# Have a HDD problem. Failed?



## Upgrayedd (Jun 15, 2018)

So I have my grandmother's PC because it seems like the drive is done. I just need some feedback on what might be happening. 
   I put the drive into my PC to see if the BIOS would read it, nah it doesn't. As the PC posts I could hear the drive giving periodic noises. The drive does not appear in File Explorer but does in Disk Manager. Within Disk Manager there is a "Disk 4" that is "Not Initialized" and is sized at 3.86 GB Unallocated. The other drives 0-3 are all my current working drives. I downloaded SeaTools for Windows because Disk 4 is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB that came from an ASUS CM1740-US-2AE prebuilt. I ran the few tests in SeaTools on the drive and it kept coming back as 100% PASS. So I tried to initialize it using Disk Manager and MBR, it gives me the error "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error." Also, SeaTools recognizes the drive as having 4.14GB / 3.86 GiB. My uncle told me he was using it and made a recovery CD just this month, all that does it just restore Windows settings yeah? Pretty sure that is useless right? I feel like this drive is dead with the I/O error, very low volume detection, no BIOS detection. I know all my grandmother wants from the drive is some information on a genealogy application so she does not have to input all people and make phone calls to them again. Any feedback is useful, thanks.


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## Caring1 (Jun 15, 2018)

Your best bet is recovery software before any more damage is done.


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## Jetster (Jun 15, 2018)

Sounds like a partition is deleted. Might try some recovery software like recover my files


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## R-T-B (Jun 15, 2018)

You might see if some malware has set a HPA or DCO in linux using hdparm:

https://superuser.com/questions/642...-like-hpa-and-dco-also-after-malware-infectio

Read the second answer.


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## Upgrayedd (Jun 15, 2018)

Caring1 said:


> Your best bet is recovery software before any more damage is done.





Jetster said:


> Sounds like a partition is deleted. Might try some recovery software like recover my files


Have you tried RecoverMyFiles before?
@Caring1 any recovery software you could recommend?


R-T-B said:


> You might see if some malware has set a HPA or DCO in linux using hdparm:
> 
> https://superuser.com/questions/642...-like-hpa-and-dco-also-after-malware-infectio
> 
> Read the second answer.


@R-T-B I am going to run this and see what happens. Thanks.


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## R-T-B (Jun 15, 2018)

Upgrayedd said:


> Have you tried RecoverMyFiles before?
> @Caring1 any recovery software you could recommend?
> 
> @R-T-B I am going to run this and see what happens. Thanks.



Do keep in mind the second command "dco-restore" is data destructive.  But if you have been overwritten by malware, may not matter.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 15, 2018)

These are tools that might help recover the drive, atleast get the important stuff off.

http://www.lsoft.net/#data_recovery

http://www.lsoft.net/#disk_utilities

http://www.lsoft.net/#data_backup

http://www.lsoft.net/#cd_dvd

Partition recovery tools.

https://www.diskinternals.com/download/


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## micropage7 (Jun 15, 2018)

io err could from the hdd, the cable or the port
have you checked one by one? and does the hdd sounds normal, no strange sound, clicking or anything that unusual?


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## Caring1 (Jun 15, 2018)

Upgrayedd said:


> Have you tried RecoverMyFiles before?
> @Caring1 any recovery software you could recommend?


Recuva should do the trick as long as it's not Malware.


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## Jetster (Jun 15, 2018)

Yes I use RecoverMyFiles. I have used a few and for me its one i like


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## seagate_surfer (Jun 18, 2018)

Upgrayedd said:


