Solved How do i test my external hard drive

[CityLady]

Hi there i was wondering if the was an online diagnostics tool to help me find out what is wrong with my external hard drive. the external hard drive is a Seagate free agent Go flex 320 gb and recently is wouldn't let me copy from it or too it. I have managed eventually to get the stuff removed from it and the transfer rate was almost none existent. I have formatted the disk now and want to know if any test is possible?


Thanks

City lady

 

[CityLady]

Ok i have done some research into this and found the problem is my external hard drive says RAW and not Ntfs file system and cannot understand why this has happened. any help on this matter would be most welcomed!

 

[thefabe]

I found this EASY TO SOLVE RAW DRIVE AND ACCESS IT AGAIN

A corrupt or missing boot sector will cause such kind of problem

To fix the boot sector, you may refer to http://www.ptdd.com/partition-table-doctor/help/fixboot.htm

If this still cannnot be solved, you have to recover all the data (burn to cd if you can access the drive) and then reformat the partion to NTFS or FAT32 which ever you run, so you can enter the partion.

You can also type in search box and run chkdsk.
Or download and run seatools http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools
Which I would run frst I have this written all bassakwards so do it this way, run seatools/chkdsk/ then try the llink above.
Hope this will help
Fabe

 

[NoN]

Fixboot (aka Partition Table Doctor) isn't available anymore...you can try Data Recovery Wizard the time to repair, the boot sector.

Try also a search for "HDD Regenerator 1.71" instead. The free version will let you repair one sector at once.

Then if windows allows you to see the disk in explorer, format in NTFS again with the default settings for Ntfs format..

 

[CityLady]

Ok update on the problem I have...


I managed to delete the partition on the external hard drive and format it, now giving me an unallocated and not initialized drive. I go to disk management and right click the drive to initialize and it starts to do it only for win expl to stop working and then it hangs for ages. when I unplug the external hard drive windows goes back to normal again. Then a messge pops up couldn't initialize the drive due to a I\O error which i presume is an input and output error. The drive was showing healthy pre format just wouldn't show up in windows explorer and makes all programs I use while the drive is plugged in hang terribly.

Hope to hear any solutions to this problem. I have tried all kinds of programs to aid with this to no avail.

 

[theog]

download and run seatools | Seagate
Hope this will help
Fabe

Do you use the the tool thefabe linked you to?

 

[CityLady]

download and run seatools | Seagate
Hope this will help
Fabe

Do you use the the tool thefabe linked you to?

Yes i tried seatools and the tests would work on the drive the only on that did was the first test in the list and it repaired one sector, i did it again and again until it recognised the drive for me to format it. Now the only problem is as i have said before. My comp doesn't see the drive but disk management does and will start to do the commands I request then hang. I was a little bit confused by seatools but ran the tests one by one and like I said only the first in the list worked. The other program wouldn't work at all HDD regenerator. That was useless to be honest.

I am not worried about what was on the drive it can be replaced i am more concerned about getting the drive working again.

Thank you for posting responses even though I am in still with out a solved problem.

 

[theog]

Can you post a screen shot Disk management?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-how-post-screenshot-seven-forums.html

Screenshot tools.
Snipping Tool - Windows 7 features - Microsoft Windows
Use Snipping Tool to capture screen shots
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9717-screenshot-paint.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/51160-screenshot-upload-using-mwsnap.html
fscapture free download

Use Snipping Tool to capture screen shots

 

[CityLady]

Can you post a screen shot Disk management?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-how-post-screenshot-seven-forums.html

Screenshot tools.
Snipping Tool - Windows 7 features - Microsoft Windows
Use Snipping Tool to capture screen shots
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9717-screenshot-paint.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/51160-screenshot-upload-using-mwsnap.html
fscapture free download

Use Snipping Tool to capture screen shots

I am away for a couple of days on business, so I will do it when I get back on Friday. Thank you for staying with me on this it's very much appreciated, as I am not well up on this kind of thing but I am learning all the time from being here.

 

[Golden]

Hi,

If you can manage to run a chkdsk (without any switches at this stage), can you post the results here so we can look at it? It might give us a clue as to what could be going on with your drive.

Regards,
Golden

 

[CityLady]

Hi guys, i know what the problem was with my external hard drive it was a faulty connector inside the hard drive casing. I took it to the dealers where they return faulty drives and he knew right away when he plugged it in. They recovered all the data for me for a small fee and replaced my external hard drive and as they didn't have the size of drive as my original they gave me a 500gb as opposed to the 320gb.

thank you so much for taking the time to post on this thread.....

CityLady