Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, 250GB failed

[Eugen Popescu]

Hello,

I have an older computer with a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard disk on S-ATA and today I installed windows 8 on it..but, I didn't find some drivers so I got back to windows 7 which was previously on the computer..after windows 7 install, when the computer restarted..it freezed and when I tried to go to BIOS it freezed again, so I made the picture below.

I tried to connect the hard disk to another working computer..but I've encountered the same behaviour.

I don't know what to do..I would like to recover the drive if it's possible, or at least know what is the problem.

Thank you very much.

 

[Alec Mowat]

Sounds like the drive is dying

HD's typically only last 5 years. That's the problem with old hardware.

I'd unplug everything, including the drives, and see if it still hangs. You'll know if it's anything attached to the computer at that point.

 

[ArtPog]

I would guess that it's highly unlikely that you're dealing with a defective HDD. If you want to check further use Seagate's SeaTool diagnostic to verify.

It's conceivable that the disk's data has become corrupted. My advice would be to use Disk Management to delete the disk's volume and create & format another volume. Then try another fresh install of the Win 7 OS. At least try all this for a start.

 

[Eugen Popescu]

Sounds like the drive is dying

HD's typically only last 5 years. That's the problem with old hardware.

I'd unplug everything, including the drives, and see if it still hangs. You'll know if it's anything attached to the computer at that point.

I would guess that it's highly unlikely that you're dealing with a defective HDD. If you want to check further use Seagate's SeaTool diagnostic to verify.

It's conceivable that the disk's data has become corrupted. My advice would be to use Disk Management to delete the disk's volume and create & format another volume. Then try another fresh install of the Win 7 OS. At least try all this for a start.

@Alec Mowat

I tried connecting it to another working computer..and each time, that computer hanged..but after I removed the hard disk, it worked perfectly..so I guess the hard disk has a problem.

@ ArtPog

I can't acces windows with this hard disk connected..so, I don't think I can use any tools..

 

[Alec Mowat]

If it boots without the disk attached, there's something wrong with reading the disk that's causing the system to hang. You could try an external USB enclosure and see if you can read it that way.

 

[ArtPog]

Eugen:
When you connected the problem HDD to another working computer are you certain that the system was booting to the boot drive that was already installed in that PC and NOT to the problem HDD?

If the boot was to the correct boot drive, it is true that in many instances a system will refuse to boot if a defective secondary HDD has been installed. We've come upon this anomaly a number of times. So it is possible that you're dealing with a defective disk. Anyway try the Seagate SeaTools diagnostic and see if that program can detect the disk and if so, what are the results.

 

[Eugen Popescu]

If it boots without the disk attached, there's something wrong with reading the disk that's causing the system to hang. You could try an external USB enclosure and see if you can read it that way.

Eugen:
When you connected the problem HDD to another working computer are you certain that the system was booting to the boot drive that was already installed in that PC and NOT to the problem HDD?

If the boot was to the correct boot drive, it is true that in many instances a system will refuse to boot if a defective secondary HDD has been installed. We've come upon this anomaly a number of times. So it is possible that you're dealing with a defective disk. Anyway try the Seagate SeaTools diagnostic and see if that program can detect the disk and if so, what are the results.

@Alec Mowat
I will try that, yes..maybe is from the firmware and I could fix it.

@ArtPog
When I connected the problem HDD to the working computer it blocked that too..after I removed it..the computer worked fine. I will try to put it in a HDD Rack and from there I'll try to run SeaTools..and maybe it will work.

 

[ArtPog]

Alec:
First of all the "firmware" is not the problem I can assure you.

Good that you're planning to use the Seagate HDD diagnostic tool but I'm not quite sure what you mean about "put(ting) it in a HDD Rack". SeaTools has a bootable CD version which you can use...
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/seatools-dos-master/
So just connect the disk to the PC and boot to the CD. If SeaTools doesn't detect the disk it's reasonable to conclude it's defective.

 

[Alec Mowat]

If it boots without the disk attached, there's something wrong with reading the disk that's causing the system to hang. You could try an external USB enclosure and see if you can read it that way.

Eugen:
When you connected the problem HDD to another working computer are you certain that the system was booting to the boot drive that was already installed in that PC and NOT to the problem HDD?

If the boot was to the correct boot drive, it is true that in many instances a system will refuse to boot if a defective secondary HDD has been installed. We've come upon this anomaly a number of times. So it is possible that you're dealing with a defective disk. Anyway try the Seagate SeaTools diagnostic and see if that program can detect the disk and if so, what are the results.

@Alec Mowat
I will try that, yes..maybe is from the firmware and I could fix it.

@ArtPog
When I connected the problem HDD to the working computer it blocked that too..after I removed it..the computer worked fine. I will try to put it in a HDD Rack and from there I'll try to run SeaTools..and maybe it will work.

If an HDD to damaged, it's generally mechanically broken.

There's a chance it's not connected right, but if your BIOS is hanging before it even tries to load the disk (before it tries to boot from a CD, or tries to load windows) that means it can't read the disk at all.
It's not failing to find the boot sector, it's failing to read the disk period.
If your second computer is hanging at the same point (in the BIOS), then that disk is most likely failed

If you use a external USB enclosure, you could connect the disk after Windows loads on the second computer and run diagnostics from there (assuming it doesn't hang Windows when you plug it in).

If it's hanging while Windows is trying to load, it could be your RAM is bad, or one of the drivers is hanging. Try booting into Safemode in that situation.

 

[fzabkar]

Seagate drives have a serial diagnostic port. A terminal log may shine some light on the actual problem.

Guide - Using a TTL adaptor to check a Seagate PCB:
http://malthus.mooo.com/viewtopic.php?t=1073&p=4875#p4875
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?t=1073&p=4875#p4875