Is he dead? (new hdd being recognized as unknown, cannot be partition or read)

[Stryker99909]

I just built a new computer and luckily enough the only hardware thats been dead thus far is one stick of ram. My computer, being how new it is, was running quite slow for my tastes. I assumed this was caused by the ram problem i have had. I later had the issue of steam which was installed on the drive not showing up whenever id launch or uninstall it (after i closed it from the original time and it crashed). I then attempted to move my old steam install folder over only for the process to stop working after a while. Now i turn on, my computer, go to diskmanager, and i cant even set up a partition because it is now recognized as having 0 gigabytes of storage, same story with disk part.


Did it die while i was using it? Computer is much faster and less crashy now.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Stryker99909.

It does sound like your drive is having issues indeed. If you don't have valuable data on it you can proceed with troubleshooting. Give it a try with a different SATA port and cables, or even better - with a different computer, to see if it's properly recognized. You should also download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tool to test it for errors and bad sectors and see if anything alarming shows up.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Stryker99909]

Ok ill be sure to try it

 

[Stryker99909]

OK well i attempted to use the HGST software and it wouldn't even detect my new drive. I'm just gonna rma it.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well if the problem is a faulty connection, you might not need to RMA it just yet. So that's why I've suggested to to try it out with a different SATA port and different cables, to see if the issue still persists. You could also double-check the drive with a 3rd party tool as well, to see if it recognizes the HDD: https://www.lifewire.com/free-hard-drive-testing-programs-2626183.

If you have no luck after trying out those suggestions, then go ahead and RMA it.

 

[Stryker99909]

Well I turned on the computer this evening and it seems to work. I'm just gonna keep an eye on it and see what happens.

 

[mjslakeridge]

If it is working intermittently, it would suggest to me a loose connection or faulty sata or power cable.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Yup, sounds like it. Since it's working now, while you still have the chance, backup any important data which you might have written on the drive and try testing it again, to see what happens. And if anything alarming shows up, please let us know and don't trust it with data you can't afford to lose until you're completely sure that the HDD is in good condition.

 

[Stryker99909]

Yup, sounds like it. Since it's working now, while you still have the chance, backup any important data which you might have written on the drive and try testing it again, to see what happens. And if anything alarming shows up, please let us know and don't trust it with data you can't afford to lose until you're completely sure that the HDD is in good condition.

Luckily enough it is a new drive and I didn't lose anything.

I'm gonna do some stress testing later hopefully it's just a driver issue or something