Internal hard drive problem. I am too tired.

K

kenny1999

Member
Although i am not a computer idiot, after spending almost up to 24 hours of sleepless trying, i finally become so frustrated and have to ask for help here.


The situation is - i have a dell desktop bought in 2005, it used to work well without problems. In 2008, I added a new 1TB internal harddrive (seagate) to serve as music, video, photo etc storage. It still works perfectly without problem.

A few months ago, I bought a new computer (DIY by a local computer shop), then i unplugged the 1TB harddrive and moved it to the new computer. However, the new computer couldn't detect the drive, after some try I could only give up. Then I return the harddrive to my old desktop but the old desktop couldn't detect the harddrive too...

Now, as I boot to BIOS, I can see that BIOS detects the existence and the model of my drive, but as I continue to boot to windows, the system "forced"
me to check the consistency of the harddrive, no response for me to press "any key" to skip the test and it usually takes a very long time to do so before it continues to windows. But before I could come to the window desktop, it "freezes" in the welcome message for another long long time. In windows, I can just see the harddrive but I can't access to it, returning with a box message saying something like "I/O error......."

If I unplug the SATA cable from the harddrive and boot the computer, everything becomes normal and fast.

Can anyone help me? What I can do now? I have tried different using different SATA cable and I have even done a "slow format" and re-installed the windows...I really don't want to give up the 400GB files of my favourite.
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
I am sorry to tell you, but if I am reading your last sentence right, your files are gone. A format, slow or fast, removes all of your data, leaving essentially a black slate to install to.

What I would do is download the diagnostic for your hard drive and burn it to a disk. Then shut down the computer, remove all of the disk but the one giving you trouble, and boot to the disk. Then run the Full or Long diagnostics on it. This will tell you if the drive is good or not. I am assuming that it is bad, but if you test it and it is good, then you can use a live boot linux option to pull the files off.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
K

kenny1999

Member
wolfeking said:
I am sorry to tell you, but if I am reading your last sentence right, your files are gone. A format, slow or fast, removes all of your data, leaving essentially a black slate to install to.

What I would do is download the diagnostic for your hard drive and burn it to a disk. Then shut down the computer, remove all of the disk but the one giving you trouble, and boot to the disk. Then run the Full or Long diagnostics on it. This will tell you if the drive is good or not. I am assuming that it is bad, but if you test it and it is good, then you can use a live boot linux option to pull the files off.
Click to expand...

no no no.. you misunderstood.... i have two harddrive, one for OS and one for storage. I only did "slow format" with the one for OS. The 1TB one (for storage) has never been formatted by me and it is the harddrive i am talking about
 
K

kenny1999

Member
johnb35 said:
You will need to download the dos version of Seatools and create a bootable cd and do the long/extended test on that drive if it even detects the drive. It seems the drive may be toast. Did you discharge yourself before touching it? Did you drop the drive at all? Here is the seatools download.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=480bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

And here is the instructions for burning the cd correctly.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/201431en
Click to expand...




sorry, i don't understand what you meant by "discharge yourself before touching it" How to discharge myself?

Actually, BIOS could detect the harddrive and its model, capacity, and windows would show the icon of the drives but it just can't be accessed.

Now i am using another computer with window 7, it also shows the drive but i can't access it.

It even affects the normal operation of the windows, i have already downloaded the seatool (from official seagate website), but it just doesn't show any windows after I click on the setup file.


btw, the harddisk has never dropped before..... >.<
 
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johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Discharging yourself means to discharge yourself from any static electricity your body may be carrying such as when you walk across carpet or if the air in your home is really dry. You should always touch any metal part of the case before touching any component so that you remove any existance of static charge on your body.

If your system is requesting a consistency check every time it boots up, then its not a good sign. You download the iso file and use burning software to write the iso to a cd and then boot to the cd and perform the long/extended test.

The dos version isn't a setup file, it's a file that needs to burned to a cd.
 
K

kenny1999

Member
johnb35 said:
Discharging yourself means to discharge yourself from any static electricity your body may be carrying such as when you walk across carpet or if the air in your home is really dry. You should always touch any metal part of the case before touching any component so that you remove any existance of static charge on your body.

If your system is requesting a consistency check every time it boots up, then its not a good sign. You download the iso file and use burning software to write the iso to a cd and then boot to the cd and perform the long/extended test.

The dos version isn't a setup file, it's a file that needs to burned to a cd.
Click to expand...

so, is it just a long/extended TEST? ok if it finds problems (in fact it is a must), will it do any workable and practical cure for the disk?

I really wish to get back the 400GB data...


btw, if i didn't do discharge, will there be any harmful effect to my body?

