SATA HDD dying?
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Hello all, I do have a secondary SATA HDD installed in my desktop computer. The last two days it has started stopping and restarting automatically. I mean I can hear the HDD accelerating each time I try to access it. and when it happens the complete OS gets frozen until after a while it becomes responsive again... The issue here is that it has plenty of information inside and I would like not to loose it... nothing terribly important that can't be recovered, but of course it would be nice not having to reconstruct some virtual machines that are helpful from time to time... It looks like the HDD gets stopped as per an energy saving feature or something like that... Which would be your recommendation? Any way to test if the drive is what is dying? I've tried to run a chkdsk on it but after doing that and waiting for the computer to unfreeze again, the computer is not showing me the HDD anymore in "This PC"... Of course after restarting the computer the hdd reappears as always... X| thank you in advance! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
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Hello all, I do have a secondary SATA HDD installed in my desktop computer. The last two days it has started stopping and restarting automatically. I mean I can hear the HDD accelerating each time I try to access it. and when it happens the complete OS gets frozen until after a while it becomes responsive again... The issue here is that it has plenty of information inside and I would like not to loose it... nothing terribly important that can't be recovered, but of course it would be nice not having to reconstruct some virtual machines that are helpful from time to time... It looks like the HDD gets stopped as per an energy saving feature or something like that... Which would be your recommendation? Any way to test if the drive is what is dying? I've tried to run a chkdsk on it but after doing that and waiting for the computer to unfreeze again, the computer is not showing me the HDD anymore in "This PC"... Of course after restarting the computer the hdd reappears as always... X| thank you in advance! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
Copy everything off now. Then worry about if it's the HDD. If it is, then it's a bin job and it will fully fail soon. So get your data backed up as the first priority - it's far too easy to miss something you can't easily replace! If it isn't, then you have the backup anyway, and know you have time to sort the problem properly. It may be an energy saving feature - my NAS spins down when not in use, and takes time to spin back up again when you need it - but the 'computer is not showing me the HDD anymore in "This PC"' bit worries me: energy saving is normally initiated by the OS, so if it can't find it after it's been spun down it may be that it's not spinning up correctly which could be a electronics fault.
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Hello all, I do have a secondary SATA HDD installed in my desktop computer. The last two days it has started stopping and restarting automatically. I mean I can hear the HDD accelerating each time I try to access it. and when it happens the complete OS gets frozen until after a while it becomes responsive again... The issue here is that it has plenty of information inside and I would like not to loose it... nothing terribly important that can't be recovered, but of course it would be nice not having to reconstruct some virtual machines that are helpful from time to time... It looks like the HDD gets stopped as per an energy saving feature or something like that... Which would be your recommendation? Any way to test if the drive is what is dying? I've tried to run a chkdsk on it but after doing that and waiting for the computer to unfreeze again, the computer is not showing me the HDD anymore in "This PC"... Of course after restarting the computer the hdd reappears as always... X| thank you in advance! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
Joan Murt wrote:
The issue here is that it has plenty of information inside and I would like not to loose it
IMO, before doing anything else, I'd start thinking about making a copy of your data ASAP. after that, diagnose the problem.
I'd rather be phishing!
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Copy everything off now. Then worry about if it's the HDD. If it is, then it's a bin job and it will fully fail soon. So get your data backed up as the first priority - it's far too easy to miss something you can't easily replace! If it isn't, then you have the backup anyway, and know you have time to sort the problem properly. It may be an energy saving feature - my NAS spins down when not in use, and takes time to spin back up again when you need it - but the 'computer is not showing me the HDD anymore in "This PC"' bit worries me: energy saving is normally initiated by the OS, so if it can't find it after it's been spun down it may be that it's not spinning up correctly which could be a electronics fault.
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
Yes, I'm doing that right now... I hope nothing will happen to the drive anyway... it looks it is copying data to my primary hdd at a steady 40..50MB/s Crossing fingers here... I guess the HDD is damaged somehow... it takes a lot of time to start the computer and all the energy saving features I know of have been disabled therefore this should not be the reason... :sigh:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
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Joan Murt wrote:
The issue here is that it has plenty of information inside and I would like not to loose it
IMO, before doing anything else, I'd start thinking about making a copy of your data ASAP. after that, diagnose the problem.
I'd rather be phishing!
