Unfortunately I discovered HD Sentinel too late, and purchased the Pro edition after my main HHD had already failed, in the hope that I may be able to save it so that I could make an image of the disk or at the very least recover some of the files. The problem drive is a 2Tb Seagate Barracuda SATA3 drive.
I tried everything I could think of over the weekend, to get it to boot up but no luck. In the end I installed Windows on an old HDD, to see if I could at least see the drive, but to no avail. I can hear the disk spinning, and there is no clicking sound of the heads being stuck on the disk, although when it first started to play up it did have an occasional grinding sound. I originally tried to backup and delete as much as I could (it was down to around 250 Gb if I remember correctly), but the disk gave up before I could finish everything and make an image of the OS and the key software I had installed.
During the weekend, the problem disk appeared in the BIOS with the correct size, however it took an age to go through the CMOS and S.M.A.R.T. checks (5 mins) of which the later indicated that there was problems and I should backup the drive (if only I could).
I have an identical Seagate drive, which works fine and shows up correctly in HD Sentinel, so I thought I would try using the controller card from this drive in the one with errors. It now speeds through the CMOS and S.M.A.R.T. tests, the BIOS still show the correct size, and I can now see it in Windows. So far so good. Not exactly, as it is only showing up with a 128Gb capacity instead of the 2Tb, and in HD Sentinel no information with regards to health, temperature, S.M.A.R.T. etc shows up.
If I look at it in the Windows Disk Management tool, it also shows up as 128Gb and a message appears offering to setup the MBR or GPT which I close the window instead of selecting one of these options.
Any ideas/suggestions on how to get this disk working again, sufficiently to see the whole (or more of the) disk, before I end up sending it to a specialist would be very much appreciated?
HDD Failure
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hdsentinel
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Re: HDD Failure
I'm terrible sorry to hear what happened with the hard disk.
Generally yes, this is what we want to avoid and prevent - as it is usually harder to attempt any recovery than prevent problems.
I'm afraid yes, in this situation Hard Disk Sentinel can't help - and no other software can help.
Generally when the hard disk is not working, its surface is no longer accessible (at least by reading sectors) then the disk heads and/or surface damaged. Replacing the PCB can't help in such situation - as this has no effect on the failed heads or damaged surface.
Then yes, the drive may be recognised - but when incorrect capacity (usually 0 bytes, 3 GB, 128 GB or excessive high number) reported instead of the real capacity, it means that the hard disk can't read the administrative area from the disk platters on startup.
If you have the opportunity, I'd recommend to check
- connecting the hard disk drive to a different SATA port and power source, maybe check with a different computer
- check with an external, USB enclosure / adapter
just to verify that with the different operating environment and conditions (different connections, power source, etc.)
may help the hard disk to identify itself correctly.
If not - then I'm afraid only data recovery companies can help - as they can disassemble and replace the failed components, attempt recovery by uising different heads/servo and so. This is beyond the scope of any "softwre-only" solution - and data recovery companies can ask $500 or more for such attempt - which may even not 100% successful in all cases.
The purpose of Hard Disk Sentinel is generally to avoid this situation: detect any (even minor) problems, changes, degradations, reveal and stabilize problems and generally increase attention to allow time to perform backup long before catastrophe.
If the drive shows up and files seem readable, I'd immediately focus on important data, copying them to other hard disk and without allowing the drive to power down (without reset / shut down) as next time it may not able to start. I'd not attempt cloning at all.
Usually cloning a failed (or just damaged) hard disk is not a good idea. System files, folders may be already damaged - and this may result that even the cloned system may be not stable. Cloning software may refuse to clone such drive - or clone with errors.
Cloning usually starts with un-important data - and then things are not better if we cloned cookies and temporary internet files - but without copy of the actual, real, important data.
So any time when the drive is still (at least partially) usable, it is better to focus on important files.
I'm so sorry to hear what happened - and I can hope it is possible to prevent this from happening again.
Generally yes, this is what we want to avoid and prevent - as it is usually harder to attempt any recovery than prevent problems.
I'm afraid yes, in this situation Hard Disk Sentinel can't help - and no other software can help.
Generally when the hard disk is not working, its surface is no longer accessible (at least by reading sectors) then the disk heads and/or surface damaged. Replacing the PCB can't help in such situation - as this has no effect on the failed heads or damaged surface.
