Hard disk name suddenly change to ST_M13FQBL ATA

[Elkas]

Greetings , my hdd suddenly disappear from my computer, i download many movies (30gigs) and set music and leave it and go to sleep the next day the download stop the torrent said "Error: The system cannot find the file specified (WriteToDisk) and the hdd disappear from my computer, and when i restart my pc the name in the bios change to ST_M13FQBL ATA, the size shrunk from 1tb to 4gb and i can't access the file anymore and same name also in the device manager. I search around google and internet day and night nonstop to find solution and it people said it was firmware bug , head, pcb, related. I saw this video

I take my bicycle and go to the nearest store and they don't have/sell tools like that (or maybe they have but they just don't understand because i ask/say it wrong). Day before this happen there is nothing wrong no weird sound even now.

http://rshl.org/forums/index.php?topic=31404.0

That forum said it's just need a firmware update but he can't update it because the name of the hdd change.

I have 4 hdd :1 IDE 160gb for OS, one 500 gb, one 1tb for gaming, and this one that just has this problem 1 tb that i used to store movie, music, picture. One forum said it was because over/undervoltage bad PSU : the more drive it has the more it will be hard for that PSU to maintain power balance for each drive, that's why they said to but gold feature PSU to avoid this problem. But really i used all 4 hdd for 7 years without any problem up until now. Data recovery is out of questions too expensive for me.

 

Can anyone PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me if there's any guide step by step slowly explain how can i troubleshoot this problem myself?? , the data on that drive is important, is there anyway to fix this???? this problem is really getting on me, i'm really starting to lose my will to lived. No matter how small info it is your help is really appreciated .....

[Energycore]

10 minutes ago, Elkas said:

Greetings , my hdd suddenly disappear from my computer, i download many movies (30gigs) and set music and leave it and go to sleep the next day the download stop the torrent said "Error: The system cannot find the file specified (WriteToDisk) and the hdd disappear from my computer, and when i restart my pc the name in the bios change to ST_M13FQBL ATA, the size shrunk from 1tb to 4gb and i can't access the file anymore and same name also in the device manager. I search around google and internet day and night nonstop to find solution and it people said it was firmware bug , head, pcb, related. I saw this video

I take my bicycle and go to the nearest store and they don't have/sell tools like that (or maybe they have but they just don't understand because i ask/say it wrong). Day before this happen there is nothing wrong no weird sound even now.

http://rshl.org/forums/index.php?topic=31404.0

That forum said it's just need a firmware update but he can't update it because the name of the hdd change.

I have 4 hdd :1 IDE 160gb for OS, one 500 gb, one 1tb for gaming, and this one that just has this problem 1 tb that i used to store movie, music, picture. One forum said it was because over/undervoltage bad PSU : the more drive it has the more it will be hard for that PSU to maintain power balance for each drive, that's why they said to but gold feature PSU to avoid this problem. But really i used all 4 hdd for 7 years without any problem up until now. Data recovery is out of questions too expensive for me.

 

Can anyone PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me if there's any guide step by step slowly explain how can i troubleshoot this problem myself?? , the data on that drive is important, is there anyway to fix this???? this problem is really getting on me, i'm really starting to lose my will to lived. No matter how small info it is your help is really appreciated .....

Maybe @Captain_WD can shed some light into this matter?

[daDILLYdog]

Does the drive show up in Disk management?

[Elkas]

1 minute ago, daDILLYdog said:

Does the drive show up in Disk management?

Yes it is ... it says Disk 1 with a small red arrow pointing to the bottom on the drive icon, it said unknown only 3,86gb Not Initialized and Unallocated, when i open the disk management there is this pop up message "Initialize Disk  you must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it and that (the problem disk) is the only thing on the option and selected, here is the ss

[daDILLYdog]

1 minute ago, Elkas said:

Yes it is ... it says Disk 1 with a small red arrow pointing to the bottom on the drive icon, it said unknown only 3,86gb Not Initialized and Unallocated, when i open the disk management there is this pop up message "Initialize Disk  you must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it and that (the problem disk) is the only thing on the option and selected, here is the ss

maybe driver issues or a bad sata cable the finally kicked the dirt? tried another cable or uninstall drivers then plug it back it maybe?

[Elkas]

1 minute ago, daDILLYdog said:

maybe driver issues or a bad sata cable the finally kicked the dirt? tried another cable or uninstall drivers then plug it back it maybe?

I already try the same red sata cable on the other hdd and it worked fine on them, no matter which sata cable or sata power i used no luck. Please ... help me ....T_T

[Elkas]

Seems like no one knows (or maybe don't want to, or i think it's just me too impatient) how to deal with this.

 

Little bit of rant and i hope it will help those who have bad luck and getting the same problem like me ...

After i take shower and cool my head for like 1 hour, my mind is clear and i decide to moved on and accept this bitter reality, i delete 90% of my game on my other 1tb hdd (thank god i still have all it's installer stored on my external wd element se 500gb) and leave the mmorpg instead like WoW and Tera and Blade and Soul. And just starting to rebuild what i lost there. And for those who in the future maybe see this and happen to be in the same situation like me.

