, you can try putting the drive in the freezer as a last resort. I tried it, and it worked for me:

http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/200...over-data.html

However, if you're talking about getting the drive to work again so you can use it on a regular basis, then you should forget about it. You're lucky that it worked for 13 years, but it's at a point where it's just going to keep on failing.

**raptor_pa** · 08-05-2009, 05:41 PM

Toshi, you got lucky, we see drives all the time that come into the recovery lab that were in the freezer, what we find are usually heads ripped off from the ice that condensed onto the platter so the head could whack it as it came around. The humidity of the air inside the drive is exactly the same as the outside air, and just like if you pop something into the freezer, in a couple hours there is ice inside the bag, the same thing will happen inside the drive, and the platter makes a really smooth surface for the ice to develop a good solid hold. Cooling the drive may be a good move in some cases. Some people use a modified USB 'can cooler' or an active CPU cooler, placed under the disk to keep the disk cool, I've also used the blue ice packs that are used for sports injuries, with a thin foam sheet and placed under the PCB side of the drive to keep it cool.
In this case, there is probably nothing to lose by trying, I wouldn't even want to try to find parts to recover a 13 yr old drive, but in general practice, and particularly if the data is critical, it can double or even triple the costs of professional recovery.

**tosh9i** · 08-05-2009, 06:35 PM

Then, would it be better to put it in the refrigerator?

**afccarl666** · 08-10-2009, 07:28 AM

Tried freezing the drive - didnt work.

Oh well, I know some people have drives fail on them a few months after purchase. Done well to get 13 years out of it.

Thanks for the suggestions.

**raptor_pa** · 08-10-2009, 07:34 AM

Externally applied cooling while running is best.

**afccarl666** · 09-12-2009, 12:20 PM

Ive plugged the drive back in and decided to check the SMART data. Drive health came back at 86% (screenshot attached)

So then I ran all of the tests in seagate seatools for windows, again it passed all tests.

I thought this was odd, and booted from a Maxtor PowerMax CD. Ran all tests available on the drive, and again everything passed fine. No problems.

Testdisk managed to scan the drive, and I could hear it working normally. But when I try to add the drive in Windows, it fails on 'Updating system information'.

Is it the drive at fault if all of the HDD tests Ive used are fine?

**afccarl666** · 10-09-2009, 11:25 AM

I know its been a while, but Ive noticed something about the drive. If I set the BIOS access mode to auto, the files get corrupted on the drive, and chkdsk will start automatically.

However, when I turned the access mode to none (It was booting slower with it on auto) the files were fine.

I have been able to use it for the last month normally like this, but I want to know if it will work like this for much longer.

**raptor_pa** · 10-09-2009, 05:57 PM

It may be an issue where the drive is reporting incorrect parameters to the BIOS. ABout all you can do is see if continues to work...

**tosh9i** · 10-09-2009, 07:24 PM

Honestly, I think you're playing "fire". That 13 year old drive can break down at any moment. I say, retrieve all the data that you can and then get rid of it.

**afccarl666** · 10-10-2009, 06:21 AM

Thanks again for the responses.

I think ill keep it for the time being, as Im using it as a place to keep a 5th backup copy of some of my stuff. (You can never have too many backups).

As far as replacing it, which make of drive would you recommend? The connection is ATA, and as far as I can tell, there aren't too many of these around.

**tosh9i** · 10-10-2009, 12:31 PM

WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar® Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA II 7200 RPM 32MB Buffer 72.99 AR ZipZoomFly
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...readid=1597142

08-05-2009, 04:03 PM	#1 (permalink)
afccarl666 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Birmingham, UK Posts: 756 OS: XP SP3 + Linux Ubuntu 9.10 My System	Hard drive dead? About a year ago, my 2nd hard drive was no longer accessible in Windows. It said the drive is corrupted and needed to be formatted. I formatted the drive - format failed. Tried again a few times and it finally worked. Decided to run chkdsk on the drive and it found loads of problems and said it fixed them. Back in windows - drive corrupted and needed formatting. Thought it might be best to leave it off for a while. Later on, started the computer again, and now the drive was not listed under my computer Great!!! I then used Acronis True Image Home to see if that found the disk = found it fine but reported the drive as having no partition, just all unallocated space. I tried mant times adding the disk using the wizard but still it did not appear in Windows after re-starting once the drive was added and formatted. This then started to cause problems in XP - countless BSOD errors and lost data as a result. A few weeks ago, I unplugged the drive - no BSOD since, and faster start times in Windows. Im guessing the drive is completely dead but I thought I should check first if it can be saved. After all, Ive got nothing to lose. The drive is a 13 year old (ancient - came with Windows 95 installed!!!) Fujitsu 3.25GB drive and I basically used it for backups of my data - theres nothing really important on there. Im willing to try anything really.

