My old used internal HDD is inaccessible through Windows7 and shows as empty in Ubantu 9.10 setup.

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dhanbahadur

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Sep 28, 2014
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Hi,
I have a problem. After buying a new desktop PC I connected the primary HDD of my old desktop to my new desktop as secondary HDD.
Sometimes BIOS detects it other times it doesn't. When it doesn't I press the data cable firmly into the hard drive and the mother board and the BIOS detects it. But windows7 takes 20 minutes or so to boot then the secondary drive is visible with all its partitions but when I click on any of the partitions after waiting for a long time Windows7 says "X is not accessible. The request could not be completed due to I/O device error" where 'x' is the name of the partition. I tried to connect the HDD to a desktop with windows xp on it. Same thing happens.
Now since it was the primary drive of my old desktop it had windows7 os installed in it, but now when I try to boot it windows 7 doesn't boot. I tried to fix this many times with windows7 startup repair but failed every time.
I tried to install Ubuntu 9.10 to the same HDD. The Ubuntu setup shows the HDD as an empty HDD with no partitions or data whatsoever. The HDD in question is a Seagate 500 GB ST3500418AS ATA HDD. It has data I need to retrieve desperately please help.
 
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Phillip Corcoran

Phillip Corcoran

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The problems you are having may be due to the drive having failed.

You can test it with SeaTools:

For Windows: http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/

SeaTools DOS (CD image): http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/item/seatools-dos-master/
 
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dhanbahadur

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Thanks for the suggestion but I already tried SeaTools. Although the BIOS detects the HDD and Windows7 shows all the partitions (although inaccessible as I mentioned before) Seatools does not detect the hard drive in question. I haven't tried the Seatools DOS (CD image) thing though. Is it any different? Maybe I will give it a try. Thanks anyway.
 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hi there dhanbahadur,

I/O(input/output) error is usually related to some connection problem. I would advice you to swap SATA cable or try connecting it to a different port. The problem could be a physical one in the HDD as well. That long booting time might also be a result of too many bad sectors.I thing that the DOS version that Phillip Corcoran mentioned might work. Just keep in mind that if the information is really important your safest bet is to contact a data recovery company.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD
 
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dhanbahadur

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Sep 28, 2014
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Hi,
I tried swapping SATA cables but it didn't work. I am starting to think my HDD might have bad sectors. That has got me worried. I hope and pray I don't loose all my data.

 
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dhanbahadur

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Sep 28, 2014
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I went to the link you provided for the DOS version. It says download ISO disk image and burn it to a disk. The problem is I have a Gigabyte H61M-S motherboard in this PC, it doesn't have any PATA ports so no CD or DVD-ROMS. Can I somehow make a bootable pen drive and then boot my PC from the USB port instead of a CD/DVD-ROM? Otherwise I will have to take out my faulty HDD out of this PC and connect it to another PC that has a CD-ROM.

 
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dhanbahadur

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No..no weird sounds. That is what is keeping my hopes alive. After turning on my PC if I touch this hard drive I can feel it vibrating evenly and smoothly and it gets warm like any normal functioning hard drive and it makes no weird sounds. But when I touch the underside of it, that is when I touch the thing that is like a motherboard screwed in to the hard drive I can feel its a bit ..well..too warm. Is that a problem? Or am I being too worried?

 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

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Still, the fact that the HDD gets recognized after you press the cable firmly to it, most probably means hardware issue inside the drive. The best thing you can do is to contact the HDD manufacturer's Tech Support. They might be able to sort your issue out.

Hope this will help,
D_Know_WD
 
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dhanbahadur

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Hi, I am still struggling with afore mentioned problem. Nothing has changed. I am trying out many data recovery soft wares. Only one new development has taken place. As I mentioned earlier when I run Seatools from inside the OS the software doesn't detect the HDD in question but today I managed to make a bootable USB pen drive of the DOS version of Seatools and ran it from the BIOS by bypassing the OS. It detected the HDD in question and among other things said "S.M.A.R.T has been tripped." What does it mean? Can anybody please tell me? Any answer would be greatly appreciated.

 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

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When S.M.A.R.T is tripped, the HDD most probably failed(or it is about to fail) and you should replace it.
As it is hard to boot the computer with the HDD attached, you can try to put it in an external USB hard drive enclosure and connect it through USB. Though you can not be sure whether that will work.
I would like to mention again that if the data is crucial, you should better contact a data recovery company as I suspect that there might be some physical issue.

D_Know_WD
 
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dhanbahadur

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Sep 28, 2014
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Hey thanks for the prompt response D_Know_WD . I thought this thread was dead. Well as I said earlier, the HDD in question is attached as a secondary HDD to my PC. The windows OS shows the HDD in "MY Computer" with all its partitions with the correct name letters but all the partitions are inaccessible. My question is, do you think if I connect this HDD to my PC through an external enclosure it will somehow be accessible? This external enclosure thing is the only thing I have not tried yet. Thanks for enlightening me about S.M.A.R.T.
 
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dhanbahadur

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Oh by the way, it seems things are getting gloomier by the moment. After running the short test and the long test with seatools DOS version ( both of which my HDD failed) I thought why not try the acoustic test too. As I ran the test, for the very first time my HDD made sounds like the sound that was the signature of the movie "grudge". The 'krrrrrrrrrrr'.....sound.
And it was no less scary for me than the movie soundtrack. Its interesting how it never made any weird sound whatsoever all these past days and made the sound for the first time only when I ran the acoustic test.
 
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