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Hard disk not working


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#1
yesiammanu

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I have a Seagate Barracuda 1gb hard drive which, up until today, had been working fine. My computer froze up and I was forced to restart, and it would no longer be able to start up normaly. After an hour or so, I got a new error message: Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, Backup and Replace. If I continue, it says there was a disk read error.

Is there any way to fix the problems I'm facing? I'm okay with getting a new hard drive but do not want to lose my data and want to avoid throwing away this hard drive if I can. I've heard of linux live USB's that you can boot from, and access your drive which is having trouble. Is this a good option?

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!
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#2
Kemasa

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Based on what you are saying, it is best to backup the disk and to get a replacement.

You should be able to test the drive with this:

http://www.seagate.c...loads/seatools/

but, it is best to ensure that you have the data backed up first.

If the drive is still under warranty, you might be able to get it replaced, but getting it fixed on your own is most likely not worth it and to use it could mean that you are risking the data on it.

There are also tools from manufacturers to make it easier to copy the data, such as:

http://www.seagate.c...ads/discwizard/
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#3
yesiammanu

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The hard drive shows up in my hard disk drives in my computer as "H", and even reports the storage information. I tried accessing it, but it said it could not because of I/O errors. I right clicked it and tried error cehcking, but it didn't seem to resolve the issue. When I ran SeaTools for windows, it could not recognize the Seagate drive, only my other Western Digital one that I am using temporarily.

Does this mean my data is unrecoverable? It still shows up in device manager sometimes. Curiously, I also have an unknown/unreadable additional drive "E" that only appears when I plug in drive "H"

Edited by yesiammanu, 04 April 2013 - 04:54 AM.

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#4
Kemasa

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This is the reason to backup your data before you have a problem.

It sounds like it has a serious problem now. You could try changing the data cable to the drive, but that might not work. There are companies who might be able to recover the data, but are typically quite expensive.

As to the drive letters, it might have lost what drive letter it should be. Did you try running the diags on the E drive?
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#5
yesiammanu

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If you mean Seatools and DiscWizard by diag, SeaTools doesn't recognize the drive, and DiscWizard just continually says to insert a Seagate product

Error-checking for E does not work because the system cannot access the disk

What do you mean by changing data cable? Do you mean the small pronged-one next to the power supply? I tried replacing it with the connectors to the CD Drive, and it appears to have the same issue so I don't think its a cable issue.

I've already ordered my additional hard drive so I guess I'll just have to start fresh. Thank you for your help.
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#6
Kemasa

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Since the tools can't see the drive and know that it is a Seagate disk (you are sure that it is a Seagate disk?), then there is not much which can be done.

Yes, that is the data cable.
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