I fried my hard drive... right?

[Rexem2017]

Hello everyone,

I was just installing Linux Ubuntu on a laptop I have been repairing (or trying to) because I had to format the hard drive, therefore I needed an OS to use.

Anyways, the computer shut off during the process of installing (broken battery + accidental unplug = bad) and I think I fried my hard drive. When I plugged it back in and turned it back on, the UEFI Firmware Settings showed nothing under the boot priorities, including the USB drive I was using to install Linux.

I plugged the hard drive into a SATA to USB adapter to make it act like an external and possibly fix the issues, and it wasn't recognized. I went into the Disk Management tab. Sorry for the huge image.

The disk I am taking a look at is Disk 1, by the way.

Basically, it has three partitions, but those partitions seem to be the problem. For example, when I right click the middle partition (461 GB), the only options in the dropdown menu that aren't grayed out are the "Delete Volume" and the "Help" options. This is the same with the 3 GB partition. The 512 MB partition only shows the help tab, but since my drive that is working fine shows that also in the first partition, I think that's fine. 

Since I don't know all that much about hard drives, I need a bit of help. Would clicking the "Delete Volume" tab for one or both of the partitions and recreating those partitions help? Or is deleting partitions bad for the drive?

Thanks!

[WereCat]

If you don't care about the files on the drive, format it with cmd.

[vanished]

Since it's showing up it's definitely not fried.  Worst case scenario those partitions are corrupted and just need to delete and try again

[Rexem2017]

Just now, WereCat said:

If you don't care about the files on the drive, format it with cmd.

Well, I don't have anything on there, so I could format it. 

 

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

Since it's showing up it's definitely not fried.  Worst case scenario those partitions are corrupted and just need to delete and try again

Which should I do? Format or delete and try again?

[vanished]

Just now, Rexem2017 said:

Which should I do? Format or delete and try again?

Yes

Delete/format these and try again

[isavegas]

Replace the partition table if you can't just reformat the partitions themselves. Restart your computer and try again if you keep having issues.

[Rexem2017]

How long do you think it will take to format? I started format fs=ntfs and it took over 5 min to get to 1 percent. Does it usually take that long?

[vanished]

2 minutes ago, Rexem2017 said:

How long do you think it will take to format? I started format fs=ntfs and it took over 5 min to get to 1 percent. Does it usually take that long?

That's Windows' slow format. There's a quick format option, or you could use Linux, both are near instant (A few seconds for everything)

[Rexem2017]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

That's Windows' slow format. There's a quick format option, or you could use Linux, both are near instant (A few seconds for everything)

How do I stop the process?

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Just now, Rexem2017 said:

How do I stop the process?

I wouldn't, just let it finish

[Rexem2017]

Alright, it has been an hour and it's still at one percent... is that normal?

[vanished]

2 minutes ago, Rexem2017 said:

Alright, it has been an hour and it's still at one percent... is that normal?

I don't think so...

[Rexem2017]

Weird. Should I keep going? To be honest, I'm not that experienced, so I can't really make my own decisions when it comes to these things.

[vanished]

21 minutes ago, Rexem2017 said:

Weird. Should I keep going? To be honest, I'm not that experienced, so I can't really make my own decisions when it comes to these things.

If I were you, I would be tempted to kill it and go to Linux at this point, but I can't promise that won't mess things up more

[Rexem2017]

12 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

If I were you, I would be tempted to kill it and go to Linux at this point, but I can't promise that won't mess things up more

Well, I don't have Linux, so I'm going for quick format. Remember, the computer I was installing Linux on was the one with the faulty hard drive that I'm trying to fix.

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Just now, Rexem2017 said:

Well, I don't have Linux, so I'm going for quick format. Remember, the computer I was installing Linux on was the one with the faulty hard drive that I'm trying to fix.

But you would have a bootable USB for it right?  That's how you were installing in the first place isn't it?  But yeah, just try quick format, if it works it'll save some time

[Rexem2017]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

But you would have a bootable USB for it right?  That's how you were installing in the first place isn't it?  But yeah, just try quick format, if it works it'll save some time

Yeah, that's true.

[Rexem2017]

23 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

If I were you, I would be tempted to kill it and go to Linux at this point, but I can't promise that won't mess things up more

Well, doing that killed my hard drive (woohoo!). Luckily, I'm not mad at all because I'm getting a free Thinkpad that I can take the hard drive out of. Thanks for the help, though! 

[vanished]

Just now, Rexem2017 said:

Well, doing that killed my hard drive (woohoo!). Luckily, I'm not mad at all because I'm getting a free Thinkpad that I can take the hard drive out of. Thanks for the help, though! 

It is possible it was on its way out anyway... the way the format was behaving was definitely atypical, and I've seen the stress of formatting push near-death HDDs over the edge before (well, once).

[Rexem2017]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

It is possible it was on its way out anyway... the way the format was behaving was definitely atypical, and I've seen the stress of formatting push near-death HDDs over the edge before (well, once).

It's kind of fun to destroy computer parts. Not good ones, but ones that are almost broken are fun to push the limits of. Like I said, thanks for the help!