troubleshooting HDD stopped working, after I haven't turn on my pc for 3 months

[damian277]

Hello, I moved to a new place and haven't turned on my pc since June 6, yesterday I wanted to check a few stuff but the hdd wasn't working anymore. My ssd was booting without any issue, but the hdd didn't show up. I tried to boot without the ssd, but the it just simply freezed - I couldn't even reach the bios screen. Type of the HDD: Seagate 1TB SATA3 64MB ST1000DM010 

 

This is where am I now:  

• HDD is not showing up, can't even boot the pc
• HDD is spinning if I'm not connecting the Sata cable
• The cable is working with other HDD, I've tried it with my external storage drive
• Same issue with all the 4 sata ports

•  

 

Any idea what happened? There was no warning sign that the HDD is dying or something, it's around 1 year old. 

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 minute ago, damian277 said:

Hello, I moved to a new place and haven't turned on my pc since June 6, yesterday I wanted to check a few stuff but the hdd wasn't working anymore. My ssd was booting without any issue, but the hdd didn't show up. I tried to boot without the ssd, but the it just simply freezed - I couldn't even reach the bios screen. Type of the HDD: Seagate 1TB SATA3 64MB ST1000DM010 

 

This is where am I now:  

• HDD is not showing up, can't even boot the pc
• HDD is spinning if I'm not connecting the Sata cable
• The cable is working with other HDD, I've tried it with my external storage drive

 

Any idea what happened? There was no warning sign that the HDD is dying or something, it's around 1 year old. 

 

You missed one crucial step. Trying a different SATA port on the board. 

[damian277]

1 minute ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

You missed one crucial step. Trying a different SATA port on the board. 

I've tried, sorry haven't mentioned above. Same result, hdd is not spinning 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Just now, damian277 said:

I've tried, sorry haven't mentioned above. Same result, hdd is not spinning 

So it spins if you don't connect a SATA cable. But when you do have a SATA cable attached, it's as dead as a doornail as the computer boots? 

[damian277]

Just now, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

So it spins if you don't connect a SATA cable. But when you do have a SATA cable attached, it's as dead as a doornail as the computer boots? 

Yes, exactly. No sign of life 

[kb5zue]

So, were looking at just a couple of different options.

 

1.  HDD connected to PWR and SATA   -   Don't work.

2.  HDD connected to PWR only            -   Works

3.  HDD Connected to PWR only           -    Doesn't work

4.  HDD connected to SATA only            -   Doesn't work

5.  HDD appears in the BIOS                  -  Options are promising

6.  HDD does NOT appear in BIOS        -  Things looking real bad at this point

 

Judging from the looks of things covering the options above, things aren't looking too good.

 

 

[mariushm]

Change sata cable.

Get some those cotton tip sticks and some alcohol and rub the contacts of the sata data connector on the hard drive. If possible, repeat on motherboard end. 

 

It's possible the battery's voltage is too low, after pc sat disconnected from mains for a few months. Consider replacing it, it's cheap. 

Though you said the SSD shows up fine, so I guess bios settings were still saved and working. 

 

Grab a multimeter and put it in continuity or resistance mode and see if the data pins are shorted (measure resistance / continuity between the data pins in the connector). If shorted / very low resistance, some protection diodes on the drive or the controller chip may have kicked the bucket

 

[damian277]

Some updates.

 

I blowed out the dust and cleaned the things around the hdd and motherboard ports again, now it seems like that it's working again, but makes some kind high pitch noises when I'm trying to load up things from the hdd. 

I've downloaded a disk health check software and it shows that the drive has 4320 bad and 8 weak sectors. I guess I need to save my data asap.