HDD Probz

[Aldur_wm]

Hey guys. i know this isnt a troubleshooting website. But i trust you guys for advice more than on other websites.

i recently went to Respawn LAN V12 (big aussie LAN convention). And packed my computer full of media. Somewhere along the way i used somebody's memory stick for a patch of RA3 for a comp, and of course i got a worm.

Long story short i reloaded to get rid of it. But now one of my non-OS Hard drives isnt working. Its a 1.5TB Seagate (ST31500341AS), and well basically after lots of investigating i figured out it had overheated somewhere along the way. (after running tests with the Seagate diagnostics tool).

The sum total of my access to the hard drive is that it:
- shows up in my computer
- if i wait for a minute or so, i can view most directories on the drive and if im patient i can navigate through folders.
- files can occasionally be opened. not very often though.

its almost a full drive, so it would be croppy if i had to backup onto my other 750 gig drive.

From the vast amount of experience that you guys have on XS. What would be the best way of saving the data, and if possible the hard drive too?

Thanks in advance guys.

[zanzabar]

put it in the freezer then back up what u can affter it gets chilled for a few hours.

and what temp did it get to

[Aldur_wm]

put it in the freezer then back up what u can affter it gets chilled for a few hours.

and what temp did it get to

haha. i couldnt get a log open, the only thing i could find out was in the diagnostic it said the HDD had gone above 70 degrees (celcius) at some point. Which i assume to be the problem.

does anyone know of a way to repair the drive without reformatting (if that would even work)? The official Seagate diagnostic/repair tool couldnt do it.

[Oberon]

put it in the freezer then back up what u can affter it gets chilled for a few hours.

and what temp did it get to

Doesn't sound like a mechanical issue to me, so I don't think the freezer trick will do him any good (it's usually a "click of death" fix).

Have you tried a straight backup, yet?

[Aldur_wm]

Doesn't sound like a mechanical issue to me, so I don't think the freezer trick will do him any good (it's usually a "click of death" fix).

Have you tried a straight backup, yet?

Oh he was serious? that actually works? lol i thought he was joking.

I tried directly copying files off there. But it simply struggles for a few seconds then says 'directory cannot be found' or 'directory cannot be accessed' or something along those lines. I've been googling around, but nobody has had a worknig solution to this yet apparently. I've played with a few windows-settings, but it doesnt help at all really.

If i can get my friend to cooperate with his new beest. Which has plenty of room for my files. I could attempt a 'GetDataBack' program ive used before, it worked with a wrecked HDD i found. Im not sure if it will work on a fried one though.

Anyone got any neat little tricks to say... reset the firmware without wiping the HDD? (the Seagate firmware updates state that if i have the 'CC' firmware, which i do, then updating firmware will wipe data). Or maybe some program that can fix the formatting of the hard drive, allowing me to access them properly.

Thanks for the help so far guys. I appreciate it

[zanzabar]

if u get active partition recovery u might be able to salvage the drive, but once it goes bad u cant really fix it.

[Aldur_wm]

yeh thats what i was afraid of. Im attempting this at the moment. if it doesnt work im all out of ideas.

has anyone got any other methods for obtaining files from an overheated drive? regardless of how complex.

[Zack.]

bad luck brooooo.

I got over 1TB space left so come use if it needed

PS. My ssd's are f*cked LOL

[tiro_uspsss]

Oh he was serious? that actually works? lol i thought he was joking.

I tried directly copying files off there. But it simply struggles for a few seconds then says 'directory cannot be found' or 'directory cannot be accessed' or something along those lines. I've been googling around, but nobody has had a worknig solution to this yet apparently. I've played with a few windows-settings, but it doesnt help at all really.

If i can get my friend to cooperate with his new beest. Which has plenty of room for my files. I could attempt a 'GetDataBack' program ive used before, it worked with a wrecked HDD i found. Im not sure if it will work on a fried one though.

Anyone got any neat little tricks to say... reset the firmware without wiping the HDD? (the Seagate firmware updates state that if i have the 'CC' firmware, which i do, then updating firmware will wipe data). Or maybe some program that can fix the formatting of the hard drive, allowing me to access them properly.

Thanks for the help so far guys. I appreciate it

did u try that GetBackData prog? I use it, works well

yeh thats what i was afraid of. Im attempting this at the moment. if it doesnt work im all out of ideas.

has anyone got any other methods for obtaining files from an overheated drive? regardless of how complex.

since heat is the prob, have u tried running it & actively cooling it? (dunno how tho )

[ExodusC]

Am I the only one that feels like 70C shouldn't have killed a HDD? I guess it is a Seagate though. Maybe I just don't know how hot HDDs should get.

When you say "diagnostic," do you mean SeaTools?

If you've not tried it, go download a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD, and run SeaTools; See what you can turn up that way.

[tiro_uspsss]

Am I the only one that feels like 70C shouldn't have killed a HDD? I guess it is a Seagate though. Maybe I just don't know how hot HDDs should get.

each HDD manufacturer is diff, but I've never seen one that states that 60c is max operating temp

[Aldur_wm]

Ive more or less given up. I had a little luck with Stellar Data Recovery. It was the only program i found that could actually read the hard drive with any result. But it couldnt recover files.

Yes i used SeaTools as the diagnostics program. It would start a 'short test' and say something like 'error, perform long test for further diagnostics' so i would run the long test, and it would say 'error in sector x' a zillion times. So i reckon its just completely fried.

Thanks for the help guys, ill hit up MSY and see if i can get a free replacement . Next lan i go to ill get most of the data back anyway i guess.

cheers!

PS: The diagnostics said that the hard drive had reached ABOVE 70C at some point. So it could have been much hotter.

[tiro_uspsss]

PS: The diagnostics said that the hard drive had reached ABOVE 70C at some point. So it could have been much hotter.

I would love to know exactly what happened.. the only thing I can think of is: wherever there is moving parts there is heat.. some moving part must have resisted so-to-speak & that created a butt-load of heat... or something fried!

[little_scrapper]

Thats why I subscribe to the multiple, redundant, backups method. I have everything important on 3 drives IN my machine as well as on my older drives that are on the shelf. Anything less than a total and catastrophic fire that burns the house to the foundation and I should be able to recover all but the latest pictures of my kids.