Seagate HD problem

[edcruz2010]

Hello

I have a problem with a Seagate HDD that seems similar to the one described here but not exactly. It is one of the infamaous 7200.11 and here is the description of what is going on.

The HD in question is a secondary drive on my PC, and a few days ago, on power on, we got a blue screen of death showing up indicating that a problem with a disk was detected and windows had been shut down. It will then suggest to do a CHKDSK /F, which it was funny because it would not allow any other thing but to turn the computer off. Since the CHKDSK was indicating F I proceeded to disconnect the Seagate drive and then Windows started up no problems.

I ran the BIOS and noticed that the drive, when connected, did showed up as the correct size, 1TB, but every time I would try to power up with the disk connected or enabled in the BIOS it will crash the windows even when it is just a secondary drive.

Just for fun I did the BSY procedure and I got all the communications and responses back correctly, however, the blue screen of death still shows up on power on.

Has anybody here experience anything like this?

I have a good chunk of data on that drive and I would like to retrieve it before I throw it in the garbage.

Thanks in advance.

Ed

[jaclaz]

Just for fun I did the BSY procedure and I got all the communications and responses back correctly, however, the blue screen of death still shows up on power on.

NEVER, and I mean NEVER do that "for fun" , for all we know the procedure could create problems on an otherwise "good" drive.

Has anybody here experience anything like this?

I have a good chunk of data on that drive and I would like to retrieve it before I throw it in the garbage.

Yes, it may happen.

The usual way out is to put the disk in a USB enclosure and try it on an already booted system by hot-plugging it.

If no BSOD happens, you can usually perform a "normal" (assuming that a drive letter is actually assigned and that it is "E:"):

CHKDSK E:

then, if it suggests to run with the /F parameter:

CHKDSK E: /F

then, and only then, try a:

CHKDSK E: /R

But, since your primary goal is to recover the most data on it, I would anyway, BEFORE running CHKDSK with ANY parameter, I would do a RAW image of it, and see what can be found on it with DMDE:

http://softdm.com/

and make a copy of the DATA you can access before attempting the filesystem repair.

jaclaz

[edcruz2010]

Jaclaz

You just became my new hero.

I took an USB hard drive I had here and plugged the Seagate there , plugged into my computer and presto. It just showed up like nothing ever happened to it. I am right now dumping all the contents into a second backup.

Thank you very much, now, if you don't mind, would you care to explain me why or what happened to the disk?

The USB case, for what I can tell, is using the same SATA connection, so shouldn't the problem, if it is related with the HD PCB be present as well? The USB driver there only converts the interface to the PC to USB, but the interface between the USB driver in the case and the HD is still the SATA.

Furthermore, can I fix it and what can I do to prevent it from happening again?

In any case I already retrieved 6 years worth of family pictures, so my fears of not seeing my wife for a long time are gone

Thanks again for your help.

[jaclaz]

Jaclaz

You just became my new hero.

I took an USB hard drive I had here and plugged the Seagate there , plugged into my computer and presto. It just showed up like nothing ever happened to it. I am right now dumping all the contents into a second backup.

Good. One more happy bunny in the basket:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128727&st=10

Thank you very much, now, if you don't mind, would you care to explain me why or what happened to the disk?

The USB case, for what I can tell, is using the same SATA connection, so shouldn't the problem, if it is related with the HD PCB be present as well? The USB driver there only converts the interface to the PC to USB, but the interface between the USB driver in the case and the HD is still the SATA.

I would like to give you an explanation (if there was one).

Problem is that I do not know. (or don't know for certain).

Possible causes:

• whatever
  
• a different way the BIOS interrogates hard disks (as compared to the way the USB controller does - piloted by the protected mode WIndows driver)
  
• a timing problem with spin-up (that could be caused by "sticky" bearings or by something "wrongly set" in the drive firmware)
  
• a failing (or partially failing) PC PSU that simply cannot get enough "juice" to the HD motor or PCB at the exact fraction of second it is needed (or again here "sticky" bearings)
  
• a failing (or partially failing) PC on-board SATA controller (or other parts of the motherboard)
  
• a (partially) botched windows install
  
• a defective SATA cable
  

The usual troubleshoot path is to test the device on ANOTHER PC, and see how it "behaves".

It is also possible that it was a "transient" problem that once the drive spinned up and was connected through the USB "vanishes" and doesn't happen again....

Furthermore, can I fix it and what can I do to prevent it from happening again?

See above, likely and easyness of fix depends on cause the above are in (supposed) decreasing difficulty/complexity of solution/fix.

In any case I already retrieved 6 years worth of family pictures, so my fears of not seeing my wife for a long time are gone

Actually in these cases the real bad news are that the idea of living next (hopefully ) 50 or more years with someone beside you daily reminding you the time you destroyed all the family's photos and how you were so d@mb and did not make a safe backup on another disk, etc. is really appalling.

The good news are that I will tell you only once the THREE golden Rules:

1. BACKUP
   
2. Backup again on another media
   
3. While considering the above - and the implications of them, do BACKUP your data
   

jaclaz

[edcruz2010]

Jac

I did noticed when doing the BSY that everybody reported a spin up time of 7.4 seconds or so. When I did mine the spin up time was more than 9 seconds, so maybe the sticky bearings theory have something to do with this case.

I didn't have time last night to try the disk in a different PC. The other 2 at home don't have SATA. I ran a CHKDSK and it came back ok.

I will try it tonight again on the SATA on the motherboard and see if the CHKDSK did something. In the meantime I backed up everything I wanted from the HD.

By the way, you got me laughing with that thing about having to put up with 50+ years of whining about the "remember the pictures we had of the kids growing up and you were too dumb to back it up"

Thanks again for you help.

Ed

[jaclaz]

By the way, you got me laughing with that thing about having to put up with 50+ years of whining about the "remember the pictures we had of the kids growing up and you were too dumb to back it up"

Thanks again for you help.

Yep, human nature is very similar at all latitudes .

You are welcome.

jaclaz