[SOLVED] Hard Disk Drive Failure?

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TopDeck

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I have an Acer V3 331 laptop, having issues with an HDD (ST500LT012-1DG142). All of the sudden after a forced shut down the laptop no longer found the HDD (no bootable devide found), while the HDD made a series of beeping noises every 2 seconds. In the BIOS the HDD was not detected at all, however after changing to legacy mode and running the automatic recovery for boot issues the HDD did appear, but I got an error relating to the boot sector (0xc0000098), and for some reason was unable to even boot from the windows installation files on USB drive.

I removed the HDD from the laptop and connected it to a desktop computer. I still get the beeping noises every two seconds on boot up for some time - and no HDD detected in BIOS, although it does show up in device manager. The HDD had some important data I would like to recover. Any ideas what the beeping is about, whether/how the HDD can be fixed, or if it can be sent for repair somewhere?
 
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Hmm... maybe the drive is mechanical. I have always thought the laptop had an SSD since the boot up was extremely quick. Further it looks like an SSD, very compact, but perhaps my intuition failed here.

EDIT: You are correct.
There are HDDs that could beep. There are instances that it will beep when not getting enough power. or even when it is getting power but it cannot spin up, etc.
There is a change that your files are still in the HDD but Windows partition could be corrupted.
When you connected the drive to the other computer, where you trying to boot from it?
You could connect the HDD to another computer as a secondary drive or into a USB enclosure.
Then run a partition recovery software (e.g EaseUS Partition...
A sudden power lose can corrupt or could cause a SSD to fail.
It is possible to get the data, if you are willing to pay the price ($450 and up).
Repairing it it will cost more than twice its price, so it is not a viable solution.

If the SSD is under warranty, you could get a RMA and get it replaced.

Even though it is too late in this instance, any data you deem important should be backed up.
 

TopDeck

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A sudden power lose can corrupt or could cause a SSD to fail.
It is possible to get the data, if you are willing to pay the price ($450 and up).
Repairing it it will cost more than twice its price, so it is not a viable solution.

If the SSD is under warranty, you could get a RMA and get it replaced.

Even though it is too late in this instance, any data you deem important should be backed up.

Thank you jojesa. I don't really care about the drive, but it would be nice to have the data back.

Any ideas what this error is about?
 

USAFRet

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It is dead.

Physical rebuild might be possible (for more than the thing costs).
Or warranty replacement.

But that data is gone.

For future reference....
 

TopDeck

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It is dead.

Physical rebuild might be possible (for more than the thing costs).
Or warranty replacement.

But that data is gone.

For future reference....

Are you absolutely sure of this? No use in contacting data recovery company?

Any ideas what the beeping is about?
 
having issues with an SSD (ST500LT012-1DG142).
ST500LT012 is not an SSD.
That is 2.5" 500GB 5400 RPM mechanical hard drive.

Seagate-500GB.jpg
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Are you absolutely sure of this? No use in contacting data recovery company?

Any ideas what the beeping is about?
The 'beeping' is almost certainly not the actual SSD, but rather Windows or the motherboard, telling you it cannot access that device.

Data recovery? If it is not even seen in the BIOS...almost certainly no chance.

EDIT:
And now that we know it isn't an SSD...meh...maybe a data recovery company can retrieve something. Maybe, and a lot of $$$.
 
Hmm... maybe the drive is mechanical. I have always thought the laptop had an SSD since the boot up was extremely quick. Further it looks like an SSD, very compact, but perhaps my intuition failed here.

EDIT: You are correct.
There are HDDs that could beep. There are instances that it will beep when not getting enough power. or even when it is getting power but it cannot spin up, etc.
There is a change that your files are still in the HDD but Windows partition could be corrupted.
When you connected the drive to the other computer, where you trying to boot from it?
You could connect the HDD to another computer as a secondary drive or into a USB enclosure.
Then run a partition recovery software (e.g EaseUS Partition Master) and see if the partition and the files could be recovered.
Many of this partition recovery software might require payment to extract the files.
 
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TopDeck

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HDD or SSD, 2.5" is 2.5".
Exact same size for a reason...;)

A light-year is not at least a million years long?

Yes, that may be so. All the HDDs I have seen are very bulky and I thought the laptop had an SSD since the start as it booted up so fast. I copied the information from the device manager not bothering to even look. It is fixed now! Thanks again to SkyNetRising for being observant.
 

TopDeck

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Dec 22, 2014
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There are HDDs that could beep. There are instances that it will beep when not getting enough power. or even when it is getting power but it cannot spin up, etc.
There is a change that your files are still in the HDD but Windows partition could be corrupted.
When you connected the drive to the other computer, where you trying to boot from it?
You could connect the HDD to another computer as a secondary drive or into a USB enclosure.
Then run a partition recovery software (e.g EaseUS Partition Master) and see if the partition and the files could be recovered.
Many of this partition recovery software might require payment to extract the files.

Thank you, I will give it a try... but to my inexperienced opinion this seems like what is wrong.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m5cil6KezI


Which probably means there is no getting data out of the drive. The sound is quite similar to what occurs at 30 second mark, although a bit less frequent.
 
Starting at 1:22....when he first picks up that screwdriver...if you do this you will never get any data off it.
Adding to that, if you bring an opened HDD to a data recovery shop, they will either refuse to work on it or charge you even more.
If the drive does not spin, there is nothing you could do. Only a data recovery tech could recover your data.
 
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Someone has posted a clip of the sound it makes, or at least very close to the sound. Quite likely the issue.
That clip is from a data recovery shop.
That beeping sound suggest the motor is not spinning or the actuator arm is parked or stuck.
Either way, you won't be able to get any data out of it.
You will need a data recovery service...some could give you free estimates.[/QUOTE]
 
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