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HDD issue. Dead or not?

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  • Storage
  • Hard Drives
Last response: in Storage
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May 16, 2014 10:55:26 AM

Hello everyone,
I am experiencing some weird issue with my HDD lately, I could say that I tried almost every single possible thing to try to fix it but with no avail. I would like to know from any of you if there's any other solution I could also try apart from the ones I will mention below. Otherwise I will have no choice than to send my laptop to the service as it's still under warranty, even though I've been trying to avoid that.

I will start with some irrelevant information:
It's an Asus X55VD with 6GB of RAM, 2Ghz i3 processor and 1GB dedicated video card (nvidia geforce 610M), 500GB HDD from HGST. The motherboard supports UEFI.

It is (or was) running Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit. There were absolutely no problems with the hard drive or any suspicious signs.
However, some time before its "crash", the HDD started acting up, i.e. I've been getting some weird errors in event viewer (can't remember the error code but it was related to the hard drive about the fact that it might fail or something like that). I did not ignore that message and did some backups (phew!).
However, after the windows update, those messages suddenly stopped showing up.
It was working well until the point when I had to update again. My laptop took about 45 minutes to start up after the update, which I think is not normal at all.
Anyway, apparently the antivirus I had installed was really slowing my laptop down so I removed it and my laptop worked like a charm again. No issues were reported for the next five days.
At some point however, I wanted to download a steam game and I kept getting this "disc busy" indicator, even though the HDD was operating with speeds of 0.1MB/s, yet it was showing me that the HDD usage was between 99 and 100% in task manager.
I gave up on downloading the game and tried to find a workaround for that "disk busy" issue. I was pretty busy with school so I didn't have much time to deal with it so I just let it go.
On one evening, as I was working with photoshop on a booklet layout, I encountered some big issues with saving the file after editing it. When I clicked on "Save As..." in PS, it took the program like 5 minutes to show the file destination window and another 5 minutes after I finally clicked on Save. I tried to open chrome and it refused to do so and then I started worrying. So I plugged my external HDD in to save the file I was working on to it. I had no chance though, because the transfer speed was very low and it got stuck at some point. I tried with a memory stick, same thing happened.
I told myself I have no other option than to reboot my machine and I also did it. But after that reboot, it refused to boot up again and it took like 20 minutes until Windows' "automatic repair tool" showed up and which got stuck at some point as well.

Now, I tried the following:
1. I gave the laptop time (more exactly like 5 hours) to run that automatic repair tool. After like 2 hours it told me the automatic repair failed and it gave me different startup options which were also not very helpful.
2. Ubuntu Live CD.
It starts up, but it doesn't mount my /dev/sda at all. I tried force mounting it but with no avail. Note that my HDD IS recognized in the BIOS.
When I go on and try to install ubuntu, I first take some steps like accepting the agreement and until I connect to a wifi network. After I click continue on that step, the mouse turns into a "loading" sign, forever. (As I know the steps, I knew Ubuntu should've asked me about whether I want to override Windows or do something else)
I waited like an hour to see if it proceeds to that step but nothing happened. It just got stuck there.
3. Windows 8 CD
I thought Ubuntu could've had an issue (which I highly doubt) but after boot from the Windows 8 CD, the same thing happens. It just refuses to proceed to the partitioning step, even though the drive is recognized in BIOS.
4. Inserted another HDD in the laptop, to check if it's really the HDD that is the issue and I got my confirmation.
A different HDD works very well with the same laptop.

What I did not try yet was to insert the HDD in a computer with multiple sata/molex ports, boot from a "healthy" HDD and check if it can see mine. But I don't have this possibility and I highly doubt it would work.

I am certain that the HDD is the issue, but I want to know what your opinions/suggestions are, if there's anyhing else I could try to make it work or if I should just give up and ultimately take the final step as in sending it to the service.

Thank you!

More about : hdd issue dead

May 16, 2014 11:15:13 AM

For the second point, you will not see your C: volume in Live CD because windows8 locks it upon shutdown, since it needs to keep it in a certain state as to be able to boot fast next time. In other words, the drive gets hybernated, which in turn prevents any access to it.

But in general your HDD is certainly failing, and has to be replaced. You can try running "chkdsk /f", and if unsuccessfull - "chkdsk /r" from a command promt in any windows install. That could relocate data in the damaged area of the disk, hopefully getting your laptop to boot, but even if that helps, you should consider replacing it asap.

The reason it didn't save your photoshop file even to the external drive is most likely because the main windows processes were stuck from encountering a failing hard drive.
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a b G Storage
May 16, 2014 3:15:05 PM

Hi Tom

I was using UK boxed prices in retail stores such as PC World
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/components-upgrades/inter...

I know you can get them much cheaper on line especially if OEM

Tarmacadam said
'I am certain that the HDD is the issue, but I want to know what your opinions/suggestions are, if there's anyhing else I could try to make it work or if I should just give up and ultimately take the final step as in sending it to the service.'

I assumed this ment serviceing or repairing the hard disk.

Unless still within guarantee after extracting any important data the disk should be smashed then disposed of in accorance with local requirements for electronic waste .

regards
Mike Barnes
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a b G Storage
May 16, 2014 11:55:26 AM

Hi

You said the drive is hitachi
So why not get the hitachi bootable diagnostics disk and test the drive
From their website or on Hirens cd ISO image

You should always test for physical faults before running chkdsk
Or windows repair

You can not repair the disk except occasionally a temporary repair to minor faults
May enable disk to work long enough to get some data rescued

The more you use the drive the less chance you get of recovering data on this faulty drive




Repair is uneconomic £40 to £50 ukpounds for average new laptop hard disk 320 to 500 GB



Regards
Mike Barnes
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Best solution

a b G Storage
May 16, 2014 1:36:17 PM

Uhmm they sell 1TB 2.5 drives for around $49US or so. Swapping the HDD out is a easy and worthwhile solution I would say mbarnes86 is quite out of his knowledge

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_size_browse-bin...

I would suggest http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-HD754JJ-750GB-720RPM-In...
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a c 327 G Storage
May 16, 2014 2:20:31 PM

Can you retrieve a SMART report from the drive?
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