What is wrong with this hard drive?

[Paul Byrne]

My friend gave me their PC because it wouldn't bootup. The bootup process isn't recognising the hard drive to boot off of. In BIOS it is not a boot option, it doesn't appear.

When booting up (in either PC that I tried it in) it does 10 consecutive long beeps, about a second between each. It then sounds as if the hdd stops spinning and makes no noise at all.

I moved it into my computer to try and identify the problem. When I booted up my PC with the hdd in, the Windows 8 startup splash screen kept spinning and never booted. I then proceeded to bootup my PC without the hdd in and it began to repair my PC, then try and diagnose the problem, before restoring from an earlier date.

Any ideas? thanks in advance.

 

[Hawkeye22]

It sounds like the the logic board on the drive is toast. Did a power surge or something hit it?

 

[Paul Byrne]

I'd have to ask my friend. Can you explain as to why that would cause a problem in my PC, even if it isn't booting off of that hdd?

 

[Paperdoc]

Whenever any PC boots up, one important function of the process is to check ALL of the devices connected to see that they are working properly and can identify themselves to the BIOS. If any device is faulty, the process will repeatedly ask for a response. If that fails too many times, it will give up. This process is done for ALL devices, not just the designated boot device. But that MAY mean that the system now has a note that there is a faulty device present that needs to be "fixed" in some way, and it MAY even result in a failure to boot. That sequence you observed - many spin-ups each followed by a long beep, then repeat - is a symptom of the drive's being repeatedly asked to start up and identify itself, and failing.

The old PC from your friend, and your own machine, could not recognize the HDD. Hawkeye22 is probably right - the unit has failed completely.

 

[Paul Byrne]

Thanks guys, gave me a logical solution and helped me understand why, very helpful.