Solved HDD not working

[dwarfer66]

I had a problem with an external HDD (put in as an external for 3 years all fine) showing as active, and preventing Windows from booting, I have removed it from the PC and put it in external enclosure, it shows up in My Computer (with the drive number but no size details) but I cannot access it.

I tried to load disk management and paragon HD manager but both programs hang until the drive is removed, even trying to format it all I get is a spinning cricle (mouse), as soon as I removed it the right click options show up, cannot even diskpart as it also hangs, is there a way I can access it to format (I know dammit that I will loose all data on it), as I want the drive back again.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello if you want to retrieve data before formatting see this ditty of mine
BOOTABLE UBUNTU
Make a bootable Ubuntu disk Get Ubuntu | Download | Ubuntu
Set the BIOS to boot from the optical when the machine boots it will show you a screen with TRY or INSTALL > select TRY not INSTALL
When it is finished - it takes very little time you will get a screen like in the pic .
Open the drive you want > User and dig down until you get to the data / settings you may be able to copy / paste the material you want to an external source or other installed drive doing this.
I am not sure if it will but I have recovered tons of data etc using this method both on "dead" or just plain drives that you cannot get data from using Windows.

Then to format it try this from Partition Wizard (see pic) Free Partition Manager for Window PC | MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition

 

[dwarfer66]

Cheers mate will try when ubuntu downloads.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Keep us updated and just as a by the by some files may not be able to be opened but not that many and usually easy to copy / paste to another drive in or out.

 

[dwarfer66]

So far MiniTools picks up the drive fine, and am doing a chkdsk on it, and it is SLOW but also finding "file record segments unreadable". but I will let it finish anyway.

 

[dwarfer66]

Even ubuntu could not pick up the HDD so it looks like I may have to format the drive and lose 2TB of my movie backups.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

One or three of these might be worth a try
18 Free Data Recovery Software Tools (November 2014)
&
Five Best Free Data Recovery Tools | Lifehacker Australia

 

[jumanji]

Hi dwarfer66,

Do not give up so easily.

You said Partition Wizard can pick up your drive. Post a screenshot.

Also tell us the model/make/ manufacturer of your drive. You may run the manufacturer's diagnostics/ Repair utility and check the status of the drive. That utility will also repair your drive, if possible.

 

[dwarfer66]

The repair utility also hung when the drive was connected, the only part that worked, was wipe and then format which I have now done. It was a seagate 2TB drive. I have formatted it now, but at least my housemate also had about 300GB of my files on his drive so not all was lost. Thanks for help anyway mate.

 

[jumanji]

Oh!

In all cases where Windows/programs running on Windows have difficulty in reading/accessing the drive, that should be run from outside Windows.

For example, you should have run SeaTools for DOS running it on DOS.

Anyway, since you seem to have most of the data elsewhere and not keen to recover but keen to format, you were the best judge to do what you have done.

Now that it has been formatted, you can go ahead checking it with SeaTools for Windows.

Since you have experienced some difficulties with that drive, it is also worth to keep an eye on it and do a periodical check with that say once in a fortnight and then once in a month.

Entrust any critical data you may not want to lose only if that periodical tests do not show anything detrimental for a period of six months.