SATA HDD DEAD because of unfinished format?

[gilead7]

A friend gave me a 500gig sata hdd which had some recovery stuff on it. For some reason, I couldn't delete anything off of it so I was going to reformat it. In my impatience, I was also installing software for my sound card, which I had to remove in order to put the hdd in. Software finished and decided to reboot during the formatting process.

I tried to reformat it in both hiren rescue disk and a live CD of linux. When I connect the 500 hdd to my system, windows hangs during start up. Thankfully I can simply unplug it and use my current, but I need the space desperately. Anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks!

 

[andrewjcole]

Please give more details. Are you able to plug it in while Windows is already running? Can you even view the files? If not, feel if there is a vibration in the hard drive since it's an HDD and has moving parts in it when running. If you can't feel anything moving, your HDD is likely finished.

Also, have you tried these steps to format? http://www.overclock.net/t/1227647/how-to-initialize-and-format-a-new-disk-for-use-in-windows

 

[gilead7]

Please give more details. Are you able to plug it in while Windows is already running? Can you even view the files? If not, feel if there is a vibration in the hard drive since it's an HDD and has moving parts in it when running. If you can't feel anything moving, your HDD is likely finished.

Also, have you tried these steps to format? http://www.overclock.net/t/1227647/how-to-initialize-and-format-a-new-disk-for-use-in-windows

As far as I know it's not 'hot-swappable' so I can't put it in while windows is running.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there gilead7,

First of all, you need to attach the HDD before booting up your system.
As your system can't boot up properly when the HDD is attached, you have two options.
1st one: You can use some HDD testing utility for DOS in order to check out health status. You can try to use some DOS tool to write zeros as well.
2nd one: Attach the HDD externally via SATA to USB adapted(in case the HDD is 3.5'', you will need power source as well).

Also, my guess would be that the HDD did not fail due to interrupted formatting process. Most probably, it was not healthy on the first place(when you got it).

Cheers,
D_Know_WD