> So I have my grandmother's PC because it seems like the drive is done. I just need some feedback on what might be happening.
> I put the drive into my PC to see if the BIOS would read it, nah it doesn't. As the PC posts I could hear the drive giving periodic noises. The drive does not appear in File Explorer but does in Disk Manager. Within Disk Manager there is a "Disk 4" that is "Not Initialized" and is sized at 3.86 GB Unallocated. The other drives 0-3 are all my current working drives. I downloaded SeaTools for Windows because Disk 4 is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB that came from an ASUS CM1740-US-2AE prebuilt. I ran the few tests in SeaTools on the drive and it kept coming back as 100% PASS. So I tried to initialize it using Disk Manager and MBR, it gives me the error "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error." Also, SeaTools recognizes the drive as having 4.14GB / 3.86 GiB. My uncle told me he was using it and made a recovery CD just this month, all that does it just restore Windows settings yeah? Pretty sure that is useless right? I feel like this drive is dead with the I/O error, very low volume detection, no BIOS detection. I know all my grandmother wants from the drive is some information on a genealogy application so she does not have to input all people and make phone calls to them again. Any feedback is useful, thanks.



Hello  Upgrayedd,  I am afraid I am the bearer of bad news. An I/O error along with 3.86G of un-allocated space is a sign of drive failure. Suggestion would be contacting support. There are several software's that may try to get back the information on the drive but it is not guaranteed. Seagate also offers drive recovery services.  Best of luck.


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## R-T-B (Jun 18, 2018)

seagate_surfer said:


> Hello  Upgrayedd,  I am afraid I am the bearer of bad news. An I/O error along with 3.86G of un-allocated space is a sign of drive failure. Suggestion would be contacting support. There are several software's that may try to get back the information on the drive but it is not guaranteed. Seagate also offers drive recovery services.  Best of luck.



I didn't even know we had a Seagate rep here!

Thanks for clarifying.  That's clearly the issue then.


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## Upgrayedd (Jun 24, 2018)

I have another issue regarding the oem PC that the apparently bad HDD came from. 

 I have some 1TB Hitachi Sata 2.6 drives and a Toshiba drive that I don't know the sata revision. I plugged one Hitachi then the Toshiba in the OEM machine with a Win10 install media on a 16GB USB flash drive. The machine let me format the drive and go through the install process of Win10 on the HDDs using the flash drive and I entered the product key on the side panel. It goes through the install fine but it never gives me a final welcome and setup screen after the install and required restart. It just sits at a black screen no blinking text line.

 I can install Win10 onto these HDDs using my PC in my specs just fine. I install whatever drivers it let me then I go to plug the fresh Win10 HDD into my OEM machine and boot from the BIOS to the proper drive and it just sits at a black screen with a blinking white text line, underline, idk what they are called.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 24, 2018)

Upgrayedd said:


> I have another issue regarding the oem PC that the apparently bad HDD came from.
> 
> I have some 1TB Hitachi Sata 2.6 drives and a Toshiba drive that I don't know the sata revision. I plugged one Hitachi then the Toshiba in the OEM machine with a Win10 install media on a 16GB USB flash drive. The machine let me format the drive and go through the install process of Win10 on the HDDs using the flash drive and I entered the product key on the side panel. It goes through the install fine but it never gives me a final welcome and setup screen after the install and required restart. It just sits at a black screen no blinking text line.
> 
> I can install Win10 onto these HDDs using my PC in my specs just fine. I install whatever drivers it let me then I go to plug the fresh Win10 HDD into my OEM machine and boot from the BIOS to the proper drive and it just sits at a black screen with a blinking white text line, underline, idk what they are called.



Cursor.

By the way rule of thumb, make sure you only have 1 HDD hooked up when installing windows.

You may want to format them, 1TB can use NTFS partition.

Windows Since XP has a propensity of putting critical files on other drives when it shouldn't


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## Upgrayedd (Jun 24, 2018)

OEM machine is an ASUS CM1740-US-2AF. 

When using the OEM machine to install Win10 it only has one HDD. 

Could a bad motherboard cause this? Make the old drive eat dirt and not want to boot anything? I don't really know what else to do. I've formatted them. NTFS. Should it be MBR or GPT? I feel like I did them GPT..


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## micropage7 (Jun 24, 2018)

Upgrayedd said:


> OEM machine is an ASUS CM1740-US-2AF.
> 
> When using the OEM machine to install Win10 it only has one HDD.
> 
> Could a bad motherboard cause this? Make the old drive eat dirt and not want to boot anything? I don't really know what else to do. I've formatted them. NTFS. Should it be MBR or GPT? I feel like I did them GPT..


