External HD slowing down PC?

Mitch656 · 15 Feb 2015

Hi,
So im trying to recover my sister dead external HD.
I removed it from it case and plug it directly into my desktop.

The only thing is when I plug her HD in the machine, Windows will take 5+ to boot. First it will show my BIOS brand screen for like 30sec then starting windows for like 5minuties. Then it said a disk check was need ( I skipped it) When windows finally loads I try to click on drive and it will cause windows explorer to stop responding.

I have given up now and have returned to my normal HD and SSD and boot time is lighting fast.

Why is it when I plug the external in, my boot time is slow? I'm still using the SSD to boot into windows.

Golden · 15 Feb 2015

How are you connecting her hard disk? Via USB?

Mitch656 · 15 Feb 2015

Golden said:

How are you connecting her hard disk? Via USB?

Sorry I'm not very tech savvy. Its not by usb, I'm connecting it as if it was like a normal HD/SSD. Two plugs are connected to it.

Its originally a external hard drive that is possibly dead, so I removed it from case and trying to plug directly to PC

CKWD · 16 Feb 2015

Hello Mitch656!

Looks like the damage is so severe that the system can't identify or read the drive fully.

When you connect the drive and start the PC the system tries to identify everything connected to it. Where there's a problem, the system could hang as it is "reading" the object the entire time. The object is unreadable, the system continues to try and fully identify it the whole time, everything else – loading time, desktop etc. suffer from that, still the device is still unreadable and there goes the loop.

That's why when you tried to open the drive from Explorer everything completely froze.

The damage could as well be even in the drive's socket, interfering to the connection. How did you set it up exactly in your PC? Did you also rearrange boot options? You should have your boot SSD as boot 1 at all times.

Since this has been an external drive I doubt there is an OS on it.

What exactly happened to this drive and what kind of external drive is it, brand, model? Perhaps your best shot would be to get a new enclosure for the drive and use a powered USB hub to connect it to your already booted up system.

Hope this helps! :)

CK_WD

Slartybart · 16 Feb 2015

It sounds as thought the file system on the drive is corrupt.

You have a few options.
1) return the drive to the external casing, connect it via USB (or how ever the case connects - firewire, eSata....)
run check disk with no options, then with the /f option (do NOT run the /r option, fix bad sectors, yet)
Launch an elevated Command Prompt (right click, run as administrator)
Enter the following commands
chkdsk <drive letter>
** post a screen shot

chkdsk <drive letter> /f
** post a screen shot
exit

2) with the drive connected as an internal drive, run check disk when the prompt is given

3) Run the manufacturer's (Seagate tools, WD lifetime diags) test utility (short test, then long test if needed)

Is there data on the drive your sister wants to recover?
No? Then you can wipe the drive (short version) and re-initialize, reformat
Yes? There are some tools do recover the data, but first Windows needs to see the drive.