Question Seagate internal HDD 4TB I/O error - not accessible

[Nickel.28]

Hi,

Since about a week ago I'm not able to access my internal hard drive anymore. It's still listed under "My PC", but it isn't showing the size of the hard drive, nor is it showing its name. If I double click on it, I get the message that the hard drive isn't accessible due to an I/O error.

I did some research on what to do and already tried via command prompt "chkdsk /x /f /r G:" with no problems found. Checked if the latest firmware was installed, which was the case. Checked disk management, where it still shows the correct size (4TB), but here it says the file system is RAW (while all the other drives are NTFS). I also tried to change the letter of the drive, but then I get the error "map name invalid" for every letter I select.

For the moment I'm out of things I can check. I do not have another PC or cable to check if the cable is bad (this can also be the cause I assume?).
Anyone that can help me?

Here you can find the results of the cmd prompt if it is any help:

 

[Ralston18]

Is the data on the drive backed up?

Likely some corruption as occurred on the drive.

Have you tried running Seagate's SeaTools on the drive?

Just remember that anything you do may cause further data loss.

You may need to do a recovery/conversion.

E.g.:

https://www.easeus.com/format-recovery/convert-raw-to-ntfs-windows-10.html

https://www.disk-partition.com/articles/how-to-fix-raw-hard-drive-to-ntfs-3889.html

Do some additional googling and reading to learn more about what is involved and what may be necessary to recover.

And keep checking your post. There may be other ideas and suggestions offered.

 

[Nickel.28]

Hi,
Thanks for your comment. The data on the drive is not backed up, but as far as I remember it only stored some games, so it's not a big loss if I have to format the drive and loose all the data. I checked the age and the hard drive is just under a year old, so it's still in warranty as well.

I tried to run Seagate's SeaTools Bootable software earlier today, but I couldn't select any drive. I'm currently trying out SeaTools for Windows. It can detect the drive, but if you go to "drive information", there is not a lot to see (no serial number or power on hours etc.). I tried a "short generic" test which passed the test. I'm not experienced with this software, so I don't know what I can do further on. However, I did see that I'm not able to run a "S.M.A.R.T. check" nor can I do a "short drive self test" with the drive in question.

I'll do some more research on retrieving my data if I need to format the drive as suggested.

 

[fzabkar]

You can use CrystalDiskInfo to retrieve a SMART report.

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/

 

[mdd1963]

It would indeed be nice to try another SATA data cable to a different port on your mainboard; if no change, it's the drive.

if you don't have anything you need on the drive (as previously stated), you can see if the existing 'mess' (hopefully showing as unallocated space) of space perhaps shows in Admin Tools/storage...

If it's just a glitch, perhaps the existing structure can be deleted, and a quick format have you back in business...

I'd have lost faith in it, however, and, try to anticipate other problems occurring again...

 

[fzabkar]

It seems very strange that the file system checks out OK with CHKDSK but is seen as RAW by Windows. This would imply that CHKDSK and Windows are examining different aspects of the file system.

FWIW, the total disk space and total allocation units amount to 3.958 TB, which implies that 42GB is used by another partition. Is this plausible?

Could we see the Partitions window in DMDE?

https://dmde.com/

 

[Nickel.28]

Just a heads up: I'll try all the above suggestions as soon as I can, but since I'm out for the weekend, I will only be able to give you an answer on Monday (so my apologies for the wait)

 

[Nickel.28]

CristalDiskInfo doesn's seem to work for me. From the moment I want to select the drive I get the I/O error as previously stated and thus cannot get a SMART report.

It's possible that 42 GB from the 3.958 TB is used on the drive, since it did only store a few games (which I now see in the list on the left side of next image). Here is the partitions window in DMDE:

I did a full scan, but as you can see, it's still running. If this has added value, I can add it once it's done.
I also ran on the SeaTools a "Fix all: Long" which said the following (if it's any help):

 

[fzabkar]

You don't need a full scan. You just need to double-click the Games partition and expand the Root.

That said, it appears that you have installed the drive in an external enclosure which is configured with a 4KB sector size, yet your first post states that the drive is internal.

What is the history of the drive? ISTM that you data should be accessible if you connect it directly to a SATA port inside your computer.

Edit:

DMDE is showing that the 4KB sector range is 0 - 966393855. This corresponds to 7731150848 LBAs ( = 966393856 x 8 ).

The IDEMA standard size of a 4TB drive is 7814037168 LBAs (1 LBA = 512 bytes). Therefore ISTM that the capacity of the drive has been truncated.

If the drive is internal, is the BIOS configured for RAID mode? (This is possible, even for a single drive.)

Edit #2:

If the drive is behind a RAID controller, this would explain why CrystalDiskInfo cannot see it.

 

[Nickel.28]

The hard drive is placed in some sort of easy swap bay for hard drives and it seems to share a part of the same SATA data cable with the cache ssd of 16 GB (which still seems to be working fine).

What do you mean with history of the drive? I bought it new last year and it has always been stored in this easy swap bay in my PC with no previous problems.
I have two other SATA data cables, 1 running to my C: and D: drive and 1 to an optical drive. I checked with the data cable of the optical drive and got the same I/O error. Or isn't this cable the same as one running to a hard drive?

Anyway to see if the drive is behind a RAID controller? I have no clue what it is.

Thanks already for your help.

EDIT: this is the root folder in MDME if I'm not mistaken:

 

[fzabkar]

SeaTools is reporting the model number as "Storage Space". This implies that the "easy swap bay" or RAID BIOS is hiding the drive's identity from the OS. Moreover, something is stealing 42GB of capacity.

If you go into your BIOS setup, is the SATA controller configured for AHCI, RAID, or something else?

If you connect your drive directly to a SATA port, can you then see its full capacity, real model number, and file system?

What are the model numbers of the drive and easy swap bay? Which motherboard do you have?

Is the "easy swap bay" just a passive interconnect (ie just cables and connectors), or does it have an electronic backplane (with ICs)?

 

[popatim]

Sounds like the EasySwap bay is using a port multiplier card since two drives are sharing 1 sata cable.

 

[fzabkar]

Sounds like the EasySwap bay is using a port multiplier card since two drives are sharing 1 sata cable.

I was thinking the same thing, but my Google searches didn't turn up anything enlightening. All the "easy swap bays" seemed to be passive interconnects. It might help to see a screenshot of Device Manager.

 

[Nickel.28]

My motherboard is an Acer Predator G3620 if I'm not mistaken. Don't know what the model number is of the easy swap bay, the PC in question is an Acer Aspire Predator G3620 desktop PC if that helps. The model no. of the drive is ST4000DM004.

I can't see any electronic backplane on the easy swap bay, only cables and connectors. I connected the hard drive with the sata cable from my optical drive, but I still can't see it's full capacity or model number etc (so no difference with the easy swap bay sata cable).

The onboard SATA mode is in AHCI.

Can I assume that the drive is dead?