Question I have a HDD that on occasion won't show up when I boot my computer up.

[WizardOfFozz]

I've had the HDD for almost 2 years now, and would hope that it wouldn't be dying already. But, On occasion when I boot up my computer it doesn't even show that it is there, like its not plugged in. Now this happened again today, although today it shows the HDD, although it isn't showing any files. If anyone has had this issue before and knows a fix, that would be amazing! I used the Western Digital Diagnostic Tool, and the test did fail, although it was because the test could not be completed. I tried the extended test as well, but it wouldn't even start because "too many bad sectors detected". I may try and get another SATA cable, and hope that works. if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks In Advance

 

[NightHawkRMX]

If the test is failing due to "too many bad sectors detected" your drive is pretty much dead. If you can get the drive to show up, back up all of files immediately. You may be too late already.

 

[ElectrO_90]

Download and install hard Disk Sentinel
It will give you - in English - what is wrong with the drive if it detects something.
Obviously, the drive needs to be detected in windows for this to initially read it

 

[WizardOfFozz]

Download and install hard Disk Sentinel
It will give you - in English - what is wrong with the drive if it detects something.
Obviously, the drive needs to be detected in windows for this to initially read it

Thank you for suggesting the Hard Disk Sentinel, it unfortunately had some bad news for me. there are 11904 bad sectors on that HDD and it says I will only have about 4 days left of life for the HDD. I was hoping it would be a faulty SATA cable, but its clear that is not the issue. Thanks for the Advice!

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Try to backup your data. Those life estimates are inaccurate but it wont last long. Id advise getting another hdd.

 

[WizardOfFozz]

If the test is failing due to "too many bad sectors detected" your drive is pretty much dead. If you can get the drive to show up, back up all of files immediately. You may be too late already.

Thanks for the response. another guy in the thread suggested using Hard Disk Sentinel because it gives more of a clear answer, and I found that there were 11904 bad sectors, and like 20k weak sectors. which sucks because you were right and its pretty much dead. I was hoping that the SATA cable may have been faulty, but sadly thats not the case. It says I have about 4 days left of life on the HDD. Surprisingly this issue had been going on for months, and I finally got some time to try and fix the issue. I have no need to backup the files because its mostly just games I rarely played, and so now I'm in the market for another HDD. RIP HDD

 

[ElectrO_90]

The time may not be 100% accurate but you can see it is a lot more accurate than other software that just gives random numbers from SMART and if you don't understand them they mean nothing.

You could do something to help get it back by using a program called Low Level Format - it has worked in the past for me, but if you don't mind what you lose, then there is nothing to stop you trying it out.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

On the positive, large capacity hard drives are cheap nowadays. 500gb under $25, 1tb drives are less than $50 ans 2tb less than $75.