Yes, I'm doing that right now... I hope nothing will happen to the drive anyway... it looks it is copying data to my primary hdd at a steady 40..50MB/s Crossing fingers here... I guess the HDD is damaged somehow... it takes a lot of time to start the computer and all the energy saving features I know of have been disabled therefore this should not be the reason... :sigh:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
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Hello all, I do have a secondary SATA HDD installed in my desktop computer. The last two days it has started stopping and restarting automatically. I mean I can hear the HDD accelerating each time I try to access it. and when it happens the complete OS gets frozen until after a while it becomes responsive again... The issue here is that it has plenty of information inside and I would like not to loose it... nothing terribly important that can't be recovered, but of course it would be nice not having to reconstruct some virtual machines that are helpful from time to time... It looks like the HDD gets stopped as per an energy saving feature or something like that... Which would be your recommendation? Any way to test if the drive is what is dying? I've tried to run a chkdsk on it but after doing that and waiting for the computer to unfreeze again, the computer is not showing me the HDD anymore in "This PC"... Of course after restarting the computer the hdd reappears as always... X| thank you in advance! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
Joan Murt wrote:
Which would be your recommendation? Any way to test if the drive is what is dying? I've tried to run a chkdsk on it but after doing that and waiting for the computer to unfreeze again, the computer is not showing me the HDD anymore in "This PC"... Of course after restarting the computer the hdd reappears as always... X|
What brand is the HDD? Most manufacturers have software that will test the HDD for you. The Ultimate Boot CD[^] has many of these tools available to run from a boot disk to test the HDD. Hiren's Boot[^] has a Mini Windows XP you can use to run chkdsk on the HDD or copy data off. Parted Magic[^] (costs USD$4.99) can be used to reconstruct elephanted partitions and copy data off said elephanted partitions. YUMI[^] is an awesome bit of kit. Stand alone tool that can be used to put all of the above boot disks (and many more) on the one USB drive. Kind of a Swiss army knife.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Hello all, I do have a secondary SATA HDD installed in my desktop computer. The last two days it has started stopping and restarting automatically. I mean I can hear the HDD accelerating each time I try to access it. and when it happens the complete OS gets frozen until after a while it becomes responsive again... The issue here is that it has plenty of information inside and I would like not to loose it... nothing terribly important that can't be recovered, but of course it would be nice not having to reconstruct some virtual machines that are helpful from time to time... It looks like the HDD gets stopped as per an energy saving feature or something like that... Which would be your recommendation? Any way to test if the drive is what is dying? I've tried to run a chkdsk on it but after doing that and waiting for the computer to unfreeze again, the computer is not showing me the HDD anymore in "This PC"... Of course after restarting the computer the hdd reappears as always... X| thank you in advance! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
Like all the others, get a copy of the data. Curious - how old is the drive? Most of my drives have 3 year warranties. They get imaged once/week, but once they get to the 3 year mark, they get replaced. The old drives get smashed. It's not if the drive will fail but when... hope you get all the data off. FWIW, I seriously doubt this is an environmental / power saving setting. Those might cause a pause but not a complete hang like you describe.
Charlie Gilley Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Like all the others, get a copy of the data. Curious - how old is the drive? Most of my drives have 3 year warranties. They get imaged once/week, but once they get to the 3 year mark, they get replaced. The old drives get smashed. It's not if the drive will fail but when... hope you get all the data off. FWIW, I seriously doubt this is an environmental / power saving setting. Those might cause a pause but not a complete hang like you describe.
Charlie Gilley Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Hmm, just another thing, is it a 2tb or bigger drive? I've read a while back that there spinup time in some cases are too long, and that Windows sometimes timeout before it's ready. I think there's some hotfix on MS, but they said something along the lines that you should only apply it if you're sure it's affecting your dri :-\ ve.
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Joan Murt wrote:
Which would be your recommendation? Any way to test if the drive is what is dying? I've tried to run a chkdsk on it but after doing that and waiting for the computer to unfreeze again, the computer is not showing me the HDD anymore in "This PC"... Of course after restarting the computer the hdd reappears as always... X|
What brand is the HDD? Most manufacturers have software that will test the HDD for you. The Ultimate Boot CD[^] has many of these tools available to run from a boot disk to test the HDD. Hiren's Boot[^] has a Mini Windows XP you can use to run chkdsk on the HDD or copy data off. Parted Magic[^] (costs USD$4.99) can be used to reconstruct elephanted partitions and copy data off said elephanted partitions. YUMI[^] is an awesome bit of kit. Stand alone tool that can be used to put all of the above boot disks (and many more) on the one USB drive. Kind of a Swiss army knife.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
Thank you again Michael! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
