[SOLVED] HDD Failure, possible to recover data?

Aug 22, 2021
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Hello All,

Upon starting a computer I got a reboot and select proper boot device. My HDD was not showing up in BIOS so I removed it and put it in a thermaltake blacx adapter and plugged it in to a laptop. I get the device connected ding, but the drive wouldn't show up in Windows Explorer.

I poked around the web and ended up downloading AOMEI partition assistant, and for the disk it shows unknown disk unreadable, and also basic MBR 0.00kb. The drive is a 1.5TB drive, but it's showing 0.

Is this drive fried or do I need to rebuild MBR to get anything to show back up?

TIA

Side note, I know close to nothing about computer internals
 
Solution
When a drive powers up, it loads its firmware, first from the "ROM" chip on the PCB, and then from a reserved firmware area (System Area, SA) on the platters. Often when there is a head problem, the SA becomes inaccessible, so the drive either doesn't come ready, or it reports a bogus capacity or model number.

If CrystalDiskInfo cannot retrieve a SMART report (which exists in the SA), then this would tend to confirm a head/media/firmware fault.,

JWNoctis

Respectable
Jun 9, 2021
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Yes, I'm afraid it's dead.

There are data recovery services available, but those are too expensive to justify for most.

The only good solution for most is preventive: A good backup habit that turns the once-per-few-year storage media failure into a once-per-lifetime double or triple failure of a common cause i.e. theft, accidental overwrite, or existential crisis of any flavour.
 
Aug 22, 2021
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saloyo, I'm not sure if any of your fixes other than #3 are viable. The disk doesn't show up in windows explorer, so I can't rename it, and I don't think I can run chkdsk on it, as the computer is not recognizing it.
 
Aug 22, 2021
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under disk management, I also see 'you must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it'. Should I do anything with this? Will this maybe make it so that the disk can be recodnized?

FWIW, when I plug the disk into an external adapter, the disk spins.
 
Aug 22, 2021
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Anyone have any other insight here? Even if you think the drive is for sure dead, feel free to just say so so I can move forward if this is the case. Wondering if the fact that the drive spins when I load it means maybe something can be done.

Thanks
 
When a drive powers up, it loads its firmware, first from the "ROM" chip on the PCB, and then from a reserved firmware area (System Area, SA) on the platters. Often when there is a head problem, the SA becomes inaccessible, so the drive either doesn't come ready, or it reports a bogus capacity or model number.

If CrystalDiskInfo cannot retrieve a SMART report (which exists in the SA), then this would tend to confirm a head/media/firmware fault.,
 
Solution
Aug 22, 2021
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fzabkar, can you expand a little bit on CrystalDiskInfo? I know nothing about this or what I need to do to try and generate a report. Pretty much everything you wrote is a foreign language to me.