Is My Secondary Hard Drive Failing?

[jddg5wa]

My main hard drive won't currently boot up if my secondary hard drive is plugged in. Windows 8 was stuck on the loading screen during the boot stage. I know it cannot be terribly safe but I unplugged the hard drive while the computer was trying to start up, it had been about 5 minutes, and the computer immediately finished booting up.

I plugged the hard drive back in to see if it would show up at least and it shows up fine in My Computer except I cannot do anything. The secondary drive causes Windows Explorer to stop responding, and freeze, whether or not I am trying to accessing that drive. I've never known a hard drive failure to cause Windows Explorer

This confuses me so much. I'm a bit impatient and haven't tried yet switching my boot drive. I have another hard drive that I can boot to and see if my main drive is having conflicting issues. I will report back. Any ideas or suggestions would be extremely helpful.

It's weird because but an hour ago or two ago I was accessing files perfectly fine. I had one issue, had to restart, and then the problem arose.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there jddg5wa.

What was the issue which made you restart your computer? It might be connected to the problem somehow if you started having this issue after that, or at least help explain what's causing the problem.
I'd suggest that you try the problematic drive with another computer to see if the same thing happens. And if it's recognized properly, then go ahead and backup everything important you might have on it. After that I'd recommend that you download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tool and try to test the drive with it, to see if any errors or bad sectors pop-up.
This could also be cause by a faulty SATA cable or SATA port, so if you don't have the option to try the drive with a different computer, at least try switching it to a different SATA port and use a different SATA cable. You could always try connecting it externally as well, via a SATA to USB cable, external enclosure or a docking station, to see if the same thing happens and if you can recover your data.
Another option for data recovery would be, trying to access the drive via Linux Live CD/USB and see if the HDD is accessible this way, or try some of the data recovery programs for this thread: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html
Remember that backing up your data is first priority and diagnostic tools and HDD tests are second, because if there's a physical issue with the drive, it may get worse while scanning it and this might make data recovery even harder.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[jddg5wa]

Hey there jddg5wa.

What was the issue which made you restart your computer?

I'm not entirely sure what the cause was for the problem of my restart I just know a program that I was using froze so I restarted it. While restarting that program couldn't access it's cache to start. The cache is located on the drive in question. So I tried to check out that drive and windows explorer froze and task manager. I could still access the Internet.

I'm trying with an alternative boot drive and I will try with a different sata port. Thanks for the suggestions.

I should say a couple of days ago I ran into a similar, but different issue where everything froze up and when I restarted that drive showed up as a disk drive. Although I turned off the computer, checked cables, re plugged it back in, and everything seemed to work fine. Although the disk drive still shows up, alongside the drive in question, in My Computer even now.

Update: Nothing has worked. I used an alternate boot disk and the same errors happened. At one point the drive wasn't even found. I plugged the drive into an external dock and it didn't show up in My Computer. Disk Management said the disk was offline and I couldn't do anything.

On my main boot disk this is how the drive shows up, volume E:

I can't run check disk or Recuva to try and get the files. I guess the last resort is to try the linux boot suggestion. I really hope that works. I'm sure the files are still there. I saw them just last night. I haven't formatted the drive or tried to write anything to it.

Anyone care to explain why I might be able to see the files on Linux without any luck on windows?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

It really sounds like the drive is not in a good condition. Sometimes when there's corrupted data/partition this might mess up the File System for Windows and it might not be able to recognize it (as it is in your case, where it is seen as "RAW"), even though the data is actually still there. This is what happens when you reformat a hard drive. Your old data is still there although the OS sees the drive as empty and when you write new data, it basically overwrites the old one. With Linux, there's a chance that the File System might be recognized properly and enable you to recover the files, which is what we're hoping would happen. Note that there's a great chance that this might not work, especially if the drive is physically damaged and this is the reason for the issue. Your most reliable data recovery option remains a professional solution, such as a data recovery company.
For now, there's not much left to do, except hope for the best with what you have left to try (e.g. Linux Live CD/USB or other data recovery tools). 🙁

Good luck! Fingers crossed!

 

[jddg5wa]

It really sounds like the drive is not in a good condition. Sometimes when there's corrupted data/partition this might mess up the File System for Windows and it might not be able to recognize it (as it is in your case, where it is seen as "RAW"), even though the data is actually still there. This is what happens when you reformat a hard drive. Your old data is still there although the OS sees the drive as empty and when you write new data, it basically overwrites the old one. With Linux, there's a chance that the File System might be recognized properly and enable you to recover the files, which is what we're hoping would happen. Note that there's a great chance that this might not work, especially if the drive is physically damaged and this is the reason for the issue. Your most reliable data recovery option remains a professional solution, such as a data recovery company.
For now, there's not much left to do, except hope for the best with what you have left to try (e.g. Linux Live CD/USB or other data recovery tools). 🙁

Good luck! Fingers crossed!

So I have booted to a Ubuntu USB and it Seems like all the files are there. Although I am still having a bit of trouble actually accessing them. Ubuntu first had trouble mounting the drive as it said the drive was in a unsafe condition. So I mounted it as read only for now just to see if the files are there. Ubuntu also told me I didn't have permission to access the files so I am changing that. I am not sure if these permission errors are to do with being on a USB boot.