Then yes, the drive may be recognised - but when incorrect capacity (usually 0 bytes, 3 GB, 128 GB or excessive high number) reported instead of the real capacity, it means that the hard disk can't read the administrative area from the disk platters on startup.
If you have the opportunity, I'd recommend to check
- connecting the hard disk drive to a different SATA port and power source, maybe check with a different computer
- check with an external, USB enclosure / adapter
just to verify that with the different operating environment and conditions (different connections, power source, etc.)
may help the hard disk to identify itself correctly.
If not - then I'm afraid only data recovery companies can help - as they can disassemble and replace the failed components, attempt recovery by uising different heads/servo and so. This is beyond the scope of any "softwre-only" solution - and data recovery companies can ask $500 or more for such attempt - which may even not 100% successful in all cases.
The purpose of Hard Disk Sentinel is generally to avoid this situation: detect any (even minor) problems, changes, degradations, reveal and stabilize problems and generally increase attention to allow time to perform backup long before catastrophe.
If the drive shows up and files seem readable, I'd immediately focus on important data, copying them to other hard disk and without allowing the drive to power down (without reset / shut down) as next time it may not able to start. I'd not attempt cloning at all.
Usually cloning a failed (or just damaged) hard disk is not a good idea. System files, folders may be already damaged - and this may result that even the cloned system may be not stable. Cloning software may refuse to clone such drive - or clone with errors.
Cloning usually starts with un-important data - and then things are not better if we cloned cookies and temporary internet files - but without copy of the actual, real, important data.
So any time when the drive is still (at least partially) usable, it is better to focus on important files.
I'm so sorry to hear what happened - and I can hope it is possible to prevent this from happening again.
Re: HDD Failure
Thanks for taking the time to respond, it's much appreciated.
The recommendation of using different ports, cables computers etc is basically what I tried at the weekend to no avail.
I realized last night that the BIOS is actually not showing the correct size either and is showing just 4Gb, so between this and your reply I think there isn't any point in trying to spend any more time in trying to recover it or spending a fortune on a company that might be able to recover something.
Fortunately I was able to recover the most important data from the disk a couple of weeks ago, but my new disk didn't arrive until after the old one had failed completely. It looks like I'm going to have to reinstall everything and I will have lost my personal configurations etc, which is why I had hoped to be able to generate a clone in the first place.
At least one good thing seems to have come out of the whole process, and that is I discovered your software which I'm sure will help me identify earlier in the future when I am having HDDs that are failing.
The recommendation of using different ports, cables computers etc is basically what I tried at the weekend to no avail.
I realized last night that the BIOS is actually not showing the correct size either and is showing just 4Gb, so between this and your reply I think there isn't any point in trying to spend any more time in trying to recover it or spending a fortune on a company that might be able to recover something.
Fortunately I was able to recover the most important data from the disk a couple of weeks ago, but my new disk didn't arrive until after the old one had failed completely. It looks like I'm going to have to reinstall everything and I will have lost my personal configurations etc, which is why I had hoped to be able to generate a clone in the first place.
At least one good thing seems to have come out of the whole process, and that is I discovered your software which I'm sure will help me identify earlier in the future when I am having HDDs that are failing.
Re: HDD Failure
Twice in my many years of hardware fun, I was able to retrieve data from a H/D that was apparently dead.
One of the discs was an IDE, and one was a SATA.
What I did was to put the H/D in the freezer overnight.
In the A.M. I had my desk top ready to accept the disc as a slave, or spare.
I rushed the disc into the PC, hit the power button, and Windows XP in one case, and 7 in the other case saw the drive.
I was able to clone the IDE, and save the boot OS for another PC., and the other was my personal data drive with 5 years of photos, and drivers on it.
This method has also failed to work more times than it was successful
FWIW, give it a try.
Good Luck:
Art.
One of the discs was an IDE, and one was a SATA.
What I did was to put the H/D in the freezer overnight.
In the A.M. I had my desk top ready to accept the disc as a slave, or spare.
I rushed the disc into the PC, hit the power button, and Windows XP in one case, and 7 in the other case saw the drive.
I was able to clone the IDE, and save the boot OS for another PC., and the other was my personal data drive with 5 years of photos, and drivers on it.
This method has also failed to work more times than it was successful
FWIW, give it a try.
Good Luck:
Art.