Storage Solutions Seagate 1tb seems to be dead

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paraman

Adept
My internal hdd a Seagate 1tb model was my primary drive. Today my pc hung while I was working. So I rebooted and found that the Seagte hdd shows up in BIOS but it cannot boot. I have another internal WD 500gb hdd which I used to boot up my pc. If the Seagate drive is connected even the WD drive takes a long time to boot and after it boots the Seagate drive doesnt show up im My Computer. If I connect only the Seagate drive, during boot I get the error message to insert bootable media. I have already tried 4 different SATA cables so that is not the issue.

It was not even giving any SMART error. This has happened suddenly. I have a lot of data on my Seagate drive like photos, movies mp3's and work related files. If I could access the drive somehow I could copy the data on my external hdd. Is there some way to retrieve the data of my Seagate drive? I have GParted Live cd and Windows XP Live CD. If I boot from any of these cd's would I be able to access my Seagate drive?

Does the 'freeze the hdd' trick really work? I have never tried it. Kindly give your suggestions. TIA!
 
^^ @paraman use a Live Disc to boot up and see if that detects your Seagate drive, back-up your data and then RMA your drive.

If it does not show up some issue must be blocking it, did you change the SATA port it is attached to on the motherboard?
 
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#ALPHA17 , thanks for your reply.

I booted with the GParted live disc but even there the Seagate drive doesnt show up. I have already tried changing the cables and ports where the drive is connected but to no avail. First time I boot the Seagate drive is shown in boot but after windows loads from the WD drive, the Seagate drive is absent and during subsequent boots even BIOS doesnt show the Seagate drive. Also windows 7 on WD drive takes a long time to boot if Seagate drive is physically connected, but if I disconnect the Seagate cable the windows 7 boots in normal time.

The current Seagate drive is a refurbished / recertified drive that I got in RMA. But still a few month warranty is remaining. Not that I have any high hopes of the RMA'ed Seagate drive being any good. I just want access to the data on it so that I can copy it to an external drive.
 
paraman said:
#ALPHA17 , thanks for your reply.

I booted with the GParted live disc but even there the Seagate drive doesnt show up. I have already tried changing the cables and ports where the drive is connected but to no avail. First time I boot the Seagate drive is shown in boot but after windows loads from the WD drive, the Seagate drive is absent and during subsequent boots even BIOS doesnt show the Seagate drive. Also windows 7 on WD drive takes a long time to boot if Seagate drive is physically connected, but if I disconnect the Seagate cable the windows 7 boots in normal time.

The current Seagate drive is a refurbished / recertified drive that I got in RMA. But still a few month warranty is remaining. Not that I have any high hopes of the RMA'ed Seagate drive being any good. I just want access to the data on it so that I can copy it to an external drive.
Click to expand...

I had somewhat same problem, and it looks like a case of corrupted partition table, boot into linux or Windows and then use test disk to recover files or you can also use EASE US Partition Recovery to reconstruct the partition table
 
The Seagate drive is not showing up at all in Windows or even in Gparted live disk. If the disk is not visible how do I repair / reconstruct partition table? I downloaded the test disk utility you mentioned and am running it under windows. Seagate drive is not showing up. BTW, this test disk utility is also available on GParted live disk. And I did run it from there previously but same result.

If the disk were to show up in windows then I have 'recover my files' and other such utilities with which I can attempt recovery of data. But the problem is that the drive doesnt show up under windows or live disc at all!
 
paraman said:
The Seagate drive is not showing up at all in Windows or even in Gparted live disk. If the disk is not visible how do I repair / reconstruct partition table? I downloaded the test disk utility you mentioned and am running it under windows. Seagate drive is not showing up. BTW, this test disk utility is also available on GParted live disk. And I did run it from there previously but same result.

If the disk were to show up in windows then I have 'recover my files' and other such utilities with which I can attempt recovery of data. But the problem is that the drive doesnt show up under windows or live disc at all!
Click to expand...

Me thinks this is a controller issue, it is actuating if the damn thing is detected in the BIOS but don't know why it is not detected later.

Have you booted in safe mode?
 
Got a separate question. For a HDD to be detected under windows, isn't is necessary that it must be defected in BIOS, because first of all windows ill communicate with the HDD via BIOS, or i am wrong
 
paraman said:
The Seagate drive is not showing up at all in Windows or even in Gparted live disk. If the disk is not visible how do I repair / reconstruct partition table? I downloaded the test disk utility you mentioned and am running it under windows. Seagate drive is not showing up. BTW, this test disk utility is also available on GParted live disk. And I did run it from there previously but same result.

If the disk were to show up in windows then I have 'recover my files' and other such utilities with which I can attempt recovery of data. But the problem is that the drive doesnt show up under windows or live disc at all!
Click to expand...

Its really weird that the drive shows up BIOS but not in OS, next thing would be to check the contact points of the circuit board on the HDD by dissembling the circuit board, but you should try it if you are little experienced with tinkering with electronics

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CA50 said:
Got a separate question. For a HDD to be detected under windows, isn't is necessary that it must be defected in BIOS, because first of all windows ill communicate with the HDD via BIOS, or i am wrong
Click to expand...

Yep the HDD should be detected in BIOS for it to be detected in Windows or other OS
 
I think same thing has happen to my seagate 500gb drive. Drive is showing on BIOS but not on windows. When I try to boot window with the other hard drive, window doesn't boot, I have to remove the faulty drive to boot it normally. I have tried every recovery software (easus, active partition). But they doesn't open when drive is connected to computer. When I remove the faulty hard drive,these software works properly. I even bought sata to usb cable from ebay just to try to use the drive as external drive but with no luck. I don't know what to do. I have very important documents on this drive. Please some one suggest any solution.
 
