new HHD problem

[amundius]

Hi all. I built my first pc the other day and all was going well, I put my wondows 7 os on my SSD and just figured out how to get my HDD to become available. While the HDD was formatting (after an hour or more) my pc started beeping, and i some how managed to accidentally reboot the pc (still dont know how). When I turned it back on the beeping was gone and as of 20 mins later while writing this it still hasent come back.

When i went into the HDD again in disc management the HDD now shows 4gb unallocated instead of almost 2 terabytes. I cant reformat it again and the device has a little red arrows next to it pointing down. Im wondering if its totally screwed. Also whenever i try to to do anything with it now it says it was unable to due to an I/O device error.

My HDD is the Seagate 2TB SATA III Performance Hard Drive ST2000DM001 7200rpm 64MB Cache7200rpm from scan

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb-...4-sata-3-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-8ms-oem-ncq

Any ideas?

By the way its insured against this kind of thing by scan as it was my first go at it.

As for the beeps, they were kind of erratic but finally settled on what sounded like 2 short beeps, a small pause then another 2 short beeps. Don't know if its the RAM or something, seeing as it was pretty random at first. Kind of outside my expertise now.

Any help will be much appreciated!

 

[SKORPI0]

As for the beeps, they were kind of erratic but finally settled on what sounded like 2 short beeps, a small pause then another 2 short beeps. Don't know if its the RAM or something, seeing as it was pretty random at first. Kind of outside my expertise now.

Any help will be much appreciated!

Check if all the rams are still properly seated on the slots. Could have come loose while installing other parts.

 

[amundius]

ok thanks, will check that now. Was just about to say that when i rebooed it was giving single beeps which is ram related according to the beep codes i looked up.

Also, i shut off the pc, disconnected the HDD, started up so it would not be there, closed down again, put it back in, and after two attempts its still not recognizing that the HDD is there.

I get the feeling it really is shagged now.

 

[amundius]

ok just checked the ram, was seated properly and i even switched them over to slots 2 and 4, same single beeps when i boot up. Guessing i have bad ram then?

any ideas on the HDD failure?

 

[C1]

Dont know about the RAM, but in the case of the HDD, just wipe the drive, partition and reformat it to suit.

 

[amundius]

Dont know about the RAM, but in the case of the HDD, just wipe the drive, partition and reformat it to suit.

Ok cool, how do i do that? I only know of the disc management part and that no longer works. Also dont know if it matters now but as for the ram, tried both sticks individually and were fine, the beeping stopped only when i removed the HDD again.

 

[mfenn]

ok just checked the ram, was seated properly and i even switched them over to slots 2 and 4, same single beeps when i boot up. Guessing i have bad ram then?

any ideas on the HDD failure?

I'm a little unclear here. Do you experience any other symptoms (failure to boot, etc.) when you hear a single beep? I ask because a single beep during boot is perfectly normal behavior.

Ok cool, how do i do that? I only know of the disc management part and that no longer works. Also dont know if it matters now but as for the ram, tried both sticks individually and were fine, the beeping stopped only when i removed the HDD again.

Try going into Disk Management, right clicking on the left part (where the red arrows are) and telling it to bring the disk Online.

 

[amundius]

I'm a little unclear here. Do you experience any other symptoms (failure to boot, etc.) when you hear a single beep? I ask because a single beep during boot is perfectly normal behavior.

well when the hdd is attached it stays on the option to go into bios for a good 20 seconds or so and gives around 10 individual beeps (guessing to let me know somethings wrong).

Try going into Disk Management, right clicking on the left part (where the red arrows are) and telling it to bring the disk Online.

I tried but in the top part of the disc management page you can see the hdd, which is nameless, but you cant do anything with it, all options are grayed out.

Also in the below section where you would be able to allocate it and format it etc it isnt even there, only the dvd and ssd drives. The pic in the bottom with the red arrow is gone along with the hdd device completely.

 

[amundius]

Called scan and they said theyd replace it, so no worries now. Thanks for the help

 

[Paperdoc]

This certainly sounds like a HDD problem. But whether it is just bad data written to the drive because of the disruption in the Partitioning and Formatting, or whether the HDD itself has a hardware flaw, is not clear now. But I suspect hardware because you say it does not even show up in the lower right panel of Disk Management. However, just to check: you do realize that the lower right pane SCROLLS so you can see it all - have you done that in searching for the HDD there?

I suggest that, using another machine, you download from the Seagate website (since this is their drive) their utility Seatools for DOS. Get the "for DOS" version that is a .iso image of a bootable CD. You will need some utility like Nero that can burn this image file to a CD-R so that you have a bootable disk to work with.

Now you put that in your machine and enter the BIOS Setup system. First, check there that the HDD is actually being detected by the BIOS. Next, find the place where you set the Boot Priority Sequence and set it to try the optical drive first, then your HDD. Save and Exit. Make sure the Seatools CD is in the optical drive, and it will boot from there. The advantage of the "for DOS" version is that it will load a small DOS Operating System into your RAM along with some tools, and run from there even though you have no working HDD to use. It is a menu-driven system of tests and tools.

First, tell it to examine your HDD and check what it says for the SMART info. If that's all OK, try the Short Test. If that tells you the HDD has a significant problem, write down exactly what it says, including error codes. You will need this info to give to Seagate Tech Support when you send the drive in for replacement. However, if the Short Test says it's OK, then run the Long Test. Be patient - it takes hours! But same drill - if there is an error, copy it down and call Seagate Tech Support for guidance / replacement.

If both tests say there is no hardware problem with the HDD, cheer! Now you can use the menu to Delete any and all Partitions on the HDD, which should wipe it clean. Exit from this system, remove the Seatools CD, and start over with the Win 7 install.

IF you have any problem with the Install process that indicates the HDD is bad or can't be used, you're back to Seatools with a much more thorough wipe of the HDD. Use its tool to Zero-Fill that drive, which will completely remove every bit of data on it and force it to do an even more thorough self-diagnosis and repair process - again, it takes hours! When that's done, remove the Seatools CD, insert the Win 7 Install CD, and reboot and try again.

 

[amundius]

wow thanks paperdoc that is very helpful luckily i have it insured and it is being replaced for free by scan.co.uk as they said it was better to let them replace, and easier luckily, but i will save your suggestion for any future problems.

Thanks again