[SOLVED] HDD doesn't response after after a while

[geckovic02]

Hi

I have a problem with my HDD:
A few months ago it randomly started doing a somewhat scratching sound every second. This happened mid day and was gone as soon I started opening files on the drive.
Today it looks like it finaly gave up:
When I start the PC (selfbuild pc, drive is from a prebuild from 2011) I can access the file within a minute, before it starts with the sound again. But when I try to access files, the explorer freezes. So basically I have 1 minute time after every startup to load files.
It is a 2tb drive, with around 1tb of occupied space. A lot of which are very important family pictures which I really can't afford to lose. Is there any way to save the drive or atleast transfer all the important files onto my external drive or should I take it to a repair shop?

I have unplugged it temporarily to prevent any more damage.

Appreciating any help

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can you show screenshot from HDtune health ? (with problematic drive connected)
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

If you do not browse contents of the drive, does file explorer still freeze?

 

[geckovic02]

Can you show screenshot from HDtune health ? (with problematic drive connected)
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

If you do not browse contents of the drive, does file explorer still freeze?

No. It's just when I start opening folders/opening files it crashes only the window. Other windows from my ssd are still working.
(Screenshot coming)

 

[geckovic02]

Can you show screenshot from HDtune health ? (with problematic drive connected)
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

If you do not browse contents of the drive, does file explorer still freeze?

Now it still hasn't started the scratching pattern.
Here's the screenshot while it is still behaving normal:

https://imgur.com/a/sjImS24

I'll post another one when it starts doing noises again

EDIT: As soon as it started doing the noise, HDtune froze.
View: https://imgur.com/a/sjImS24

 

[SkyNetRising]

And lower portion of the list from HDtune health?

Anyway - the drive has huge amount of relocated sectors 54400. That's really huge.
It will soon run out of spare sectors.

Basically it's barely alive. Backup and replace.
What is puzzling - hdtune is reporting health as ok. Obviously it is not ok.

 

[geckovic02]

And lower portion of the list from HDtune health?

Anyway - the drive has huge amount of relocated sectors 54400. That's really huge.
It will soon run out of spare sectors.

Basically it's barely alive. Backup and replace.
What is puzzling - hdtune is reporting health as ok. Obviously it is not ok.

The problem is as soon as the scratching noise starts, whatever software, data transfer, etc. is depending on that drive, freezes instantly. So recovering could be a challenge. But thanks for your advice! Ah and the lower half... Already disconnected the drive from the pc. Will be up at some point.

 

[ceplaska]

First of all, you need to contact the service center and because extraneous sounds can be made for a lot of different reasons. The main thing is to make sure that the problem is in the HDD, because sometimes it happens that the power supply is to blame for the problems.

 

[geckovic02]

Ok so it looks like I fixed it:
I never defragmented my HDD since I bought it, so I gave it a try and it worked! I used the PC an entire day, playing games of the drive, etc. It didn't start doing the wierd noise.
I made a backup of everything and decided to continue using it for not important files.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I never defragmented my HDD since I bought it, so I gave it a try and it worked!

Do not ever do defragmenting on a failing drive. That most certainly is going to lead to data loss.

 

[geckovic02]

Do not ever do defragmenting on a failing drive. That most certainly is going to lead to data loss.

So looks like mine was not failing, but was never defragmented since it came with the prebuild back in 2011. It was used pretty heavily. Although it's working now again like a charm, I'm going to replace it with a SSD in the near future.

 

[mdd1963]

One copy of photos is begging for a disaster; move them to free cloud storage ASAP, with GoogleDrive, P-Cloud, Degoo, One Drive, Drop Box, Mega.nz, etc., you can at least have copies in multiple cloud locations. Or, get a 2nd external 2-4 TB USB drive for a whopping $50 on sale....

Never trust just one copy of anything unless you are quite willing to lose it.

 

[popatim]

The drive IS failing. - Look at the Data field for Reallocate Sectors!

 

[geckovic02]

Forgot to say everything important is backed up on an external Hard drive and some things onto my Google drive. Whoops. The only thing I might lose are unimportant games and a lot of clips.
I really appreciate your suggestions btw.
But I still don't get it with the Reallocate sectors. What is that and what can happen if the number gets too high?

 

[USAFRet]

But I still don't get it with the Reallocate sectors. What is that and what can happen if the number gets too high?

The drive has detected failing sectors, and moved that data to elsewhere. Reallocated.
Eventually, the drive runs out of extra places.

Drives never get better over time, only worse.

 

[geckovic02]

The drive has detected failing sectors, and moved that data to elsewhere. Reallocated.
Eventually, the drive runs out of extra places.

Drives never get better over time, only worse.

Can this be because the drive is simply bad or is it just overtime that it gets to that point where it starts to fail?

 

[USAFRet]

Can this be because the drive is simply bad or is it just overtime that it gets to that point where it starts to fail?

All storage devices die eventually. All of them.
Some earlier than others.