ALPHA17 said:
Me thinks this is a controller issue, it is actuating if the damn thing is detected in the BIOS but don't know why it is not detected later.

Have you booted in safe mode?
Click to expand...

Can this controller issue be repaired? I think the data on the drive is intact because until it died HDD Sentinel was showing 100% for performance and health. I regularly checked my drives using SpeedFan etc and I never got any warning that the hdd is about to fail. If what you are saying is true and if I can get this controller repaired then I could get back my data. couldn't I?

If the defective drive is connected I cant boot from it. Even my working hdd slows down like hell because of the defective drive. What purpose would be served by booting in safe mode?

allrounder799 said:
Its really weird that the drive shows up BIOS but not in OS, next thing would be to check the contact points of the circuit board on the HDD by dissembling the circuit board, but you should try it if you are little experienced with tinkering with electronics

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Yep the HDD should be detected in BIOS for it to be detected in Windows or other OS
Click to expand...

I am afraid I wont be able to tinker with the circuit board myself. Will a hardware engineer be able to repair the hdd here in my home? I have confidential files on my hdd which I dont want any unknown person to have access to.
 
@paraman try connecting the drive in another system. Many a times my friend's drive, 3 actually, which went bad were detected by my motherboard and also I could back up the data, when other mbs failed to detect it.

You can also try this boot you system with only the WD hdd, then connect the Seagate in the system while it is power on. You can then scan for disk in the Disk Management tool. Some members may object to this, but it always worked for me.
 
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paraman said:
Can this controller issue be repaired? I think the data on the drive is intact because until it died HDD Sentinel was showing 100% for performance and health. I regularly checked my drives using SpeedFan etc and I never got any warning that the hdd is about to fail. If what you are saying is true and if I can get this controller repaired then I could get back my data. couldn't I?

I am afraid I wont be able to tinker with the circuit board myself. Will a hardware engineer be able to repair the hdd here in my home? I have confidential files on my hdd which I dont want any unknown person to have access to.
Click to expand...

The controller is the printed circuit board at the bottom of the hard-drive and each family (drives) has a particular version of it. It be best if you ask a professional data recovery centre.

Which drive do you have Seagate Barracuda version?
 
flash23 said:
paraman try connecting the drive in another system. Many a times my friend's drive, 3 actually, which went bad were detected by my motherboard and also I could back up the data, when other mbs failed to detect it.

You can also try this boot you system with only the WD hdd, then connect the Seagate in the system while it is power on. You can then scan for disk in the Disk Management tool. Some members may object to this, but it always worked for me.
Click to expand...

i connected the seagate while the system was on but it was not detected.

ALPHA17 said:
The controller is the printed circuit board at the bottom of the hard-drive and each family (drives) has a particular version of it. It be best if you ask a professional data recovery centre.

Which drive do you have Seagate Barracuda version?
Click to expand...

HDD model number is in my sig.
 
No issues Sir. It seems to me that I may have to bid goodbye to the drive because procuring another controller or sending the drive to a professional data recovery centre etc is not feasible for me. I think a few months warranty may be remaining on the drive but Seagate will send me another recertified drive which will also fail sooner or later. So the only option is to buy a new WD drive.
 
paraman said:
No issues Sir. It seems to me that I may have to bid goodbye to the drive because procuring another controller or sending the drive to a professional data recovery center etc is not feasible for me. I think a few months warranty may be remaining on the drive but Seagate will send me another recertified drive which will also fail sooner or later. So the only option is to buy a new WD drive.
Click to expand...

While I am sorry for the data loss, why dont you RMA it and sell it, that way it will not go waste by all means, and if you want to try data recovery, they charge you per GB, I had got a quote of 500 rs for some 2.5 GB of data which sounds ridiculous as I had more than 300 GB gb of it
 
When you say the drive isn't showing up in Windows, is not not showing only in My Computer, or in device manager as well?
 
allrounder799 said:
While I am sorry for the data loss, why dont you RMA it and sell it, that way it will not go waste by all means, and if you want to try data recovery, they charge you per GB, I had got a quote of 500 rs for some 2.5 GB of data which sounds ridiculous as I had more than 300 GB gb of it
Click to expand...

I agree, data recovery is very expensive. I am not going for that option. As for RMA. Hardly a few months warranty is remaining. Seagate will again send me a 'recertified' drive and it will meet the same fate. What's the point?


ch@ts said:
When you say the drive isn't showing up in Windows, is not not showing only in My Computer, or in device manager as well?
Click to expand...

I just checked and it showed in Device Manager for a few seconds and then disappeared from the list. Do you think I could do something to salvage the drive?
 
Salvage the drive - no.
Recover your data - maybe.

Don't plug in your drive just yet.
Get a back-up drive ready. Get some data recovery software too.

Change your drives orientation, instead of lying face down, make it stand on it's side, or upside down.
I've got an external hdd that works this way. Takes a bit of moving around before it's recognised, but once it is, it works fine.

If your drive shows up in the bios, it'll show up in Windows. Use the Disk Management tool to see if your drives recognised.
If it is, and appears as unformatted, or with no partition info, then you can attempt recovery.

If not, then try changing the drives power cable as well.

Best of luck!
 
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