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Is My Hard Drive Dead?

A

air4cedude

Junior Member
Hi guys,

I have a

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA
Model - WD5000KS

It is for storage only so I don't have an OS on it. Computer won't boot up when it's connected.

I ran the WD Diagnostic and it said there was a Smart error. A couple of things in the report that were below the threshold were:

Re-allocated Sector Count - 104, threshold is 140
Multi Zone Error Rate - 1, threshhold is 51

I can provide the full report if you need it.

Is there any hope for this drive? It stopped working when I had windows explorer open to the drive and I let my baby have control of the keyboard. I don't know how she did it but she mesed it up pretty good.
 
you might try installing the WD application to windows and see if the WD program can fix the drive and keep the data.
 
I can't get to windows with it connected. After the windows logo it freezes up with the hard drive light blinking continuously. Can I disconnect it and then reconnect it once i have windows up and running?
 
No, you cannot disconnect or reconnect drives while the system is on.

can the wd bootable diagnostic program repair the disk ?, try from there.
 
No, it instructed me to call WD Tech support. They said to try a new cable but I'm fairly sure that's not the problem. Apparently it's still under warrantty but I'd like to do whatever it takes to either fix it or recover as many files as I can.
 
if it didnt offer a fix solution your data may be loss, But the cd should give you the option of setting the drive up at which you will be asked what you want to do.

delete the partition and format the drive and retest.
 
thats a good question, considering it worked before the keyboard acident, if the os drive is disconnected and you cant run hd utilities on the drive you will have to send it in to be repaired, they may be able to recover the data but that wont be cheap.
 
I'd be surprised if your baby actually did anything -- it'd pretty hard to induce those errors from a keyboard even if you were trying to do so.

SATA drives are hot swappable, so provided the controller supports it you could actually boot up and then plug it in. If for some reason the controller doesn't support hot swapping, you could try buying an external enclosure or SATA-to-USB converter.

When you say it doesn't boot up with it attached, what happens? Does the computer fail to turn on? Does it start the POST but never finishes? Does the OS start to load but never completes?

As cheap as SATA cables are, you should definitely trying a new one, if for no other reason than to tell WD that you did it and to make your RMA easier. Swapping cables, unplugging and replugging everything in are standard "fixes" to try.
 
Originally posted by: L00PY
I'd be surprised if your baby actually did anything -- it'd pretty hard to induce those errors from a keyboard even if you were trying to do so.

When you say it doesn't boot up with it attached, what happens? Does the computer fail to turn on? Does it start the POST but never finishes? Does the OS start to load but never completes?
Click to expand...

It would be a pretty big coincidence if it wasn't caused by her because immediately it started giving me errors about data may be lost. I immediately rebooted and windows was able to get to the desktop but the quick launch and syetem tray wouldn't come up so I rebooted again and it froze after the windows logo came up and has been doing that ever since.
 
It sounds like Windows is hanging while trying to recover data on that drive by remapping bad sectors when the OS mounts it. How long have you let it sit there when it's frozen? Though I don't think it'll work, you might want to just let it sit there overnight or something. Even if that doesn't work, I'd say the odds of you recovering some data are pretty good. You may want to create an UBCD and try some of the included tools.
 
Originally posted by: L00PY
It sounds like Windows is hanging while trying to recover data on that drive by remapping bad sectors when the OS mounts it. How long have you let it sit there when it's frozen? Though I don't think it'll work, you might want to just let it sit there overnight or something. Even if that doesn't work, I'd say the odds of you recovering some data are pretty good. You may want to create an UBCD and try some of the included tools.
Click to expand...

The longest I've let it sit is about 10-20 minutes. I just tried connecting it after windows booted up normally and the computer is super slow and explorer doesn't show the drive.
 
One thing I didn't mention is that after the windows logo appears I can hear one pretty loud single click coming from the hard drive. What is that? A bunch of clicks I'm sure is really bad but a single click sound just as bad?
 
the hot swapable drive feature can only be used in a fully booted system.

does the system fully boot with just the OS drive connected ?
 
then run an extended hd test on your os hd to verify its health.

the bad/defective hd i would not reconnect it, have it repaired or replaced, it could be shorting out, and cause other problems, even data corruption.
 
It definitely sounds like what I suggested before -- your drive has some bad sectors and when Windows is trying to remap them it's slow, possibly running into issues. If I were in your shoes, here are the steps I'd try in order and why.

1) Disconnect and reconnect all drive cables. Try different ports.
Pros: Free. Fast.
Cons: Only fixes a limited set of problems. Very tiny chance of a bad drive and cable taking out another port (~0.01% chance of happening). Doesn't sound like this is the problem.
Odds: 20% (only because loose cables happen all the time). This is usually the first troubleshooting step done by techs.

2) Swap in a new cable.
Pros: Cheap ($1.32 shipped from DealExtreme). Have an extra cable afterwards even if it doesn't work. Fast if you've got a cable on hand.
Cons: Fixes a single problem of a bad cable. Have to wait for shipping or pay more and buy locally. Again, probably not the problem.
Odds: 5% Most cables are good but manufacturing defects do happen.

3) Let the Windows finish trying to remap.
Pros: Free. Simplest. Can start right away. Probably the issue.
Cons: Time.
Odds: 10% chance of working. Won't fix all problems, definitely not any physical ones. You've got to verify Windows is actually doing something and not just hanging.

4) Create a UBCD and run drive diagnostics from there.
Pros: The only cost is a blank CD (using a CD/RW makes it essentially free). Have a UBCD afterwards.
Cons: Need to download and make the UBCD.
Odds: 20% chance of working. Can't fix physical problems.

5) Purchase an external enclosure / adapter.
Pros: If you have a need for an portable storage or spare drives, it can be handy.
Cons: Would only address a very narrow range of problems the previous solutions wouldn't already fix. $15-$30 cost.
Odds: 3%. Essentially the same as the new cable fix.

6) Send the drive out for data recovery.
Pros: Best chance of getting data back.
Cons: Extremely expensive, hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on the problem. Slow.
Odds: 80%

The chances of the situation blazer described, of a drive that passes POST but still shorting out is very, very low. The chances of such a drive causing data corruption on a separate drive, especially given SATA's nature, is infinitesimal.

 
Option 6 is your best hope in this scenario. Your drive is failing and no software recovery can do the trick for this model of the drive. The longer you mess with it, the worse it's going to get and the more expensive it's going to cost you to get the files back.
 
Originally posted by: blazer
then run an extended hd test on your os hd to verify its health.

the bad/defective hd i would not reconnect it, have it repaired or replaced, it could be shorting out, and cause other problems, even data corruption.
Click to expand...

I ran it and no errors on the OS drive.
 
So far I've tried:

1. reconnecting all the cables
2. new cable
3. let windows run overnight

I created a UBCD disk. What tools should I try out?

Thanks for everyone's help!
 
If your drive is actually clicking, then yes it's dieing. If data is just that valuable, send to data recovery, then replace drive through WD. But it is dieing.
 
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