Jump to content

Help! My secondary HDD is a goner


Baldur

Recommended Posts

So I was importing files that were saved on this HDD to Adobe Premiere Pro to edit multiple videos. Everything was running pretty smooth until I was previewing a WAV file on Windows Media Player while editing a video in Premiere. WMP and premiere went on a not responding strike and it went this way for a good 30 minutes. I tried Alt + F4, nothing. I tried shutting down the programs from Task manager, still nothing so I figured that I should restart my PC. After that everything seemed to work fine. This morning before work I went and edited more footage then it did exactly the same thing. Restarted the computer and went to work.

 

When I came back tonight, the computer's startup time was way slower than usual and the hdd's shortcut to my desktop displayed a big, blue question mark. Restarted the PC, went into the boot menu and saw that my motherboard recognizes all my drives but then when I went back to my Desktop, the shortcut still displayed the same image and I can't see that particular drive in Windows Explorer.

 

I've had 1 failing drive warning from Windows 2 weeks ago but I solved the problem.

 

The HDD is a Western Digital 320GB that was installed in a 2006 pc professionally then removed and installed 3 months ago in a 2010 PC by me.

 

What can I do so that Windows recognizes it? Is it possible to keep all the data that's on there and how can I retrieve it?

 

Also I need a NAS (network attached server). Tired of opening my case when I want to add more drives, got anything to suggest?

XboxLive, PSN, Steam: fizz4m

If you add me, please say you are from tif :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You didn't state your operating system (other than "Windows"), but what does it look like if you click the start button, right click "Computer", press "Manage", and then go to "Disk Management"? What does it say regarding the drive in question?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You didn't state your operating system (other than "Windows"), but what does it look like if you click the start button, right click "Computer", press "Manage", and then go to "Disk Management"? What does it say regarding the drive in question?

 

My apologies. I run Windows 7 home edition sp2

Disk Management says "Disk 0, Unknown, 232.89 GB Not initialized"

It's also Unallocated.

XboxLive, PSN, Steam: fizz4m

If you add me, please say you are from tif :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, so it's looking pretty bleak for the drive.

 

Are you confident with computer disassembly? As in, could you take the drive out without too much difficulty?

 

Does it make any clicks or out of the ordinary noises when your computer is turned on?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, so it's looking pretty bleak for the drive.

 

Are you confident with computer disassembly? As in, could you take the drive out without too much difficulty?

 

Does it make any clicks or out of the ordinary noises when your computer is turned on?

 

This is the 3rd drive I add in this computer. The other 2 drives were SATA but this one is a 6-7 years old IDE drive.

 

I don't hear clicks at all but my computer fans are loud as hell.

 

Should I just remove the HDD from the computer? Ever since it failed, my boot up times went south, which is weird since this is a secondary drive.

 

 

XboxLive, PSN, Steam: fizz4m

If you add me, please say you are from tif :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, so it's looking pretty bleak for the drive.

 

Are you confident with computer disassembly? As in, could you take the drive out without too much difficulty?

 

Does it make any clicks or out of the ordinary noises when your computer is turned on?

 

This is the 3rd drive I add in this computer. The other 2 drives were SATA but this one is a 6-7 years old IDE drive.

 

I don't hear clicks at all but my computer fans are loud as hell.

 

Should I just remove the HDD from the computer? Ever since it failed, my boot up times went south, which is weird since this is a secondary drive.

 

It makes sense it would affect your boot times as your BIOS checks every connected drive for details (Size, SMART status etc.) and so if it can't get that data from a drive it would hang.

 

This is going to sound weird but, if you really need your data, there's a last ditch method you can try yourself. Take out the hard drive and seal it in a plastic bag, and when I say seal it I mean either fold the bag over and tape it down well, or put it in a bag with a sealable top. Stick the drive in the freezer for about 8 hours and then take it out and connect it up, boot up and try booting and see if you can initialise/access the drive. It's important you do this quickly as it needs to still be pretty cold when you try and access it. Sometimes this will give you a chance to pull some of your data off it, it depends what kind of fault it is, this will help usually with a mechanical fault but not with an electronic fault.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Take out the hard drive and seal it in a plastic bag, and when I say seal it I mean either fold the bag over and tape it down well, or put it in a bag with a sealable top. Stick the drive in the freezer for about 8 hours and then take it out and connect it up, boot up and try booting and see if you can initialise/access the drive. It's important you do this quickly as it needs to still be pretty cold when you try and access it. Sometimes this will give you a chance to pull some of your data off it, it depends what kind of fault it is, this will help usually with a mechanical fault but not with an electronic fault.

 

I would heavily recommend using a Ziploc bag over a plastic bag, you really don't want to get any moisture inside of the drive. you should also plug in the drive without putting it inside the case, the heat from other components inside will heat up your drive faster which means less time to copy data. Also, if you have any incredibly important data on the drive you may want to take it to a professional.

 

.02¢

randomkcopyq.png
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the tip man. I heard of that in the past, never gave more thought to it; it seemed too crazy.

If I were pop my HDD in the freezer and were to find an external enclosure for IDE drives and plug it via USB, could it work? Or do I need to plugged dirrectly to my mobo

XboxLive, PSN, Steam: fizz4m

If you add me, please say you are from tif :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Take out the hard drive and seal it in a plastic bag, and when I say seal it I mean either fold the bag over and tape it down well, or put it in a bag with a sealable top. Stick the drive in the freezer for about 8 hours and then take it out and connect it up, boot up and try booting and see if you can initialise/access the drive. It's important you do this quickly as it needs to still be pretty cold when you try and access it. Sometimes this will give you a chance to pull some of your data off it, it depends what kind of fault it is, this will help usually with a mechanical fault but not with an electronic fault.

 

I would heavily recommend using a Ziploc bag over a plastic bag, you really don't want to get any moisture inside of the drive. you should also plug in the drive without putting it inside the case, the heat from other components inside will heat up your drive faster which means less time to copy data. Also, if you have any incredibly important data on the drive you may want to take it to a professional.

 

.02¢

 

Some fine advice.

 

 

Thanks for the tip man. I heard of that in the past, never gave more thought to it; it seemed too crazy.

If I were pop my HDD in the freezer and were to find an external enclosure for IDE drives and plug it via USB, could it work? Or do I need to plugged dirrectly to my mobo

 

Maybe, but being in an enclosure would probably cause it to heat up quicker. If you have two drives plugged in with IDE and the other one isn't important for the time being (ie. not your boot drive or intended copy destination), you could unplug that one too to make it easier to plug in outside of the case. You just need it generally away from the main warm area of your computer. It's also much harder to fix problems from an enclosure, I don't know how the initialize procedure etc. works for USB, I've never tried it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.