 

-Always have external drive to back up your data. Shit happen , do not underestimate thinking after 8 years your hdd still rocking , remember shit happens.

-Don't strain your hdd by letting them do all things at once, relax and don't be greedy (like me) one at a time, 2 at most.

-Preserve your hdd health as much as you can, i'm too greedy to realize this hdd has served me well enough for 8 years, it's time for her to rest in peace.

-All things dead ... yes even an object, it's sounds ridicoulus but that's reality, soon it will happen to you. Be prepared.

 

I know people will laugh, they will think  "MY GOD CRYING JUST FOR A FUCKING HDD??", i remember once saw a guy crying because his playstations 3 dead and i laugh at him "It's just a ps3 what an idiot" , now i know and understand what he feels , small problem to you doesn't mean it's the same for everyone.

 

Again no offense to anyone , many thanks to master Energycore and master daDILLYdog , may god always be with you and his bless guide you and those dear to you. Thanks for Linus tech tips forum i bet there are tons , countless, million like me who needs help out there. Mod can lock the thread.

[burnttoastnice]

Sorry about your loss . I do have some suggestions though:

• Get a program such as Hard Disk Sentinel to notify you about hard drive status. It can't prevent or predict drive failure but it does give very helpful pointers by analysing a drive's SMART data
• Replace your IDE drives if you can afford to do so. If your motherboard is IDE-only then maybe get a PATA to SATA adapter?
• Did you try another data cable to connect the hard drive to the PC? The problem could just be a bad cable (This happened to me with a IDE drive, but the drive didn't shrink to 4GB, it was just very, very slow to access, between several kilobytes to 1MB/s. Changing cable brought me up to 40MB/s)
• Run malwarebytes on your system (I've got a funny feeling the torrent might have been infected with some kind of zero-day designed to overwrite drive firmware )
• Download a program such as MiniTool Partition Wizard to verify the disk capacity

There is no almost doubt that your data is still on the hard drive platter. Try it in another computer maybe? If you have an identical drive, see if you can swap the drive motherboards

[Elkas]

11 hours ago, burnttoastnice said:

Sorry about your loss . I do have some suggestions though:

• Get a program such as Hard Disk Sentinel to notify you about hard drive status. It can't prevent or predict drive failure but it does give very helpful pointers by analysing a drive's SMART data
• Replace your IDE drives if you can afford to do so. If your motherboard is IDE-only then maybe get a PATA to SATA adapter?
• Did you try another data cable to connect the hard drive to the PC? The problem could just be a bad cable (This happened to me with a IDE drive, but the drive didn't shrink to 4GB, it was just very, very slow to access, between several kilobytes to 1MB/s. Changing cable brought me up to 40MB/s)
• Run malwarebytes on your system (I've got a funny feeling the torrent might have been infected with some kind of zero-day designed to overwrite drive firmware )
• Download a program such as MiniTool Partition Wizard to verify the disk capacity

There is no almost doubt that your data is still on the hard drive platter. Try it in another computer maybe? If you have an identical drive, see if you can swap the drive motherboards

I'm still asking for help almost on every forum and youtube channel that cover this problem

my 160 IDE drives that stores the OS still working for 13 years, i'm afraid if i spend money on it and then suddenly other component died, i have limited amount of money.I have 4 sata cable i swap around all of it with the faulty drive and still same, the the sata cable on the faulty drive is working fine with other drive, the faulty drive is sata ST31000524AS not IDE. I always download torrent from trusted website it's either nyaa torrent or kickass torrent for 8 years without problem. MiniTool Partition Wizard ??? i have Aomei partition assistance is that same?

 

I don't know if this help, i don't it's important but 3 days ago i download about 10 gigs and open winamp and listen to my music, the download i destination is the faulty drive and the music is also on the faulty drives. And then i go to sleep and when i wake up i notice that the song stopped, then i wake up my pc from low power state, and it was lagging like hell, the mouse cursor move slowly the music stop and the download is complete, i open task manage (ctrl+alt+del, weird the mouse move normal on that window with no lag), and close the torrent , winamp but still lagging, when i close the firefox everything turn back to normal, i still can access the faulty drive play movies and music from there no problem. That is the last day my faulty drive ever see the sun.

Stupid of me i did the same thing again i download many movies with torrent and playing music and go to sleep, and then the next day i wake up, all the torrent download stop with red error message , Error: The system cannot find the file specified (WriteToDisk) on each of the torrent, and it was lag like hell again the cursor move slowly like before, the music stop, again i open task manager and close the app one by one, winamp, utorrent, firefox, and i notice the faulty drive is disappear from my computer, and then the rest of the story is on top, i restart my pc and in bios the name change.

 

I still can't accept this and let go ... i'm sure it's just a firmware or BSY bug, but i don't have the tools, no one sell it, i try to find this software:

But i can't find it in google, all i find is just being deleted by my norton 360 said it's a virus.

