Urgent: HDD failing, what steps should I take?

[evtimovmartin12]

My 3TB Seagate Barracuda that I use as a storage drive has been acting up the past week or so. Randomly, it would demount and only reappear on hard restart. Now, though, it has given me an almost definite mark of death by repeatedly parking the head making a beeping noise. I'm not sure if it's a software/firmware issues or if there's actual damage to the heads or platters.

Half an hour ago, it caused windows explorer to keep crashing whenever I right clicked, so I did another hard reboot. When that was done, it came tothe windows startup screen, completed the animation very slowly and never booted. I hit the reset button and it prompted me to do a startup repair. Startup repair is still going as we speak.

I'm not sure how a storage drive can cause such a big problem to a system running off of a different drive. Can anyone explain why I'm having such issues?

My big question is, what should I do now that I'm not sure I can get the pc to boot up again? Would making an image of the storage disk bring over all of its problems?

I'm really frustrated as I didn't skimp on any parts of my build, and I'm flustered at what to do next. Any help would be very much appreciated.

EDIT: Unplugging the drive allows the boot to get up to preparing to configure updates. After plugging it back in, starting in safe mode hangs. Even more confused.

EDIT 2: I was able to restore to a point before the update. I'm now able to use my computer with the storage drive unplugged. Any help in getting the data off the drive would be appreciated.

EDIT 3: My C: drive is working properly now, however the system gets caught in a reboot loop while applying updates. I'm assuming that this was due to the multiple failed boots while the storage drive was connected. Anyone know how I can get my system to be stable again so I can rip the data off the old drive?

 

[vesp3r]

if its possible for you get this HDD to USB adapter and try to get your data off from your storage drive
btw does it dismount more often if it works for some time or if its cool/cold
i know when "clicking of death" appears you usually cool your drive and connect it to the pc as fast as possible so it wont stuck. I would also recommend using cmd to copy the files or even 3rd party soft that will do that w/o entering the drive

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, Martin!

Unfortunately, it seems like you are dealing with an internal damage! 🙁 The best thing to do is to backup the data from the HDD ASAP if you can still access it.
There's no way you can fix this issue by yourself. Better contact your hard drive manufacturer's tech support either by phone or e-mail and let them know about this. If your drive is still within the warranty period, you should be able to get a replacement product.

Good luck! Let me know if you have further questions!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[evtimovmartin12]

I'm still experiencing problems. Can anyone help me get my system stable so I can get the data off of this drive? I've unplugged it to avoid doing more damage, but I'm clueless on how to proceed.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hi again!

You could try using a SATA-to-USB adapter as @vesp3r suggested or a dock station to access the drive.
You could also burn a Ubuntu live CD to try and recover the data or use a third-party software.
( http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/ )
Check this thread for other software utility ideas: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/291895-32-best-data-recovery-software

Hope this helps! Keep us posted!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[evtimovmartin12]

Hi again!

You could try using a SATA-to-USB adapter as @vesp3r suggested or a dock station to access the drive.
You could also burn a Ubuntu live CD to try and recover the data or use a third-party software.
( http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/ )
Check this thread for other software utility ideas: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/291895-32-best-data-recovery-software

Hope this helps! Keep us posted!
SuperSoph_WD

I called Seagate today and the representative graced me with a miracle 30-day extension on my warranty. The RMA ticket is up and running, but I need to get the data off my drive before sending it. I have ordered one of those SATA to USB adapters and will have to wait for it to be delivered.

In the mean time, my PC has been struggling to recover from the blow of having tons of data severed from the system. However, no vital programs were installed on that disk, so I'm wondering how the C: drive could have suffered so badly from this predicament. It's so bad that my computer will get stuck in an infinite boot loop if I even try to apply a windows update, forcing me to restore from an earlier point.

Also, will I be able to directly copy over everything from my old drive to the new drive and allow it to work with the shortcuts and settings on the C: drive, mitigating some of the problems that are happening right now?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

I called Seagate today and the representative graced me with a miracle 30-day extension on my warranty. The RMA ticket is up and running, but I need to get the data off my drive before sending it. I have ordered one of those SATA to USB adapters and will have to wait for it to be delivered.

In the mean time, my PC has been struggling to recover from the blow of having tons of data severed from the system. However, no vital programs were installed on that disk, so I'm wondering how the C: drive could have suffered so badly from this predicament. It's so bad that my computer will get stuck in an infinite boot loop if I even try to apply a windows update, forcing me to restore from an earlier point.

Also, will I be able to directly copy over everything from my old drive to the new drive and allow it to work with the shortcuts and settings on the C: drive, mitigating some of the problems that are happening right now?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Good job, getting your RMA ticket!
Copy only the files that aren't damaged. Hopefully the SATA-to-USB adapter will work and you will be able to access them. You'd be able to clone all the info on the drive as well, but it would clone/transfer the damaged sectors on your new drive as well. In order to avoid such predicaments in the future, I recommend regular backups of the data on multiple locations.
However, the failure on your storage HDD should not affect your booting drive like that. From your description, it looks like it might be a software issue as well. Have you considered performing a fresh install of the OS?
It might be a good idea, once the replacement arrives!

SuperSoph_WD

 

[evtimovmartin12]

I called Seagate today and the representative graced me with a miracle 30-day extension on my warranty. The RMA ticket is up and running, but I need to get the data off my drive before sending it. I have ordered one of those SATA to USB adapters and will have to wait for it to be delivered.

In the mean time, my PC has been struggling to recover from the blow of having tons of data severed from the system. However, no vital programs were installed on that disk, so I'm wondering how the C: drive could have suffered so badly from this predicament. It's so bad that my computer will get stuck in an infinite boot loop if I even try to apply a windows update, forcing me to restore from an earlier point.

Also, will I be able to directly copy over everything from my old drive to the new drive and allow it to work with the shortcuts and settings on the C: drive, mitigating some of the problems that are happening right now?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Good job, getting your RMA ticket!
Copy only the files that aren't damaged. Hopefully the SATA-to-USB adapter will work and you will be able to access them. You'd be able to clone all the info on the drive as well, but it would clone/transfer the damaged sectors on your new drive as well. In order to avoid such predicaments in the future, I recommend regular backups of the data on multiple locations.
However, the failure on your storage HDD should not affect your booting drive like that. From your description, it looks like it might be a software issue as well. Have you considered performing a fresh install of the OS?
It might be a good idea, once the replacement arrives!

SuperSoph_WD

So I got a SATA to USB 3 Adapter from Amazon and just bought a WD 3TB external. The external setup went without a hitch, but when I plugged in the dying drive, the controller installed but the disk isn't seen. I went to device manager to look at the controller and it recognizes the drive as the correct drive, and states that it is working properly. However this is obviously not the case. I tried shutting down and powering up, as that used to bring the drive back up, but that only results in an extremely long boot time and still doesn't bring the disk up. At this point, I am feeling very frustrated and clueless. If I could bring the drive up just once, I'd be happy. Any suggestions?

EDIT: EaseUS is coming up with a lost partition with a size of 3.86GB, but found 0 files after scan. On boot, the drive clicks a few times, the BIOS beeps, then the drive seemingly stops spinning. I fear that it may be too late to do anything, and my well-built, $1500 system got totally jacked up in the process. Seagate's website telling me that recovery starts at $599 and could run into the thousands doesn't help. I've contacted a local clean-room service for a quote, but that would leave me with a potentially dead drive AND without warranty. If anyone can help me repair all of this damage, it would be much appreciated. The feeling of dejection is unprecedented.

 

[vesp3r]

have you tryed to access the disk from cmd/diskpart?