Is my HDD dead?

[Tullphan]

I moved it from one system to another, dropping it from my lap to the floor in the process.
It landed on the chair mat which is on top of carpeting.
I've tried 2 different power cables & 2 different SATA cables.
It isn't recognized in the bios.
Would a <3' drop onto something like that kill it or make it unrecognizable?
Thanks.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: Tullphan
I moved it from one system to another, dropping it from my lap to the floor in the process.
It landed on the chair mat which is on top of carpeting.
I've tried 2 different power cables & 2 different SATA cables.
It isn't recognized in the bios.
Would a <3' drop onto something like that kill it or make it unrecognizable?
Thanks.

A drop from any height can kill a drive, if it hits just the right spot. Also, theres the chance of static damage from the carpet, or from your hand when you picked it up. Chances are probably slim, but it could happen.

Does the drive spin up at all? Does it make any clicking noises?

 

[Tullphan]

I don't hear any clicking noise, but I think I hear it spinning.
It didn't land on the carpet, but the hard plastic mat the chair wheels around on.
I'm not sure of static damage from my hand as I was grounded while transferring parts.

 

[Modelworks]

May seem like I'm joking, but put the drive in the freezer for several hours.
Then pull it out and plug it up right away, see if you can recover the data.

Sometimes during a fall the drives connections can come loose, heads lost alignment slightly.
When you freeze the drive, it causes the connectors to contract, allowing them to work again, until the drive warms up.

google freeze hard drive if you think I'm kidding

 

[imported_BadBlock]

A lot of modern drives will park the read/write head over the inside of the platter, as opposed to parking it on a ramp outside the edge like some drives, especially laptop drives. When the head is parked over the inside of the platter and the drive is dropped on a hard surface the head(s) can impact the platter and damage/destroy the head. Which can cause the drive not to be detected at boot because it can't read the "system area" of the disk which it has to do at startup before it can return its attributes.

Cooling down a drive as Modelworks indicated can be useful though freezing is somewhat dangerous as it can cause water to condense on the platters (air is moving in and out of the drive). Manufacturer recommendations (for what they are worth) usually advise against running below 5c/41f. The reason cooling a drive works for some people is because parts such as a stuck motor or a stuck arm that holds the read/write head can be freed when the materials contract if the sticking is borderline. Though if you do have head damage that won't help.

You need to know for sure if the thing is spinning up or not when powered on, you should be able to hear it if you put your ear right up to it (unless you have fans around making lots of noise), or be able to feel it spin up when turned on.

 

[Tullphan]

Originally posted by: BadBlock
A lot of modern drives will park the read/write head over the inside of the platter, as opposed to parking it on a ramp outside the edge like some drives, especially laptop drives. When the head is parked over the inside of the platter and the drive is dropped on a hard surface the head(s) can impact the platter and damage/destroy the head. Which can cause the drive not to be detected at boot because it can't read the "system area" of the disk which it has to do at startup before it can return its attributes.

Cooling down a drive as Modelworks indicated can be useful though freezing is somewhat dangerous as it can cause water to condense on the platters (air is moving in and out of the drive). Manufacturer recommendations (for what they are worth) usually advise against running below 5c/41f. The reason cooling a drive works for some people is because parts such as a stuck motor or a stuck arm that holds the read/write head can be freed when the materials contract if the sticking is borderline. Though if you do have head damage that won't help.

You need to know for sure if the thing is spinning up or not when powered on, you should be able to hear it if you put your ear right up to it (unless you have fans around making lots of noise), or be able to feel it spin up when turned on.

It's in a Stacker...there's a few fans around.

 

[Tullphan]

OK...I took it out of the HDD cage, hooked it up again & held it to my ear while I powered on the system.
I could hear it spin up & down & heard a clicking...sometimes 3 clicks, then a pause, sometimes more.
I guess i'll do the advance replacement thing to get one in a hurry.
I suppose since it isn't recognized in the bios, there's no chance of doing data recovery w/a 3rd party software.

 

[imported_BadBlock]

If it spins up, clicks 2-4 times, pauses, then tries again or spins down it usually means it is trying to read the system area to start up and it can't so it resets and tries again. The number of clicks depends on the drive family but this is what you would expect if the head crashed into the platter when it hit the floor. Also happens a lot with external drives that stand vertically cause people put them on their desk and then accidentally knock them over.

If the head has touched the platter and been destroyed no software will help, assuming there is nothing of value just do the warranty replacement like you were planning.