[SOLVED] HALP! Hard drive suddenly dies and turns into uninitialized unknown disc

[TitusPullo]

So I have a fairly old Seagate 1TB hard drive, maybe four years old. It's been fine for a long time, then I notice it has a red "X" on it in Windows Explorer (I have Hard Disk Sentinel installed which is why the icon appeared). Yet I ran various scans, chkdsk, HD Sentinel, etc. and never got any problem found.

Today I decide to preload the new Diablo 2 remaster onto this Seagate drive. I come back 30 minutes later and suddenly notice I cannot access any of the stored photos and videos on the Seagate drive (I use it basically for multimedia storage and a few GOG games). The entire drive structure and folders appear normal in Explorer but cannot open (I get a message saying file is corrupted or device does not exist). In Disk Management it shows up fine, looking totally normal.

So I reboot. After Windows 10 loads, the Seagate drive no longer appears in Explorer and Disk Management shows a weird new volume, unknown disk. I try to initialize but get the error message "A device that does not exist was specified."

Am I completely screwed? I tried installing Stellar Data Recovery app but it can't scan the unknown disc (which is of course only 520mb of what was once a 1TB drive).

ARGH...

See screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P_FQsuZA7N6sf1KDaV56WUci0s8UkTrL/view?usp=sharing

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

i've had similar issue with malfunctioning disks in the past.
sometimes different disk management software would allow initialization and access to partitions with damaged sectors. though many of the folders & files may be damaged and unreadable.

other times data recovery software would work at home.
i had to try a few data recovery softwares before finding one that recognized the disk and it's contents.
wish i could remember which it was that actually worked the last time.
even then though i lost ~40% of the data on the 3TB drive.

you can always contact Seagate directly.
they will offer data recovery services for a fee if the warranty has expired.
still no guarantee what can be salvaged though.

you can also contact any local shops, Best Buys, etc and see what they will offer.
i've seen ads for 0% charge if no recoverable data is found.

 

[jojesa]

So I have a fairly old Seagate 1TB hard drive, maybe four years old. It's been fine for a long time, then I notice it has a red "X" on it in Windows Explorer (I have Hard Disk Sentinel installed which is why the icon appeared). Yet I ran various scans, chkdsk, HD Sentinel, etc. and never got any problem found.

Today I decide to preload the new Diablo 2 remaster onto this Seagate drive. I come back 30 minutes later and suddenly notice I cannot access any of the stored photos and videos on the Seagate drive (I use it basically for multimedia storage and a few GOG games). The entire drive structure and folders appear normal in Explorer but cannot open (I get a message saying file is corrupted or device does not exist). In Disk Management it shows up fine, looking totally normal.

So I reboot. After Windows 10 loads, the Seagate drive no longer appears in Explorer and Disk Management shows a weird new volume, unknown disk. I try to initialize but get the error message "A device that does not exist was specified."

Am I completely screwed? I tried installing Stellar Data Recovery app but it can't scan the unknown disc (which is of course only 520mb of what was once a 1TB drive).

ARGH...

See screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P_FQsuZA7N6sf1KDaV56WUci0s8UkTrL/view?usp=sharing

A drive could die without warning.
Power off the PC, disconnect the disk and try connecting to a external enclosure or USB to SATA adapter and see if you could recover the data.

 

[mdd1963]

4 years old...?
beyond warranty..?
dropping off-line/acting problematic?

new 1 TB spinning drives cost about $45 these days, and even 1 TB SATA SSDs are but $90-$95 for good ones...

Choice seems pre-made for you....

 

[jojesa]

4 years old...?
beyond warranty..?
dropping off-line/acting problematic?

new 1 TB spinning drives cost about $45 these days, and even 1 TB SATA SSDs are but $90-$95 for good ones...

Choice seems pre-made for you....

I think the OP is more interested in the data not the drive itself.

 

[TitusPullo]

OK, after removing from the case and inserting into an external enclosure, the drive loads up normally. HD Sentinel gives it a 1% health, LOL!

And it is apparently suddenly riddled with bad sectors like metastasizing cancer. I am doing a HDD sync to my cloud drive now. Sigh. Gonna have to buy a new HDD.

Anyone heard good things about the Toshiba X300 series?

There are 904 bad sectors on the disk surface. The contents of these sectors were moved to the spare area.
The drive found 296 bad sectors during its self test.
There are 296 weak sectors found on the disk surface. They may be remapped any time in the later use of the disk.
More information: https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_case_weak_sectors.php
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there.

It is recommended to backup immediately to prevent data loss.