Drive not detected, ran Seatools, now clicking.

[Douglas Winterpeg]

Hello,

Additional data drive (Seagate 160gb) stopped being detected straight away in BIOS.
If I kept restarting during BIOS it would eventually appear but sometimes not, and would have to turn off PC for 5 minutes, turn on, push restart,push restart, push restart then it would appear and run flawlessly.

Ran Seatools for windows, passed short test, failed long test but then passed long test on another attempt..? Ran Seatools for DOS longtest, at 97% started showing errors and finished with 17 errors.

Restarted and drive is now clicking loudly (straight after running Seatools DOS test) and won't detect at all using my technically advanced push restart method.

Doesn't sound as bad as some click of death videos, just like it's searching but constantly and a lot louder. Can still feel drive spinning.

Could Seatools test have caused this?

Any way to get it detected agian?

Tried to include all the info I could, any ideas would be great.
Thanks in advance.

 

[tomatthe]

Testing drives does put a good deal of stress on them, and if it was already failing could have pushed it along a little further.

Sounds like you've got a dead drive to me, and contacting a data recovery center is likely the only option for getting any data back.

 

[Douglas Winterpeg]

Thanks tomatthe,

Maybe I shouldn't have tested it at all. Cost of data recovery isn't worth it in my case.

Does anyone else have any ideas? I've read some posts about whacking/ dropping drive to free up the head but a bit hesitant to try that.

I'll keep on with my push restart method and hope for the best. ha ha

 

[tomatthe]

I would highly suggest not, "whacking/ dropping drive to free up the head but a bit hesitant to try that. " the drive. Some people claim to have had results putting them in the freezer or something to that affect, but personally I wouldn't bother with any of that. I would keep trying what you already are, and just hope for the best.

Perhaps someone else will reply as well, but I don't know of much else to do at this point.

 

[Douglas Winterpeg]

Read freezing was supposed to fix a short in the spindle motor but I can still feel vibration of platter spinning as normal so haven't tried that yet. Can't find much more information on getting it detected.

Just strange how (before running Seatools) it wouldn't detect but when it finally did it ran fine (or maybe it's not strange, I'm not an expert).

Clicking not getting any louder. I'll just keep trying to get it detected.

Thanks for your help tomatthe

 

[rdc85]

if seatools show error, than it is broken.

if it still in seagate warranty, u can try to rma it to them.

(they judge drive qualify to rma, using seatools as preliminary requirement, just contact them and tell what u post above )

 

[Douglas Winterpeg]

Unfortunately out of warranty and it's the 2nd drive I've received from a RMA. Previous 2 drives both failed in similar ways. I'm not in any extreme conditions or anything, drives usually sit between 30 - 40 celsius.

Is replacing circuit board with same model drive worth it?

Thanks for your replies alt-rtt & rdc85

 

[rdc85]

Er... if it done by professional than maybe..... (depends how much it cost and the importance of the data inside)

if not, than better not if dust get into hdd it will broke it later..........

 

[Douglas Winterpeg]

I've kept trying to restart with it connected to different sata ports and power connectors but still no luck. Clicking still sounds the same, I guess it's dead.

Thanks alt-rtt for your info about replacing board. Definitely not a professional, just an idea I read somewhere.

Data not worth the upwards of $1000 for data recovery service. It's just a *** result for me, back up lesson learned I suppose.

If anyone else has any ideas, I'm all ears(...eyes)