My HDD is sometimes detected by the motherboard and when it is detected it doesn't stay very long

[IamSamir]

Hello everyone!

Around a month ago my Windows 10 started having BSOD all the time to the point I couldn't boot it. After asking for help at the Microsoft forums and receiving multiple standard answers that didn't help at all I decided to install Ubuntu 16.04 via a Live CD my friend had. Using the Try option I managed to access the HDD files and backup all of my personal files to a pen drive, after that I formatted the HDD and installed Ubuntu. Everything was fine for about 2 weeks and then all went wrong.
I had left the computer alone for 10 minutes and when I came back only the mouse pointer was working, I couldn't click at anything or use the keyboard to do CTRL+ALT+T and then sudo reboot, so I rebooted the computer via the button but Ubuntu didn't boot and the motherboard showed a message saying: "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press key". I rebooted again and pressed F11 to get to the BIOS screen, once there the only boot option available was my CD optical drive. I opened my computer and changed all my cables for new ones. I turned on my computer entered the BIOS screen and there it was the option to boot ubuntu. I selected it and the booting was doing all right but when I got to the main screen I couldn't open any program and when I did CTRL+ALT+T, nothing happened. I could use the top bar buttons and from there I rebooted the computer.
A few days have gone by of rebooting and the motherboard sometimes recognising the HDD but never working for more than 5 minutes and I decided to seek help here. Does anyone have any idea of what I should do?

I have an ASROCK Z87 Extreme 4 motherboard, a Seagate Barracuda 1000TB HDD and my OS is the Ubuntu Gnome 16.04

Extra Information:
I tried using the CD with the motherboard drivers that came with the motherboard to re-install, or at least attempt to, but it said that the drivers in the CD aren't meant for my motherboard.
I've lost my pendrive with my personal files so I refuse to attempt to re-install Ubuntu and lose all my files. I need at least a way to get them back.

Any idea is appreciated and very important.

Thanks everyone and sorry for the long story but I think it is important to better understand the problem.

Should I also seek help in the Ubuntu and Linux forums?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the TH Community, @Samir!

From the description of your issue, I'd assume that the problem could most probably be caused by a failed connectivity to your HDD. If you haven't tried this already, I'd advise you to swap the SATA cable and the SATA port on the mobo where the hard drive is connected to check if it will be properly recognized afterwards. I'd also recommend you go to your motherboard manufacturer's official website and make sure you got the latest BIOS version. If you have access to another working PC, try plugging your hard drive there as a secondary HDD and see how it will get detected. If you are able to recognize it, I'd advise you to run its brand-specific diagnostic tool to determine its health and SMART status.

However, I'd definitely start with the connections troubleshooting.
Let me know how it goes & good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[IamSamir]

Welcome to the TH Community, @Samir!

From the description of your issue, I'd assume that the problem could most probably be caused by a failed connectivity to your HDD. If you haven't tried this already, I'd advise you to swap the SATA cable and the SATA port on the mobo where the hard drive is connected to check if it will be properly recognized afterwards. I'd also recommend you go to your motherboard manufacturer's official website and make sure you got the latest BIOS version. If you have access to another working PC, try plugging your hard drive there as a secondary HDD and see how it will get detected. If you are able to recognize it, I'd advise you to run its brand-specific diagnostic tool to determine its health and SMART status.

However, I'd definitely start with the connections troubleshooting.
Let me know how it goes & good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

Hi, I swapped the SATA cables many times but the results were always the same but during one of the failed ubuntu boots I got a message saying exactly this: "error: failure reading sector 0x461c5800 from `hd0'.
Press any key to continue..."
I pressed many keys but nothing happened for fifteen minutes so I decided to turn off the computer.

 

[IamSamir]

I've just managed to run $ "sudo badblocks -v -s /dev/sda2 > badblocks.log" from my live CD and the results will come probably in 16 and a half hours. For those who don't understand about linux it means it is checking, in write mode only, for badblocks in /dev/sda2.
UPDATE: 10.58% of dev/sda2 have been checked and 226/0/0 errors were found. I don't know if that is because my HDD isn't being detected or if they are real errors unfortunatly...

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, @Samir!

I'm afraid that the HDD could be also physically damaged somehow (hardware corruption). I suppose that not being able to keep it connected for long enough and the fact that it takes so long for your Live CD's diagnostics to execute, there could be something really wrong with the connector on the HDD. If you do have important files on it, try to retrieve them with the live CD, otherwise, I'd definitely consider a professional data recovery company.
I'd also advise you to check the warranty on the HDD, if it's still covered by the reseller's or the manufacturer's limited warranty, you should be able to RMA it and get a replacement from them.

Keep me posted, though.
SuperSoph_WD