HDD not detected both internally and externally

Trentonxx · May 1, 2020

Hi,

I just assembled a new pc (specs in signature) and I borrowed a 3TB Barracuda HDD from the old one. this HDD has lots of years of service and in my old pc sometimes it would not show up (as if the sata cable was detatched) usually a restart would fix the problem.

when I installed it in my new system, (by Sata) it freaked out the file browser. it would take minutes to load, and then give error, opening disk manager would take ages. I got some prompt asking me to format the disk (NO!) and same behaviour happened when plugged from an external USB station. (Drive E:)

needeless to say, I have lots of data I want to recovery from that drive (Phone backups etc..) any idea where to start to get it readable again? how screwed am I?

thank you so much

aDoomGuy · May 1, 2020

Well ...that depends....

If the fault is with the SATA connection, then it depends on how hard it is to get a good enough connection.

If the fault is on the chip, plate or read head then you can be mucho screwed. Equipment for reading from such a drive is very very expensive.

Trentonxx · May 1, 2020

8 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

Well ...that depends....

If the fault is with the SATA connection, then it depends on how hard it is to get a good enough connection.

If the fault is on the chip, plate or read head then you can be mucho screwed. Equipment for reading from such a drive is very very expensive.

I might try rebooting some times until it finally read it (the external base makes things faster) or eventually plug it into the old pc hoping it would keep recognize it long enough for a copy (usually when moving large files it would crash in the middle and when refreshed my OS would simply say: can't find path -because the disk was offline- )

is there a way to tell which one is it? because I can still get the correct name of the drive from the bios, and I can "right-click, properties" on it (even tho it takes a long time to do so) so I hope maybe it's just missing the index? it does not make weird noise.

techy_akshay · May 1, 2020

You can go for a SATA dock. It has an on/off button(if you have a separate system for doing it.). And, you need to go for data recovery as HDDs are not SSDs. It has moving and sliding parts. If you are able to get the data from it..it saves your day and a lot of bucks.

If you are really unfortunate with this...then you will have to invest a lot for data recovery plus you will have to go for a new HDD or if your budget permits...SSD.