THanks!!
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
The problem is, you said you formatted the drive? If you have formatted the drive, your data may be gone forever. You can try downloading and installing recuva to try recovering your files after the seatools confirms and hopefully fixes the errors on the drive.

Not sure what you mean by harmful effect to your body. People carry static electricity on them everyday. Have you ever rubbed a balloon on your head for awhile and then make it stick to a wall? Thats static electricity. To your body itself, it won't hurt you, if thats what you meant. But it will harm electronic components if you don't discharge yourself before touching them.
 
K

kenny1999

Member
johnb35 said:
The problem is, you said you formatted the drive? If you have formatted the drive, your data may be gone forever. You can try downloading and installing recuva to try recovering your files after the seatools confirms and hopefully fixes the errors on the drive.

Not sure what you mean by harmful effect to your body. People carry static electricity on them everyday. Have you ever rubbed a balloon on your head for awhile and then make it stick to a wall? Thats static electricity. To your body itself, it won't hurt you, if thats what you meant. But it will harm electronic components if you don't discharge yourself before touching them.
Click to expand...

no... no.... forget about format.... i didn't do any format on this harddrive, this drive use to be for storage only...

I mean I have formatted another drive where the Operating system (windows xp) locates.... but that drive has no problem to fix so far.
 
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K

kenny1999

Member
News:

I have taken the hard drive to a local small computer shop. The man could detect my harddrive using his computer, he could even see the file directories (but my computer returns with I/O device error.) However, he refused to copy the files for me because he said he was not optimistic about that. He suggested I bring the harddisk to professional harddisk recovery service. But that would cost me really a fortune because I work for a low paid job, and more importantly the files are not worth spending hundreds of bucks to recover.

But, the man had said one interesting thing before he checked the harddisk, he said if the harddisk could be recognized by the computer, then it is very possible to get back the data by first formatting the whole disk and the recover the data.... FIRST formatting the disc???
 
S.T.A.R.S.

S.T.A.R.S.

banned
The guy SAW the data,but did not copy it???
Omg...
Yea he is right it better to format the HDD first...OMG!

Please don't format the HDD.DO NOT DO THAT!Who ever told you that is a good idea,he/she is a moron (no offence)!!
Just don't do it.

Too bad you don't live here.I would pull all your data out for just 100 dollars lol.Still you can always send it to me if you want lol.

Anyway do NOT format the HDD like he/she told you.That will make everything worse!

Here is what you can try:

Run CHKDSK utility on that HDD from Command Prompt with the folowing command:

CHKDSK F: /f /r /x

"F:" is the drive letter of that HDD you want to check so be sure it is the same one.


This will take a LOOOOOOOOONG time so let it finish completely!

Once that is finished,try accessing the HDD.



Cheers!
 
cabinfever1977

cabinfever1977

New Member
well if the guy you brought it to hooked it up to his computer and could see the drive and files, why not bring it to a friend and hook to his computer and transfer files to something.

Or you could buy a cheap external usb harddrive case and put harddrive in and plug to yor usb and see if your computer sees it.

and also maybe its your computer that has a problem and not the drive.
 
K

kenny1999

Member
hi people above

i tried HD Tune PRo to check the disc, within just a several minute , NO green sector checked but ALL red sectors (red means bad sector in HD Tune pro)

I have a lot of experience over the years that a scratched CD/DVD will never let a file to copy from one place to another even though I see the file, yes, just SEE and leave the window staying forever but no actual copying...... so I trust the man saying that it won't work much...

now, somebody in another forum suggested me to swap the logic board, i have done a research on web but seems there are some people saying that it is a gamble. (full win or total lost)

By the way, how to use chdsk?? how to get to the command prompt? I don't think it will work under the window comand prompt, will it?
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
I do not think the logic board will help at all. The logic board stores all of the locations of the data on the drive, so replacing it is extemely risky.

Chkdsk is the best option here. If not, then you may need to look into getting the data recovered from a professional recovery service.
 
S.T.A.R.S.

S.T.A.R.S.

banned
Bad sectors on the HDD platters have nothing to do with the logic board so don't waste time on that.Unless if the logic board works like crap of course lol.

Just perform the CHKDSK and be sure to use these 3 switches:

/f /r /x

Hopefuly that will fix the drive errors and you will be able to copy your data off either by using Windows or let's say Linux Ubuntu (in the case if Windows OS works like sh!t).




Cheers!
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
SATA is backwards compatible. You can put a SATA 1.5Gbps drive on a SATA 6Gbps plug. It will not harm the drive, but you will only see the performance of the slower component.
 
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