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HDD fail issues - trying to recover data - any help very appreciated. thanks

Q

quickstudy

Junior Member
My PC - win 7 64- quad core intel - 8gb ram - ssd boot - let me know what else you want to know


Situation: One of my spare data hdds is giving me problems. Its a 250gb seagate that was an external usb drive but I removed the hdd from the enclosure and have it connected via sata. Recently my computer would start freezing on windows boot screen before you get to user login. I figured it was an hdd issue and identified the problematic drive. Once disconnected everything else is fine so obviously the drive is going bad. So I set out to just recover the data and scrap it. I can't get to windows with the drive connected so I tried Hiren's bootcd however that also freezes at the first boot screen when the drive is connected. I am able to run seatools and I have run seatools on the drive, it finishes, but then freezes upon finishing and the log file isn't saving anywhere. This is all I have tried so far - what are my other options?


Linux? Some Dos based recovery? Any ideas - thanks again.

Update Edit: Ok I've enabled AHCI functionality and then I plugged in the bad 250gb drive and windows found it and I see it in device manager. However I do not see it when I open my computer. Also when I try to open r-studio the program freezes on loading (probably because of this drive).

What else can I try to do to access it?
 
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SATA drives can be hot plugged, although not all motherboards will recognize them when you do it. With the machine open so you can access the SATA connectors on the mobo, try booting the machine and connecting the drive after it gets to the desktop.

If the machine fails to recognize the drive, under Computer Management > Disk Management, you can rescan for it using Edit > Action > Rescan Disks.

If Disk Management freezes when you try this, it will probably unfreeze when you disconnect the problem drive, but you'll be no worse off for having tried.

Good luck. 🙂
 
I've found very little information about whether a given mobo will do it. Some do, some don't, and some do sometimes, but not others.

Just try it. You can test it with another known good drive before you try your failing drive so you'll know whether you can expect it to show a working drive.

SATA is intended to be hot pluggable so it can't hurt anything. The worst that can happen is that it won't recognize the drive.
 
Ok I've enabled AHCI functionality and then I plugged in the bad 250gb drive and windows found it and I see it in device manager. However I do not see it when I open my computer. Also when I try to open r-studio the program freezes on loading (probably because of this drive).

What else can I try to do to access it?
 
Did you find it by connecting it after booting up? If so, try my previous post about looking in Computer Management.

To find Disk Mangement, right click "Computer," and select "Manage." Then, select "Disk Management," and rescan for it using Edit > Action > Rescan Disks.

The drive may or may not be readable. If not, you may be in for the hard lesson about backing up your files.

Again, good luck. 🙂
 
I only see the bad drive in device manager. When I try to open any of the following: disk management, my computer, windirstat, r-studio or anything that manages the hdd they just freeze and wont load.

How can I tell if its an issue with the hdd circuit board or with the actual data/platters?
 
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quickstudy said:
Linux?
Click to expand...
Bingo. Get a live distro, and research the crap out of data recovery in Linux (this is one of those few cases where tutorial videos on Youtube are going to be 100x more time-efficient than anything written). It's not hard, but if you're never done it before, you might be in for a few hours of learning.

If a GUI file manager, like Dolphin, can mount the partition, and you can get files off it, do so, but to a 3rd drive, like a thumb drive. Linux will try much more than Windows to read the disk over and over and over again, so if it doesn't fail or crash, leave it and check on it every now and then.

Linux is not ready to replace your Windows desktop any time soon, but cases like this are its forte.
 
Hi Cerb, thanks I will probably end up trying Linux just to cover all the bases before I concede. Is dolphin/kde a different OS than Ubuntu or Mint?
 
This is issue of the PCB installed on the backside of the drive. Hot swap will cause the same freeze effect. So you probably have your data still there but you are not able to access them.
Try the linux thing that might work.
 
quickstudy said:
Hi Cerb, thanks I will probably end up trying Linux just to cover all the bases before I concede. Is dolphin/kde a different OS than Ubuntu or Mint?
Click to expand...
No.

KDE, Gnome, XFCE, and LXDE are all basically desktop interfaces. They give a taskbar (well, configurable panels), desktop icons (or not), etc.. Then, there's Mate, which is a continuation of Gnome 2, as Gnome 3 alienated users, and Cinnamon, a continuation of Gnome Shell.

Unity also gives you something like that, but it sucks.

Dolphin is KDE's main file manager--think Windows Explorer, or OS X' Finder. But, it's kind of dumbed down, so they still also support Konqueror, which...well, if you used it for awhile, you'd see why someone might want a dumbed down version 🙂. There's also Nautilus (Gnome's), Thunar (XFCE's?), Rox (too simplistic), PCManFM, and others.

If FOSS gives you one big problem, it's not lacking choices. Ubuntu and its derivatives definitely have the most documentation and such, though.
For example, here's a video for a straight Ubuntu:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JipvZcxCHAU
And another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1yPplTt1ys
 
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