Not booting & HDD only detected 30% of the time.

[aurealis5]

I'll try to keep it short and simple. My computer has been completely fine for the past 4 years.

Parts received & computer assembled: June 2012
Edit) The model of my HDD is Seagate 2TB Desktop HDD SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive (ST2000DM001).

I usually let my computer idle overnight because it runs code and such. Today morning I woke up to a blue screen, didn't think much of it - and rebooted my computer.

It succeeded in booting up into Windows, but nothing worked. I restarted my computer, got a disk read error - and now I have not been able to even boot up Safe Mode.

The BIOS only detects my Seagate 2TB HDD only about 30% of the time (tried it 6 times so far.)

At the moment I'm fearing HDD failure, but I also have suspicion that my SATA connection with the motherboard might be faulty. Since my SATA cable is rather crunched up between the mobo and the case, I am going to try to find a straight 180-degree SATA cable to use the 2nd SATA port which I have not touched since 2012. Otherwise, I think the HDD may be indeed dying due to the progression with which my HDD seems to have died.

It's all happened in less than 6 hours, and I refuse to boot the computer until I have a solid idea of what I'm going to do next.

I have read suggestions such as booting off Linux on a USB stick to check if my HDD contents are readable. I will do that in a few days when I get my hands on a USB that's bigger than 2GB.

Until then, I come to you guys for suggestions and help.

Do these signs sound like my HDD is dying, or do you guys think it might have something to do with my motherboard as well? My CD-Drive is being detected 100%, just the HDD is having problems.

The data on the HDD is pretty important to me and I have not backed them up but.. I'll have to do if I have to get a new HDD. I can't afford to spend $300+ on data recovery.

Anyways let me know what you guys think, and sorry for the long post. Cheers.

 

[DillonJ3K]

Well theres a few quick ways of telling if its failing or not. to name a few, Is it making any odd noises? That's usually a good sign something is wrong inside.
Switch to a diff sata port to see if its the port on the mobo. Use a different sata cable to see if its the cable. Reconnect the sata cable your currently using to see if its a loose connection. Take the hdd out an try it in an other pc. if its not making any odd noises then its probably a logical failure. if it is making odd sounds then itll be a mechanical failure.
Also, is the drive spinning up every time you turn the pc on? if not then the drive could not be getting enough power, faulty wire, power supply, loose connection.
Also the average lifespan for an HDD is 4 years.

 

[aurealis5]

No odd noises, same silence as before.

Different SATA port - will do. (My motherboard is really close though, so I need to get a new 180-degree SATA cable.)
Different SATA cable - will do. Need to get a 180-degree one.
Reconnected SATA cable - already tried.
Taking out HDD to use on a different PC - will do. (But will probably just use Linux on a USB to see if I can browse the HDD from there.)

And on the subject of the HDD average lifespan, I should have expected that and backed up my data. I totally forgot the last time I bought parts for a computer was in 2012. Time flies.



All in all, it really sucks because I have no idea what the actual problem is, and I have to spend extra money on a new SATA-cable, and a USB stick to CHECK if it's my HDD or not. And if it is indeed the HDD after all that, I have to spend EXTRA on the HDD.

But if I ignore all of those troubleshooting tactics and just straight up buy a whole new HDD, and if it turns out that it WASN'T the HDD, then I will ALSO have wasted money and time. Sigh.

 

[DillonJ3K]

No odd noises, same silence as before.

Different SATA port - will do. (My motherboard is really close though, so I need to get a new 180-degree SATA cable.)
Different SATA cable - will do. Need to get a 180-degree one.
Reconnected SATA cable - already tried.
Taking out HDD to use on a different PC - will do. (But will probably just use Linux on a USB to see if I can browse the HDD from there.)

And on the subject of the HDD average lifespan, I should have expected that and backed up my data. I totally forgot the last time I bought parts for a computer was in 2012. Time flies.



All in all, it really sucks because I have no idea what the actual problem is, and I have to spend extra money on a new SATA-cable, and a USB stick to CHECK if it's my HDD or not. And if it is indeed the HDD after all that, I have to spend EXTRA on the HDD.

But if I ignore all of those troubleshooting tactics and just straight up buy a whole new HDD, and if it turns out that it WASN'T the HDD, then I will ALSO have wasted money and time. Sigh.

On that note, sata cables are really cheap. You can find for easily under 10$. And HDDs are really cheap as well these days. Though id reccomend buying an using SSD this time if you do buy a new drive. They last a lot longer an have way lower failure rates then HDDs.

 

[aurealis5]

I didn't even think about buying an SSD. I'll take that into consideration. The longer lifespan sounds very appealing.

And I think I will get an external back-up HDD as well. I learned my lesson. And even IF my HDD isn't dead, I'm still getting a SSD now.

 

[DillonJ3K]

Added bonus of ssd, Faster boot time an access time for whatever you have on it.
My personal rig has a ssd as the main drive, with a backup hdd for bulk media an incase the ssd was to for some ungodly reason die.

 

[aurealis5]

Update.

Tried using the SAME cable but instead tried using one of the SATA 3GB ports instead of the SATA 6GB ports.

It detected the hard drive, and got to the Starting Windows screen.. and then the computer restarted itself and after that it wasn't detected anymore.

So now I'm thinking it's not a PORT problem - that seems to be ruled out. So now I think we're down to either a CABLE problem, or a HDD problem. Don't think it's a motherboard, or PSU problem.

 

[DillonJ3K]

do you not have another sata 6gb port on your mobo>?
And as long as the drive is spinning up each time your turn the pc on, its not a power issue.

 

[aurealis5]

I have two SATA 6GB ports and two SATA 3GB ports. I can't use the other SATA 6GB port because it's way too close to the computer case. Almost 100% certain the HDD is the problem now..

 

[DillonJ3K]

From what I can tell, Your Drive has failed. More so a logical failure since its not making any disturbing or odd sounds. The data on a drive thats had a logical failure can most of the time be extracted without having to open up the drive. Air go its usually cheaper to fix then a mechanical failure if you want to go that route. All in all youll need a new drive or two. Id reccomend an SSD this time around with a hdd backup. Or an SSD backup if you have enough cash for that.

 

[aurealis5]

Update to anyone who can help.

I put Hiren's BootCD onto a USB stick and booted into Mini Windows XP from there to check for bad sectors.

The first time I booted up with BootCD, the BIOS didn't detected the HDD but BootCD was able to see my HDD (E.
I tried to browse the folders a bit to see if I can start backing things up but it was VERY slow so I had to stop it.
Also, when I tried to run the bad sectors test for my E: drive (HDD), it didn't do anything.

I restarted the computer and booted into Hiren's BootCD for the 2nd time AFTER changing my SATA options from AHCI to IDE (apparently this helps Hiren's BootCD recognize the drive) but now Hiren's BootCD just doesn't even know the HDD is there anymore.

I'm so confused, please help. Is my HDD just that dead?

 

[DillonJ3K]

It sounds pretty dead to me.