# HELP: Hitachi 1TB drive noise and not recognized



## ProgressiveTokyo (Mar 13, 2010)

Hi guys. Im a regular poster on the GeneralNonsense board, maybe some of you know me over there. 

Anyway Ive got a serious issue. Recently my 1TB Hitachi drive is not being recognized (well it appears, but when I try and click on it, it says that I need to format it).

It was formatted as NTFS and has worked wonderfully until now. I have tried SpinRite (levels 1, 2 and 4) yet it freezes during the data scan. It is making a constant hum, like the heads are stuck on a bad sector. 

I really dont want to go to data recovery (this drive only stores my movies and other replaceable data) but I want this drive to be usable again.

Any tips for software which could fix this issue? Possibly software which would allow me to bypass these bad sectors. 

Really any help would be hugely appreciated, and I am willing to provide any data that is needed to fix this.

Thanks


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## Wile E (Mar 13, 2010)

If you are getting bad sectors, it's almost a guaranty the drive is a total write off.

But first, try a different SATA cable, then a different SATA port, and maybe even try it in a different computer. A bad mobo can cause this, as well as bad cables. If none of the above fix it, the drive is pretty much dead.


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## Reefer86 (Mar 13, 2010)

i wouldnt say pretty much dead, this could be fixed with a format. I have had drives go bad from crashes etc. Although a format would erase the data, but there are programs that can get the data on a corrupt hardrive.


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## ProgressiveTokyo (Mar 13, 2010)

Thanks Wile E, i really dont want to lose 50Gb of movies.. or a 1TB drive.. is there any software at all you can suggest?

Ive got another SATA USB port I can plug it into. Gonna try it now.

Weird part is.. is it recognized by the computer but it says its unformatted (which is untrue). Yet when I try to format it, it says it cant be formatted.


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## W1zzard (Mar 13, 2010)

different cable, different port, different computer (if you can)

check if the disk works when it's cold: let it sit for a few hours or put it in the freezer

to recover data i've had excellent experience with getdataback ntfs


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## Wile E (Mar 13, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> different cable, different port, different computer (if you can)
> 
> check if the disk works when it's cold: let it sit for a few hours or put it in the freezer
> 
> to recover data i've had excellent experience with getdataback ntfs



Yeah, Getdataback works pretty well. I've also had good luck with Acronic Disk Director Suite in the cases where it was just a damaged partition table.


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## ProgressiveTokyo (Mar 13, 2010)

Thank you Wile E! and W1zzard! and Reefer!! I took your suggestions and while I didnt do it exactly as suggested, it worked!

So I tried to install Acronis Disk Director Suite (bad spelling there Wile E) but it is not compatible with Windows 7 Ultimate. So I switched to Paragon Hard Disk Manager (the main competitor to Acronis) and it allowed me to create 2 partitions and format them!! Phew, so now I am running the native Windows checkdisk (scanning for bad sectors and attempting recovery of them). After all that is done Im going to run Spinrite while Im sleeping hopefully keep it healthy for the future (by the way if someone has a better suggestion to Spinrite Im all ears).

Unfortunately I did lose my 50gigs of movies, but that is replaceable. But saved the drive which is now partitioned into 2 500 gig partitions. 

Again thanks so much! I will have to come here more often, you guys are great.


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## Wile E (Mar 14, 2010)

Ah yeah, didn't see that I miss spelled it. Menat to type Acronis at least. lol. Thanks for the heads up about it not working on 7 tho. Haven't had to use it in a while, so I had no idea.


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