HD dead?

[roel9]

Hi
I had my PC in the sleep mode. When I wanted to start it up it took a very long time to start up, the screen was just black. This has happened before, I used the power button to turn it off and restart again. Now this time when I started the PC the main HD couldn't be recognized (ahci part0 device error). The drive does power up and the sound seems normal.

I have installed a new OS on the secondary drive and when I start the PC while the main drive is also plugged in it takes a lot longer before it boots, then it gives the ahci device error. It's like it does recognize it but unable to connect.

Is the HD dead? Or would I somehow be able to get my data back?
Sending it to a recovery company is not an option, too expensive....

 

[roel9]

Does anyone know what could be the exact problem?
It happened after I used the power button to restart and the sound seems normal.

 

[leonfeldman89]

Does anyone know what could be the exact problem?
It happened after I used the power button to restart and the sound seems normal.

Unfortunately, sdrs is right. You need a reputable proffessional to do a diagnostic. Plenty of good companies will do it free for single drives. Unless you dropped the drive on to a hard floor or similar i wouldn't trust anyone who tries to give you a specific reason for it failing. Hard drives are not just magnetic media, they are complicated "drives" in the full sense of being unique systems. Even within the same model they differ to a certain extent with differing head assemblies, platter densities, calibration, etc...

 

[roel9]

I understand what you guys are saying, but like I said, sending it to a recovery company is not an option. It's a 1.5 TB HDD with more than 80% used space. The price tag would probably be in thousands because they are in a luxury position and can charge as much as they want.

Do I have important data on the disk? Yes, I have some documents, pictures and recordings that certainly have some "emotional value".
But is it crucial, will I be unable to function without it? F#No.

I rather feel bad for a while and spend the money on more important stuff + small amount of that money on extra storage and make backups so that this never has to happen again.

I'm looking for possible fixing/recovery methods that I can do myself, even if the success rate is low.

Like I said the drive still powers up and the sounds are normal, it's just not recognized by the system.

 

[leonfeldman89]

I understand what you guys are saying, but like I said, sending it to a recovery company is not an option. It's a 1.5 TB HDD with more than 80% used space. The price tag would probably be in thousands because they are in a luxury position and can charge as much as they want.

Do I have important data on the disk? Yes, I have some documents, pictures and recordings that certainly have some "emotional value".
But is it crucial, will I be unable to function without it? F#No.

I rather feel bad for a while and spend the money on more important stuff + small amount of that money on extra storage and make backups so that this never has to happen again.

I'm looking for possible fixing/recovery methods that I can do myself, even if the success rate is low.

Like I said the drive still powers up and the sounds are normal, it's just not recognized by the system.

Well the used space has nothing to do with the cost of recovery and neither does the value of the data. If a company says different they are gaming you. They still have to have the drive operational enough to image sector by sector and there's nothing you can do if there's a mechanical or electronic problem.
So unfortunately, if you're stuck on not getting a free diagnostic and your data isn't that critical, then you can just learn from the failure this time and backup properly in the future.

 

[leonfeldman89]

Oh I forgot to mention that recovering data from a physically damaged drive is typically between 700-2000 dollars. The 700 dollar range is for non-clean room type stuff like a bad logic board. Clean room recoveries that need a head rack change are closer to the 2000 range. If you've got a lot of physical media damage than it's typically only a small chance for recovery and even then you don't pay anything if they don't get your data. Well I can't say that about all companies just from my experience.

 

[roel9]

Well guess what...... it's alive..... ALIVE!

I don't know what the problem was but the HDD is definitely not dead.

This is what I did:

The SATA hard disk controller was by default set to RAID. I changed this to AHCI. At this point the disk got recognized in the bios and also by some software programs. But it still said device error and it showed 0MB for capacity.

Then I switched it to IDE and when I booted from the drive I got to the windows option menu where I could choose to resume windows(I left it in sleep mode before it stopped working) or to start windows normaly. At this point I knew the disk was OK. I chose to start normaly but got A blue screen. Later I tried the windows fix startup and system restore but neither did help.

So I switched it back to RAID and voilà: everything works like it used to.


If someone else has this kind of problem this is what you can try.

 

[atulmaniya]

Still you shud back up your data for emergency failing. If the data are too much important then why take a risk?