Hard Drive Dead. Please Help

pillainp · 06 Jan 2015

Hi,
I have a HDD (Seagate ST2000DM001 2TB) that has suddenly died on me.

The drive is not recognised either in the BIOS or in Windows 7. Additionally, the system refuses to boot when this particular drive is connected. I have tried changing data and power cables but that does not cause the drive to be recognised.

Strangely, Seagate's bootable firmware updater sees the drive and has updated the firmware from CC26 to CC29. The firmware updater reports the drive health status as being GOOD and the SMART status as HEALTHY.

This drive contains all of my financial and personal data, which I cannot afford to lose, and valuable irreplaceable pictures of the kids.

Is there anything I can try before I am forced to hand over the drive to a professional data recovery company?

Slartybart · 06 Jan 2015

Please post information about your drives so that a member can determine if there is a misconfiguration. Having this information also makes it easier to a discuss course of action.
See: Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

You could also try Minitool Partition Wizard (PW)
For a quick test, download the Home Edition, then post a screenshot of the initial PW screen.
See: Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

The initial screen provides all the information needed at this point. If further action can be taken, it might be better to use the Bootable CD, download the ISO from the link above (at the bottom of the downloads page)and burn it to a disc (CD is fine - it's small enough)

Is this an internal or external drive?

LMiller7 · 06 Jan 2015

All software data recovery methods begin with the drives recognition in BIOS. But that is only the beginning.

You need to decide early on whether your data is worth the cost of professional data recovery which will be expensive. There is the risk that repeated do it yourself recovery methods may further damage the drive to the point where professional recovery is more difficult or not possible at all. Only you can decide if the risk is warranted.

The possibility of drive failure is just one reason why many people make backups before problems develop. All files of any importance need at least one backup copy. Files of particular importance (as appears to be the case here) should have a minimum of 2 backup copies. Having no backups is like walking a high wire without a net. Sooner or later you will fall (the drive fails).