Goosed HDD

[Mr_Jon]

Bit of a long shot.

My brother was having trouble with his external HDD, so sent it my way. It's a 2.5" in a seagate enclosure. It was no longer showing up when he plugged the usb in. This also happened when I tried it on in my computer.

I took it out of its usb prison and plugged it directly into a sata port (and the relevant psu cable!). Boot sequence stopped on A2, hardware error. I then tried it via my usb external hdd connector and opened disk management. It recognised it as a disk, something which wasn't happened with its official usb wires. It prompted me that the drive needed initialising before it could be used. After letting it do that, a dialogue box then said "fatal hardware error".

I'm fortunate enough to have never had a hdd go bad in over 25 years of computing, so it's not an area I'm well-versed in. Is there any hope for it?

[peterb]

Sounds like a problem with the device electronics. Depending on how the device is made, it may be possible to get a drive of the same model, version and release and use the electronics board off that to get data back. On the other hand if it the the platter drive motor or the head stepper (or a head itslef) that has failed, then almost no hope doing it yourself. A reputable data recovery firm may be able to get it back, but

a. There are a number of cowboys out there
b. It isn't going to be a cheap option

[Mr_Jon]

Sounds like a problem with the device electronics. Depending on how the device is made, it may be possible to get a drive of the same model, version and release and use the electronics board off that to get data back. On the other hand if it the the platter drive motor or the head stepper (or a head itslef) that has failed, then almost no hope doing it yourself. A reputable data recovery firm may be able to get it back, but

a. There are a number of cowboys out there
b. It isn't going to be a cheap option

He was going to initially take it to pc world, so I don't think he minds paying (though preferably not through the nose) - it's just whether or not there'd be results at the end.

When the drive gets plugged in via usb, it makes four quiet bleeps/rasps before spinning up if that's any clue.

[peterb]

He was going to initially take it to pc world, so I don't think he minds paying (though preferably not through the nose) - it's just whether or not there'd be results at the end.

When the drive gets plugged in via usb, it makes four quiet bleeps/rasps before spinning up if that's any clue.

I dont know what expertise (or access to expertise) PCW has, but I suspect they will say its not possible - but worth trying.

Four bleeps might mean something to Seagate! I had a quick google, but many of the threads were up to 7 years old. The causes were various but generally referred to mechanical problems - heads or platter motors sticking. As one thread stated "percussive maintenance" might free up something sticking, but it is just as likely to cause more damage.

[Mr_Jon]

I dont know what expertise (or access to expertise) PCW has, but I suspect they will say its not possible - but worth trying.

Four bleeps might mean something to Seagate! I had a quick google, but many of the threads were up to 7 years old. The causes were various but generally referred to mechanical problems - heads or platter motors sticking. As one thread stated "percussive maintenance" might free up something sticking, but it is just as likely to cause more damage.

"Percussive maintenance".

It worked.

I tried whacking it on the top and then the side, after the "beeps" (which is likely the noise of it sticking when attempting to spin up). No joy. Disconnected and whacked it hard on the right hand side during the beeps, and it spun up with gusto. Job's a good 'un.

Thanks.

[peterb]

Excellent - I trust the data is now being (or has been!) copied off onto at least two other drives! . (because if it stuck once, it may stick again, and "percussive maintenance" may not work a second time! .

(Of course, the drive might go on to give many hours of further service - especially if it is left running - but I wouldn't trust it with anything valuable!)

It does highlight the risks of using a single USB (or any other drive) for backup purposes - use at least two, preferably three.

[Mr_Jon]

Yeah, I copied onto one of my system drives when it first started running - and he's getting two of my old ones with it all loaded on. He's got a 50gb cloud service (off Apple, for 80p a month...which sounds like a lot of storage for that price) which, of course, wasn't being used as a backup...but now will be, after a short re-education.

[RaTTuS]

re -backups,
have one or two onsite , one at another site [parents etc]
and an online one if you can

be sensible in what you backup and or how you do it

have a policy that you do that will keep backups upto date or close -

you can get a bit over the top , but it all depends on what you want ...

[DanceswithUnix]

Blimey, that was utterly commonplace on Seagates around 1990, I had it on three SCSI drives. I got quite good at holding a drive flat and wrist flicking with a sort of "turning the tap on and off" motion until I heard a small "click", then back up and warranty replace (it always happened within warranty).

I can't believe they are letting it happen again.