Gpt for hdd like 4tb and more

Have you tried using another sata port or using other sata cable

Oh try resetting bios too
Just make sure everything back to stock before you setting it up


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## Upgrayedd (Jun 24, 2018)

Yeah I tried a different port and cable. I actually changed the BIOS from IDE to AHCI, I could go back to default though.. 
    I feel like if it is installing Win10 then it should just boot right up. I thought about vendor locked, is replacing just the HDD normally this tedious on an OEM?
    Also I tried upating BIOS from the BIOS using Asus EZ Flash 2 since it is still on the very first version not booting the HDD all the way. They are all .ROM files and its says "Image Integrity Check failed" everytime I try to update. Tried every BIOS version on ASUS website.


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## jsfitz54 (Jun 24, 2018)

Upgrayedd said:


> Yeah I tried a different port and cable. I actually changed the BIOS from IDE to AHCI, I could go back to default though..
> I feel like if it is installing Win10 then it should just boot right up. I thought about vendor locked, is replacing just the HDD normally this tedious on an OEM?
> Also I tried upating BIOS from the BIOS using Asus EZ Flash 2 since it is still on the very first version not booting the HDD all the way. They are all .ROM files and its says "Image Integrity Check failed" everytime I try to update. Tried every BIOS version on ASUS website.




It could be that you unzipped the file.  Don't rename anything and put the ZIP file on a USB stick and set bios to boot from the USB stick.  You may have a blank screen while it is updating.


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## Upgrayedd (Jun 24, 2018)

So having the .ROM files still zipped was a stepbackwards, they didn't even show up in BIOS, kinda thought that would happen.

    I decided to try and boot 3x and force shutdown to see if I couldn't get into troubleshooting menus. 

    I was given error code 0xc0000225 this is something about system file error, I believe this is my main issue. 
    Why is the OEM shitting itself on the install but my PC does it fine and if I try to take the working install to OEM machine it completely refuses it. I don't see the install media being faulty since it installs on my other PC fine.


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## jsfitz54 (Jun 25, 2018)

Upgrayedd said:


> So having the .ROM files still zipped was a stepbackwards, they didn't even show up in BIOS, kinda thought that would happen.
> 
> I decided to try and boot 3x and force shutdown to see if I couldn't get into troubleshooting menus.
> 
> ...



You should be able to flash the BIOS without any Hard Drives connected, so disconnect the hard drives.  You need to use the USB ports at the top of the motherboard nearest any PS2 keyboard input and they may be USB 2.0 ports and that is correct.


https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1030923


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## qubit (Jul 5, 2018)

@Upgrayedd

seagate_surfer has given you the definitive answer, but I'd like to add something.

Regardless of brand, whenever you hear a drive that's constantly clicking, but is seen by the BIOS and reads the disc, it hasn't got long before complete failure, so get your data off it quick. Clicking noise and no BIOS recognition is total failure. Same with a quiet drive (spinning or not spinning) and no BIOS recognition. Only expensive recovery services will help in such a situation. Seems that your drive can sort of be seen by the BIOS, so those software tools just might help, but I'm pessimistic about that.


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## Upgrayedd (Jul 5, 2018)

I just went ahead and built a new PC, was having way too much trouble trying to install a new HDD. 

As for the old drive, it wasn't worth $450 minimum for recovery services. It just had old pictures that can be re-scanned and a higher res this time and some family tree info that can be refilled. I do have the old drive, I never really heard any loud clicking like I have heard on bad drives before, if anyone knows places cheaper than $450 cause more than what I built the new PC for... either that or I'm going to let the recovery software run on it all night.


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## Goopeas (Jul 23, 2018)

Jetster said:


> Yes I use RecoverMyFiles. I have used a few and for me its one i like


Does it work for u ? i used it before , but it didn't work ,


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