Anyways good signs are that in the process of changing permissions the terminal has been naming off all the files on the disk; all my files are there. Plus in the first error message it said the drive type was NTFS and that an accurate 2.5 terrabytes are used instead of the totally empty hard drive that windows was reading.

Thanks again for the suggestion of Linux. It is getting close. Although if all the files are there I need to figure out how I can mount the drive despite the error message that Ubuntu gives about the drive being in an unsafe state. Any suggestions?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

That's at least some good news. If you're not able to recover your data now, try the second answer's offered solution from this thread: http://askubuntu.com/questions/439634/unable-to-mount-ntfs-hard-drive-partition-the-disk-contains-an-unclean-file-sys. This might help you mount the drive and begin backing up everything.

 

[jddg5wa]

That's at least some good news. If you're not able to recover your data now, try the second answer's offered solution from this thread: http://askubuntu.com/questions/439634/unable-to-mount-ntfs-hard-drive-partition-the-disk-contains-an-unclean-file-sys. This might help you mount the drive and begin backing up everything.

Thanks, So I tried to run that and it fails due to permissions error. I ended up installing Ubuntu to another disk to see if that would work and I have the same problem.

I can't even mount read only anymore as it asks for me to specify the filetype but I haven't found anyway to do so.

I did see through ubuntu's smart data and self tests that the "disk is ok, 1 bad sector". Not sure what to do t this point. I've done a lot of searching and can't find anything that works.

I'm curious to know, you mentioned professional data recovery companies, were there any data recovery companies you might suggest if I decide to go that route?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Unfortunately, I can't recommend any specific data recovery company. However, most of the HDD manufacturers either offer data recovery services themselves or have partners which they recommend for that type of thing. As a Western Digital representative, I can only offer you this link: WD Data Recovery Partners. If the drive is another brand, I'm afraid you'll have to take a look at the manufacturer's website or contact their customer support to ask about that.
If the problem is only a corrupted partition, if I were you, I'd still try some other data recovery programs or partition recovery software, just in case.

 

[fzabkar]

@jddg5wa, what is the model number of your drive?

Some drives become slow or unresponsive when they start to develop media problems. In many cases you can disable retries and reallocation by setting some flags in the firmware. This enables you to clone the drive and recover your data, after which the drive should be retired from service. The actual approach would depend on the model.

 

[jddg5wa]

@jddg5wa, what is the model number of your drive?

Some drives become slow or unresponsive when they start to develop media problems. In many cases you can disable retries and reallocation by setting some flags in the firmware. This enables you to clone the drive and recover your data, after which the drive should be retired from service. The actual approach would depend on the model.

It does sound like that, the drive becoming slow/unresponsive. I managed to get the drive to where windows could see the files and I grabbed the most important files off. Although while moving some less important files it went back to not working. It would start to transfer files and then slow down to something like 300kbps and then freeze. Although if I can still grab the rest of the files off I would like that.

Model Num: ST3000DM001

Also what is a media problem? I have not heard the term before, related to hard drives.

 

[fzabkar]

Seagate drives are afflicted with a "pending bug". When they strike a bad sector, they get bogged down for so long that the drive remains busy and goes offline. There are tricks that allow you to disable this behaviour in some models. You would then use a tool such as ddrescue to clone your drive. Ddrescue maintains a log so that it can continue after an interruption.

Your model differs from the ones in the following thread, but you will probably see similar "InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest" errors via the drive's serial terminal.

Bypass InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest on F3 Arch:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=557

You need a USB-TTL adapter, or similar, to see the diagnostic information. There are plenty of discussions on the subject at the HDD Oracle forum. Don't be tempted to issue any commands that are not pertinent to your model. For example, don't apply the "7200.11" fix.

 

[jddg5wa]

Seagate drives are afflicted with a "pending bug". When they strike a bad sector, they get bogged down for so long that the drive remains busy and goes offline. There are tricks that allow you to disable this behaviour in some models. You would then use a tool such as ddrescue to clone your drive. Ddrescue maintains a log so that it can continue after an interruption.

Your model differs from the ones in the following thread, but you will probably see similar "InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest" errors via the drive's serial terminal.

Bypass InitiateMarkPendingReallocateRequest on F3 Arch:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=557

How do I found out those tricks? This is something so new to me I wouldn't even know what to search for. You linked errors/commands but I have no idea what to do with them.

You need a USB-TTL adapter, or similar, to see the diagnostic information. There are plenty of discussions on the subject at the HDD Oracle forum. Don't be tempted to issue any commands that are not pertinent to your model. For example, don't apply the "7200.11" fix.

What's similar to USB-TTL? As in I have a seagate external hard drive with a usb dock. Could I use that? Also how do I know which commands are for my model or not?

I hope you don't mind all the questions. This subject is extremely new to me.

Edit: I've just realized there are 4 little pins next to the sata port. Is that what the USB-TTL would hook up to? So if I wanted to look up a guide on this, research how to do this, what might I search? I'm not entirely sure what I am trying to accomplish except disabling .

 

[fzabkar]

Yes, those 4 pins are used for the serial diagnostic link. There are detailed tutorials at the HDD Oracle forum, plus some data recovery people who may be able to help you further.

http://www.hddoracle.com

Don't issue any commands -- just observe the output.