SATA Hard Drive dead! :(

[OilSheikh]

Today's the worst day of my life!

Sent an e-mail this morning and then switched off PC. Woke up later and switched ON and it kept hanging ( HDD front light constantly lit ) at the Updating ESCD screen.
500GB HDD was detected in BIOS.
Ran Samsung HUTIL - it didnt even see my disk.
Later on in the day, I switched PC ON again and this time BIOS doesnt detect HDD. Tried putting jumpers, exhanging cables and conencting to another PC. Drive didn't get detected at all.

And, now I am further annoyed by the fact that I had some important files on the drive!

I am currently running PC off a spare 80GB HDD.


Anyone have any ideas?


@ Samsung!

[kalniel]

RMA the drive and restore your backup onto a replacement?

[OilSheikh]

RMA the drive and restore your backup onto a replacement?

Didn't backup ....

[OilSheikh]

Trying Freezer method now.

[peterb]

Might not be the drive - it could be the hard drive controller on the mobo. Can you test another drive in the machine, or more importantly, the suspect drive in another machine, or put it in a USB caddy and see if can be read.

The freezer trick is only really useful in mechanical failure, particularly if the bearings seize up. You only have a limited time to recover the data (if it works) because as the drive warms up, the bearings may seize again.

If the the drive has failed and the data is essential, a data recovery company may be able to get it back. Cost will depend on the nature of thje failure, but start att about £350 upwards - some work on a no fix no fee basis. if the drive electronics have failed and that has to be repaired, or the platters removed and re-mounted on a test rig, then the cost is likely to be considerably more.

You are not alone in only considering the value of your data and the importance of backing up until after the event - but a hard drive is a mechanical device - and it will fail. The only unknown is when.

[OilSheikh]

Might not be the drive - it could be the hard drive controller on the mobo. Can you test another drive in the machine, or more importantly, the suspect drive in another machine, or put it in a USB caddy and see if can be read.

The freezer trick is only really useful in mechanical failure, particularly if the bearings seize up. You only have a limited time to recover the data (if it works) because as the drive warms up, the bearings may seize again.

If the the drive has failed and the data is essential, a data recovery company may be able to get it back. Cost will depend on the nature of thje failure, but start att about £350 upwards - some work on a no fix no fee basis. if the drive electronics have failed and that has to be repaired, or the platters removed and re-mounted on a test rig, then the cost is likely to be considerably more.

You are not alone in only considering the value of your data and the importance of backing up until after the event - but a hard drive is a mechanical device - and it will fail. The only unknown is when.

Tried on another PC .. BIOS gets stuck at Detetcing Master ....on startup
Tried Knoppix and Freezing method - none worked
Hdd is warm and spinning just not getting detected!

[peterb]

Might be worth a try in an external USB caddy (one with a separate power supply) but it looks as if the interface may be damaged. However, before trying anything else, have you tried a different signal cable?

[OilSheikh]

Yup, tried with different cables.

Now, have to look for a SATA caddy...


What about the circuit board, peterb? You think replacing that can fix things?

[Killedyou]

Have you tried plugging it into a different port?

Also, check out this website, might be of some help:
http://www.infopackets.com/news/hard...isappeared.htm

And in the future, always have a backup

[OilSheikh]

Have you tried plugging it into a different port?

Also, check out this website, might be of some help:
http://www.infopackets.com/news/hard...isappeared.htm

And in the future, always have a backup

Thanks mate. Will try it out. Still looking for a SATA caddy!

[shaithis]

What about the circuit board, peterb? You think replacing that can fix things?

Yes it can do, if it is that which is broken and the board is easily detached.

Normally you will find the circuit boards from any sized hard drive in the range will work, you don't necessarily have to get the circuit board from another 500GB but the make and model will have to be the same.

[OilSheikh]

Trying now with a caddy.

Using a 2.5" SATA Caddy with this 3.5" HDD and Vista and XP keep on asking for drivers.

Eh?

[OilSheikh]

Currently freezing overnight.

If this doesn;t work...

[CaptainCrash]

Trying now with a caddy.

Using a 2.5" SATA Caddy with this 3.5" HDD and Vista and XP keep on asking for drivers.

Eh?

I'm not quite sure how you cobbled this together, but a 2.5" bus-powered caddy is unlikely to provide enough juice to power up a 3.5" drive (external 3.5" enclosures have their own power supply).

Currently freezing overnight.

sigh... it seems whenever you find a forum thread about a faulty hard drive, someone always suggests putting it in the freezer. With a modern drive with FDB bearings you're far more likely to make things worse than better.

This will naturally be the cue for a chorus of "But I put my drive in the freezer and it worked!!!!" but, believe me, that was in spite of the fact that you froze it, not because...

[Splash]

As I stated in some other thread regards the freezer trick - if the data comes under the category of "it'd be nice to have it back, but not vital" then I suppose it's worth a shot. If you *really* need the data back you should be looking at either restoring from backup (which isn't an option in this case, perhaps it will be in future?) or professional data recovery. Popping the disk in the freezer and in fact *anything* you do to the disk in an attempt to get the data back on the cheap runs a serious risk of making further attempts unsuccesful.

What's the lesson to be learned here? Keep good backups, test them regularly. Yes, it's about as exciting as watching paint dry, but those backups will be worth their weight in gold when you need them (and believe me, if you have *any* data that's important to you you *will* need them). A hard disk is always going to fail, it's a mechanical device and the longer time goes on the more wear and tear it's exposed to, so the more likely failure is.

[peterb]

As I stated in some other thread regards the freezer trick - if the data comes under the category of "it'd be nice to have it back, but not vital" then I suppose it's worth a shot. If you *really* need the data back you should be looking at either restoring from backup (which isn't an option in this case, perhaps it will be in future?) or professional data recovery. Popping the disk in the freezer and in fact *anything* you do to the disk in an attempt to get the data back on the cheap runs a serious risk of making further attempts unsuccesful.

What's the lesson to be learned here? Keep good backups, test them regularly. Yes, it's about as exciting as watching paint dry, but those backups will be worth their weight in gold when you need them (and believe me, if you have *any* data that's important to you you *will* need them). A hard disk is always going to fail, it's a mechanical device and the longer time goes on the more wear and tear it's exposed to, so the more likely failure is.

Couldn't have put it better myself. I back up to tape after I nearly lost some important data. It was expensive, an Ultrium 2 drive and SCSI card to go with it cost about £600 - but that wasn't a lot more than the cost of attempting to get my data back from a recovery company - and now I have some peace of mind.