HArd Disk Smart Status Bad - Western Digital

[TonyJS317]

When I plug in my Western Digital it gives me the following error:

"IDE Channel 2 Slave Hard Disk.....
S.m.a.r.t Status Bad
Warning: Immediately Back Up"

It is a WD 5000YS, I guess.......

It will not allow my computer to boot when I plug it in. If I connect it alone or with my other HD my cpu will not boot. With it plugged in the initial Win 7 Load screens go by. But eventually it just locks on a solid black screen. I think sometimes with a cursor top left. Surly there is a way to boot my CPU with it hooked up so I can test it?

What can I try? Is there anything I need to tell you to help me?

 

[bobafetthotmail]

S.m.a.r.t logs hardware failures at hardware level. That disk is dead.

Can you try booting and then connecting it afterwards? If it is a SATA disk it will get recognized eventually, but might also freeze the PC.

I usually use external enclosures to do these things (file transfers from dying HDDs), as the enclosure's interface board does shield the PC from the bunch of errors that would freeze or lock it up if connected directly.

 

[TonyJS317]

Saving the data

So, do not worry about rescuing the disk or attempting to run any diagnostic on it. Assume it is dead.

But based on what I said. There is a chance some/all data is recoverable. It is a sata. Should I unplug the power on it as well? Or just the "SATA" cord/connection(Is that what it is called) in hopes it will be recognized?

If I do get access to the disk again. Can you think of any program or method which might be the best route? Or just a typical copy from the dead disk to a working one?

Ty!

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Correct. When even BIOS freaks out when looking at the SMART report of the drive (that message you posted comes from the BIOS), it's well beyond hope. Save data and trash it (or open it to recover useful neodymium magnets to play with)

Sata drives have a feature called "hot plug", that is you can connect/disconnect the data cable while the PC is running and the device will eventually get recognized. Not possible with the system disk for obvious reasons.

Connect data then power. Try multiple times as it's not 100% likely to run at the first time. Disconnect/reconnect power, leave data connected.

To transfer files I prefer to use FastCopy, but mainly because it is faster than copy-paste, and smarter (in case it finds unreadable stuff it logs the error and keeps copying the rest instead of going blind panic and closing like standard copy-paste).

EDIT: to clarify, SMART is an integrated hardware diagnostic system that runs on its own from inside the disk. All programs that check the drive generally look at the report of this system, or check the drive for bad sectors. BIOS has some limited abilities to look at it too.