Is my hard drive broken?

[DarthSmartt]

I have a 1tb laptop drive in a usb enclosure. The accelerometer works to stop the drive when it is moved. However, I pu it by my ear, and rotated it, and it sounded like taking a dremel to plastic. if i keep tilting it the sound gets lower and lower pitched. When I stop it spins back to full speed. Should I be concerned that the platter is hitting the casing and pull all my data off it, or is it just the accelerometer slowing the frive down and it is making a weird noise? The data on the drive is all accessable at normal speeds. It writes fine too.

[dalekphalm]

12 minutes ago, DarthSmartt said:

I have a 1tb laptop drive in a usb enclosure. The accelerometer works to stop the drive when it is moved. However, I pu it by my ear, and rotated it, and it sounded like taking a dremel to plastic. if i keep tilting it the sound gets lower and lower pitched. When I stop it spins back to full speed. Should I be concerned that the platter is hitting the casing and pull all my data off it, or is it just the accelerometer slowing the frive down and it is making a weird noise? The data on the drive is all accessable at normal speeds. It writes fine too.

Those kinda of sounds are never a good sign. 

 

I would first check the SMART data, then run the manufacturers specific diagnostic tool and do a “long” or “full” test. 

[DarthSmartt]

32 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Those kinda of sounds are never a good sign. 

 

I would first check the SMART data, then run the manufacturers specific diagnostic tool and do a “long” or “full” test. 

Now it wont recognize the drive. Disk manager says to initialize it. I found a software that is somehow recovering my data even though it is encrypted. Im using a software called easeus

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, DarthSmartt said:

Now it wont recognize the drive. Disk manager says to initialize it. I found a software that is somehow recovering my data even though it is encrypted. Im using a software called easeus

Your drive is encrypted? That wasn't mentioned in the OP.

 

How is it encrypted? With a key or a password?

[DarthSmartt]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

Your drive is encrypted? That wasn't mentioned in the OP.

 

How is it encrypted? With a key or a password?

Sorry. It is just bitlocker encrypted with a password. I basically hit next on all the settings when i was setting it up.

[dalekphalm]

4 minutes ago, DarthSmartt said:

Sorry. It is just bitlocker encrypted with a password. I basically hit next on all the settings when i was setting it up.

Well, running SMART tests should not affect the BitLocker encryption, as it doesn't actually read the data on the drive, just the sectors themselves, and whether they function.

[whzzupp]

16 hours ago, DarthSmartt said:

Now it wont recognize the drive. Disk manager says to initialize it.

Can you boot from a linux live stick (https://getfedora.org/fmw/FedoraMediaWriter-win32-4.1.0.exe) and look from there if its showing the drive?

With gnome disks you can read out/test smart.

[DarthSmartt]

5 hours ago, whzzupp said:

Can you boot from a linux live stick (https://getfedora.org/fmw/FedoraMediaWriter-win32-4.1.0.exe) and look from there if its showing the drive?

With gnome disks you can read out/test smart.

I don't really want to deal with linux, but if my data recovery software doesnt work then I will. easeus failed me so i am trying stellar data recovery.

[dalekphalm]

4 minutes ago, DarthSmartt said:

I don't really want to deal with linux, but if my data recovery software doesnt work then I will. easeus failed me so i am trying stellar data recovery.

You're skipping steps.

 

You should test the drive first, before trying data recovery.

 

Also, Linux Live CD's (or USB's) are very easy to use, and often include many utilities that could help you.

 

You don't have to Install Linux or configure it or anything, just create the Live USB (of which there are many guides to walk you through the steps).

[DarthSmartt]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

You're skipping steps.

 

You should test the drive first, before trying data recovery.

 

Also, Linux Live CD's (or USB's) are very easy to use, and often include many utilities that could help you.

 

You don't have to Install Linux or configure it or anything, just create the Live USB (of which there are many guides to walk you through the steps).

Ive used linux mint in the past. Should I use that?

 

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, DarthSmartt said:

Ive used linux mint in the past. Should I use that?

 

You could.

 

I would personally use a specialized utility distro, such as PartedMagic. It has a bunch of useful utilities pre-installed and configured.

[DarthSmartt]

22 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

You could.

 

I would personally use a specialized utility distro, such as PartedMagic. It has a bunch of useful utilities pre-installed and configured.

Ill stick with what i'm familliar with

[dalekphalm]

Just now, DarthSmartt said:

Ill stick with what i'm familliar with

Does the Linux Mint live USB contain utilities necessary to help you troubleshoot? If not, you'll have to download and install the tools you need.

 

I have no idea what Linux Mint pre-installs. If you're confident, then give it a try.

[DarthSmartt]

2 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Does the Linux Mint live USB contain utilities necessary to help you troubleshoot? If not, you'll have to download and install the tools you need.

 

I have no idea what Linux Mint pre-installs. If you're confident, then give it a try.

I have absolutely no idea what im doing but ill figure it out.

 

[dalekphalm]

Just now, DarthSmartt said:

I have absolutely no idea what im doing but ill figure it out.

 

That's the spirit.

[DarthSmartt]

48 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

That's the spirit.

The only thing that was on there that i cared about was school stuff. I'm going to take a break from it for a day since i have other school work to catch up on. Ill just face my ela teacher's wrath for a day. Thanks for your help.

[dalekphalm]

4 minutes ago, DarthSmartt said:

The only thing that was on there that i cared about was school stuff. I'm going to take a break from it for a day since i have other school work to catch up on. Ill just face my ela teacher's wrath for a day. Thanks for your help.

For future reference, if it's a mechanical HDD, do NOT pick it up while it's in use. That's just asking for trouble. Even if it has a sensor to park the head.

[DarthSmartt]

11 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

For future reference, if it's a mechanical HDD, do NOT pick it up while it's in use. That's just asking for trouble. Even if it has a sensor to park the head.

Yeah. I try not to. If it is a laptop hdd, is it ok if it suffers drops while not in use? How durable are they?

[star_weaver]

avoiding dropping anything with moving parts is always a good idea, they can handle some small drops but i wouldnt be willing to drop it any more than knee high onto semi soft material

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, DarthSmartt said:

Yeah. I try not to. If it is a laptop hdd, is it ok if it suffers drops while not in use? How durable are they?

I mean, it's better to drop it while it's off than while it's on, but no, HDD's are not particularly durable when dropped.

 

I've dropped some, and they were fine. But you can also drop one less than a foot and kill it. Dropping it onto a couch, or a short distance onto carpet, and it'll probably be fine. Dropping it onto a hard floor and it's probably dead or damaged after.

 

I'd not risk it either way.

 

Fortunately my Laptop has an SSD (not that I would drop it anyway).

[whzzupp]

14 hours ago, DarthSmartt said:

I don't really want to deal with linux, but if my data recovery software doesnt work then I will. easeus failed me so i am trying stellar data recovery.

you dont have to deal with it... just download the .exe (from here https://getfedora.org/fmw/FedoraMediaWriter-win32-4.1.0.exe), select a usb stick, wait and reboot/plug it in you laptop and boot

 

it could be that you have to change the boot order by spamming [del], [F1], [F2],... or so at boot and move at "boot" your stick to the top of the list

 

then when you have booted from usb, click on try without install, press the [win] key, type "disk" and press enter.

then choose "smart-values and selftest" (Screenshot (sry im german xD))

 

and there look after "failure" or high values... (or take a screenshot)

you can also make a smart test there