[SOLVED] HDD acts dead but looks and sounds fine

[LamortCriss]

I have a 2TB Seagate barracuda ( green label ) that "suddenly stopped working".

I was installing farcry 5 on it from UPLAY while browsing in the folders organizing stuff on the disk itself and on my 2nd screen i see an error pop up on UPLAY saying it could'nt access the drive anymore.

I go back to "browsing" on the disk to check if I didn't delete the path or anything and... it was gone from the explorer. Gone from "My PC", gone from disk partition manager. Restart pc, nothing, restart again, check bios, not there either. I then try to diagnose it physically but here's what I mean by the quote unquote "stopped working" ... is that I can actually faintly hear starting up like it would normally do... not noticeable unless you put your ear on it so its not loud or anything... no clicking, no whining, no bzzt, no grrrr brrr prrr, nothing out of the ordinary what so ever. When I touch it, I can feel it working as it normally would...
But it doesn't appear in bios, crystal disk info, disk part or anything I tried.

The physical things I tried are :
multiple sata cables
multiple sata ports
a USB drive pocket
PCI3.0 sata extention card.
They all worked fine on my 500gb 860evo but no dice on the Seagate



Its about a year old and had a couple games on it but mostly used for the few movies/series. I also have a plex server for stuff that isn't stream-able in Canada via other services and backups of documents/downloads/app data for game saves and family souvenir Id like to keep!!

I don't know much about hard drive but I suspect the sata port might be damaged/broken?

I've never heard of a drive that died without symptoms... they usually go balistic with wiery noises or dead silent... can't seem to find anything on that on Google either...
How can I diagnose further? Is there a tell that I can find by opening it? Is there a software that can detect a drive even if it doesn't appear in bios?
If you need more info just ask!

 

[Flamebrander]

Well, the first obvious step would be to take it out of your current system, and manually inspect it for any noticeable damage. Although I doubt that there would be any, this could quickly solve your question. The next step is to plug it in with both SATA and data, then turn on your pc WITHOUT reinstalling the cage, to see if it still spins. If the drive isn't spinning, this isn't a definite sign, but it's most likely broken. If it does spin, though, it's probably some strange software issue that I'm not very sure how to troubleshoot. However, given that it was working then suddenly broke, I'm guessing that it died on you. Nobody likes dead hardware, especially not storage, but it can happen. I'd say if it truly is broken, bring it to a data recovery center and they can extract the important files on it, but you'd have to get a new HDD.

 

[USAFRet]

1 year old...still under warranty.
What does Seagate say about a replacement?

 

[LamortCriss]

1 year old...still under warranty.
What does Seagate say about a replacement?

Trying to save it to recover the data first, having another drive itself is not the current goal, sorry if that wasn't clear.
English is not my first language and after reading through my post again, its kind of vague and confusing ha ha, my bad !

Well, the first obvious step would be to take it out of your current system, and manually inspect it for any noticeable damage. Although I doubt that there would be any, this could quickly solve your question. The next step is to plug it in with both SATA and data, then turn on your pc WITHOUT reinstalling the cage, to see if it still spins. If the drive isn't spinning, this isn't a definite sign, but it's most likely broken. If it does spin, though, it's probably some strange software issue that I'm not very sure how to troubleshoot. However, given that it was working then suddenly broke, I'm guessing that it died on you. Nobody likes dead hardware, especially not storage, but it can happen. I'd say if it truly is broken, bring it to a data recovery center and they can extract the important files on it, but you'd have to get a new HDD.

I did.

hear starting up like it would normally do... not noticeable unless you put your ear on it so its not loud or anything... no clicking, no whining, no bzzt, no grrrr brrr prrr, nothing out of the ordinary what so ever. When I touch it, I can feel it working as it normally would...

That's what I meant there :")

Even tried a USB sleeve/pocket whatever you call it... I hear it spinning/working as normal but nothing in bios/windows.

 

[Flamebrander]

Trying to save it to recover the data first, having another drive itself is not the current goal, sorry if that wasn't clear.
English is not my first language and after reading through my post again, its kind of vague and confusing ha ha, my bad !




I did.

That's what I meant there :")

Even tried a USB sleeve/pocket whatever you call it... I hear it spinning/working as normal but nothing in bios/windows.

Ok well if it still is spinning, then that means that it's working to some extent. The next step is to check if the data is still there with a secondary pc. If you have it, then just plug in your USB sata plug and connect it to a secondary pc. Boot it, and see if it shows up. If it does, then that means that your main system probably just needs a driver update, or bios update. If it doesn't show up, then you have a dead hard drive. There's not much that we can do to fix it, but it's still recoverable data if you go to a data recovery center.

 

[LamortCriss]

Ok well if it still is spinning, then that means that it's working to some extent. The next step is to check if the data is still there with a secondary pc. If you have it, then just plug in your USB sata plug and connect it to a secondary pc. Boot it, and see if it shows up. If it does, then that means that your main system probably just needs a driver update, or bios update. If it doesn't show up, then you have a dead hard drive. There's not much that we can do to fix it, but it's still recoverable data if you go to a data recovery center.

my exact thought, thats why i didnt give up on it right away...

Thank you all for your time, i guess it just died. It's a damn shame.

Off topic -
What do they do in data recovery centers? do they Frankenstein it until they can extract the data or something?

 

[Flamebrander]

my exact thought, thats why i didnt give up on it right away...

Thank you all for your time, i guess it just died. It's a damn shame.

Off topic -
What do they do in data recovery centers? do they Frankenstein it until they can extract the data or something?

no clue i think because how a hard drive works is a spinning disk they extract the disk then copy the etchings of the disk onto a new drive. at least that's what google said lmao

 

[USAFRet]

no clue i think because how a hard drive works is a spinning disk they extract the disk then copy the etchings of the disk onto a new drive. at least that's what google said lmao

"etchings" ?
Yeah, no.

 

[Flamebrander]

"etchings" ?
Yeah, no.

lol not etchings like the written data is stored in a physical format and not a software format, so the data is physically on the disk. That's what they copy.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Remember it’s called magnetic media