[Captain_WD]

20 hours ago, Elkas said:

~snip~

Hey there Elkas

 

This is an unpleasant situation. Besides swapping cables have you tried changing SATA ports and even trying the drive on another computer? 
I'd also check how is the drive recognized in BIOS (the capacity) and in Device Manager. 

Try checking the drive's health and S.M.A.R.T. status with a tool from the manufacturer and see if the drive is physically functioning properly or not. 

Have in mind that any testing done on the drive may further damage it so if you have valuable data I would recommend contacting a data recovery company. 

 

Try these things and we can take it from there for further troubleshooting. 

 

Thanks @Energycore for mentioning.

 

Captain_WD.

[Elkas]

Such a shame that when hardisk have problem like this it always means buy new one/RMA 90% of the time, even though it's the most important part that stores Data on PC. And SSD price is insanely expensive.

[Elkas]

42 minutes ago, Captain_WD said:

Hey there Elkas

 

This is an unpleasant situation. Besides swapping cables have you tried changing SATA ports and even trying the drive on another computer? 
I'd also check how is the drive recognized in BIOS (the capacity) and in Device Manager. 

Try checking the drive's health and S.M.A.R.T. status with a tool from the manufacturer and see if the drive is physically functioning properly or not. 

Have in mind that any testing done on the drive may further damage it so if you have valuable data I would recommend contacting a data recovery company. 

 

Try these things and we can take it from there for further troubleshooting. 

 

Thanks @Energycore for mentioning.

 

Captain_WD.

Hey there master Captain_WD , i try changing sata port into all 4, no luck, in bios the capacity is only 4,199mb/4gigs.

Checking the drive's health and S.M.A.R.T status with tool from manufacturer??? you mean seatools, yeah it was detected there but with the bug name  ST_M13FQBL ATA. I did try basic test with that but an error warning came said that the test can possibly further the damage and it is recommend to back up all data before the test (can't even access the drive let alone back up it). If not using seatools from seagate website what other software can i use to check the health and S.M.A.R.T status??

 

Is 100 bucks enough for 1 tb data recovery??? also if i do this i need another healthy hdd of my own or they will provide it ??

 

Note: I'm currently unplug the faulty drives because some people on other forum said, keep using a faulty can further the damage.

It spins so quiet i almost can't hear it, some said the HDD do this to protect data from being damage, i don't know.

[Captain_WD]

18 hours ago, Elkas said:

~snip~

If the drive's capacity isn't recognized properly in the BIOS then the drive has most probably failed or very seriously damaged. 
If the same happens across multiple computers then your best shot would be contacting a data recovery specialist or a company. Their services are quite pricey and I don't think the amount you specified would cover the cost. I'd contact them and specifically ask. The guys there should give you all the info you'll need. 

 

Yes, unplugging the drive is a good idea as any further usage, spinning up or operations may damage it if the drive has a physical problem. 

 

Captain_WD.

[exitfool]

Ive seen a good solution. Need to be very concentrated and it ll cost some money but not much

 

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128807-the-solution-for-seagate-720011-hdds/

[Bagobolts08]

I have exactly the same problem with my HDD! Except for how it was used before hand! I tried all the above fixes machine, cable, software, etc. NO Luck! I have a 1000 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST310000333AS that suddenly decided to identify as 4.1 GB ST_M13FQBL never striped the drive (forum communities question) I begged Seagate for the firmware and the batch file to hopefully take care of it's identification complex! I have yet to flash the drive due to the plethora of other problems given my network using my time and patience! Next up If that doesn't work I will embark on the fruitless endeavor of locating and procuring a board of that model HDD and swap it! 

[Crably]

Mmmm... pretty much exactly the same thing happened to me. Renamed to ST_M13FQBL. 4.4G instead of 1TB. Also in a tree of internal drives (2). This time on an imac.

 

[comsysflight1]

Same here, working 4tb drive one day, next day not working.  Eleven times when SATA power is connected, the heads try to load and fail, per the sound, with ear on the drive, and the drive on another computer.  Device manager sees ST_M13FQBL ATA Device,  Disk Management shows only 3.86GB Unallocatedc and 'You musty initialize before logical disk manager can access it.    Crystal Disk Info 7.1.1 says Health Status Unknown, tem unknown, ST_M13FQBL 4.1 GB    Bubber size 2048, power on count and hours count unknown, ATA/ATAPI-6  ata/atapi06 t13 141od version 2   features s.m.a.r.t., ncq   

 

I wonder if anybody found the exact model drive, a working model and replaced the faulty circuit board with the newly acquired one?

 

Once in a while that does work, though this model is old and will be hard to find working any longer.  

This is a Seagate sn 5yd41xqd   ST2000DL001  PN 9VT156-570  BARACUDA GREEN 2000GB  

 

i saw the earliest post of this problem with Seagate was 2016, no solution posted though.    Any help?  Anybody have that same drive working to sell used?

[comsysflight1]

DIY: Repair Hard Drive PCB. How to swap circuit board ROM chip. - YouTube