08-05-2009, 04:29 PM	#2 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 3,818 OS: Windows XP	Re: Hard drive dead? If you want to retrieve the data, you can try putting the drive in the freezer as a last resort. I tried it, and it worked for me: http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/200...over-data.html However, if you're talking about getting the drive to work again so you can use it on a regular basis, then you should forget about it. You're lucky that it worked for 13 years, but it's at a point where it's just going to keep on failing. __________________ Tosh

08-05-2009, 05:41 PM	#3 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,801 OS: XP	Re: Hard drive dead? Toshi, you got lucky, we see drives all the time that come into the recovery lab that were in the freezer, what we find are usually heads ripped off from the ice that condensed onto the platter so the head could whack it as it came around. The humidity of the air inside the drive is exactly the same as the outside air, and just like if you pop something into the freezer, in a couple hours there is ice inside the bag, the same thing will happen inside the drive, and the platter makes a really smooth surface for the ice to develop a good solid hold. Cooling the drive may be a good move in some cases. Some people use a modified USB 'can cooler' or an active CPU cooler, placed under the disk to keep the disk cool, I've also used the blue ice packs that are used for sports injuries, with a thin foam sheet and placed under the PCB side of the drive to keep it cool. In this case, there is probably nothing to lose by trying, I wouldn't even want to try to find parts to recover a 13 yr old drive, but in general practice, and particularly if the data is critical, it can double or even triple the costs of professional recovery. __________________

08-05-2009, 06:35 PM	#4 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 3,818 OS: Windows XP	Re: Hard drive dead? Then, would it be better to put it in the refrigerator? __________________ Tosh

08-10-2009, 07:28 AM	#5 (permalink)
afccarl666 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Birmingham, UK Posts: 756 OS: XP SP3 + Linux Ubuntu 9.10 My System	Re: Hard drive dead? Tried freezing the drive - didnt work. Oh well, I know some people have drives fail on them a few months after purchase. Done well to get 13 years out of it. Thanks for the suggestions.

08-10-2009, 07:34 AM	#6 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,801 OS: XP	Re: Hard drive dead? Externally applied cooling while running is best. __________________

10-09-2009, 11:25 AM	#8 (permalink)
afccarl666 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Birmingham, UK Posts: 756 OS: XP SP3 + Linux Ubuntu 9.10 My System	Re: Hard drive dead? I know its been a while, but Ive noticed something about the drive. If I set the BIOS access mode to auto, the files get corrupted on the drive, and chkdsk will start automatically. However, when I turned the access mode to none (It was booting slower with it on auto) the files were fine. I have been able to use it for the last month normally like this, but I want to know if it will work like this for much longer. __________________ Last edited by afccarl666; 10-09-2009 at 11:36 AM.

10-09-2009, 05:57 PM	#9 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,801 OS: XP	Re: Hard drive dead? It may be an issue where the drive is reporting incorrect parameters to the BIOS. ABout all you can do is see if continues to work... __________________

10-09-2009, 07:24 PM	#10 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 3,818 OS: Windows XP	Re: Hard drive dead? Honestly, I think you're playing "fire". That 13 year old drive can break down at any moment. I say, retrieve all the data that you can and then get rid of it. __________________ Tosh

10-10-2009, 06:21 AM	#11 (permalink)
afccarl666 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Birmingham, UK Posts: 756 OS: XP SP3 + Linux Ubuntu 9.10 My System	Re: Hard drive dead? Thanks again for the responses. I think ill keep it for the time being, as Im using it as a place to keep a 5th backup copy of some of my stuff. (You can never have too many backups). As far as replacing it, which make of drive would you recommend? The connection is ATA, and as far as I can tell, there aren't too many of these around. __________________

10-10-2009, 12:31 PM	#12 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 3,818 OS: Windows XP	Re: Hard drive dead? WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar® Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA II 7200 RPM 32MB Buffer 72.99 AR ZipZoomFly http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...readid=1597142 __________________ Tosh