Internal hard drives not accessible

[jpchoudhari]

Hello Techies,

I have extra 1TB hard disk to my system which suddenly is not accessible. It has four drives one drive is showing as Local Disk and one is showing as New Volume. I can not access any of the drive.

I have data in all the drives and need to know some method to gain access to all the drives. I tried chkdsk /r and some data recovering software but any of them is not working as windows is not gaining access to drive.

Kindly suggest a solution.

Thanks Much!!
Jay

 

[matts6887]

Have you doubled checked to make sure and and all cables are attached to the right places in your system? If not i would take a few moments to check that. also; have you formatted that drive before transferring any data to it? If not that could possibly be where the issue lies.

 

[jpchoudhari]

Hello matts6887,

Yes, I have tried to replace the sata and power cable with my working HDD but no luck and this hard disk i am using over year so yes it was formatted properly before I started using it.

 

[jumanji]

Please post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management with no other external drives/pendrives/USB hubs/card readers/docks connected.

Follow the guidelines here http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html making sure that you hide the Console Tree and Action Pane so that we can view all the information in the WDM screen.

Make/model of the 1 TB internal drive???

Is it still giving an I/O error?

 

[jpchoudhari]

Sorry for the late answer. I was trying to connect it through ubuntu installation.

I am not able to connect to Disk Management. Because it says "Connecting to virtual disk space...." forever.

 

[jumanji]

OK, I had to do a little bit of research on "Connecting to virtual disk service" forever and refresh myself.

Is it your second internal drive that is causing it? The only way we can ascertain it is to disconnect your internal drive and check whether Windows Disk Management runs without it.

Please do it and report.

But before doing that 1. Plug out any card readers/ external HDDs/USB hubs/pen drives/docks

2. Remove any other storage media like CDs/DVDs in your optical drive and floppy
disks (if you still have a floppy drive - I do have )
and then run Windows Disk management and check. ( Many users had reported that removing the card reader which even didn't have an SD card inside and removing the CD from the optical drive resolved that problem - strange as it may seem but reported by not just one user but many.)

If with these things we determine these are not the causatives, then we shall think of the next course of action.

So the current action is 1 and 2 above. If the WDM problem is not resolved disconnect your internal drive and check.

The problem may also be caused by an illegitimate Windows. It was found so in another thread in this very forum.So let us rule out this also. The answer is with you.

 

[jpchoudhari]

Yes jumanji, It is extra 1 TB hard disk I am using along with one 160GB hard drive where I have my windows installed.

Other than these two HDDs I have nothing connected to my computer. No Floppy drive also

And my disk management console runs as fine without 1tb HDD which is giving problem. Doesn't take much time to load the information. I don't have screen shot now but it displayed regular stuff.

What should be next course of action.

Thanks,
Jay

 

[jumanji]

OK, we are struck with this problem on another thread also concurrently. In the other case it is an internal drive put into an external casing.

Definitely we are now shooting in the dark without really knowing what exactly is causing the problem. The only thing we know is that the drive is faulty. What exactly is the fault in the drive? - we don't know.

I would suggest two explorative runs.

1. Download , install and run Minitools Partition Wizard Home edition 8.1.1 Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online If it shows your drive, post a screenshot.

2. If it also does not show that 1tb drive, we shall straightaway embark on a data recovery attempt.Prepare a Lucid Puppy pendrive and check whether you can access the drive and retrieve the data in it.

Download Lucid Puppy (Ubuntu Compatible Build) version 5.2.8 ISO (132.6 MB) Download latest Puppy Linux release

Create your bootable pen drive using Rufus v 1.4.10 (616KB) Backup all data on your pen drive before using Rufus since all that will be lost when Rufus formats it.

With your pendrive connected, run Rufus, check your correct pen drive is selected.
In "Create a bootable disk using" select ISO Image with the dropdown arrow. (Leave everything else to dlefault.)
Cick on the Disk icon next to it and select the Lucid Puppy ISO.

Click on Start and allow Rufus to complete writing the ISO to the pendrive.

Close Rufus.

Now connect your problem external drive and another external drive on which you want to copy the recovered files and then reboot your computer.

Use the one-time boot menu and boot from the USB pendrive.

Wait for Lucid Puppy to load and you will be in the Lucid Puppy desktop.

On how to use Lucid Puppy see Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer ( Read only what is under the topic Recovering files from the non-bootable Internal Drive: - In your case it will be your inaccessible 1TB internal drive.

Please note that all partitions will appear as drives and you should be able to recognise them by their size.

If you can successfully recover all data, then you may try to repair your drive with File Check in MiniTools Partition Wizard or format that drive, or run the manufacturer's diagnostics/repair utility

I have given priority to the data recovery attempt.

 

[jpchoudhari]

Minitool partition wizard doesn't show my 1tb hard drive.

I will follow your step 2 instructions and will let you know.

Thanks for your time.

 

[jpchoudhari]

Hello jumanji,

I was able to view all four drives of my 1TB HDD. It showed me unable to mount error on one of the partition. I forgot to note down the error, but it said something like "Unable to load xxx drivers and mounting read only" and I was able to see contents. I didn't had extra backup drive so could not perform copy, hope to do over weekend.

Some questions..
1) If I am able to view all the drive from Lucid Puppy, why not from my windows 7 installation? What would be the possible reason. I tried again but this time it stuck on boot itself.
2) This drive had corrupted a year ago when I took this from my friend and recovered its data using recuva and now I am using it. What do you think I should do to make sure such problem won't happen again. Is there any tool you know I would use to check life of this HDD
This can be helpful to me to decide whether to continue using this HDD.

Thanks Much!!
Jay

 

[jumanji]

Given the previous history and the fact that with the drive connected you are not able to even boot now, I would think the drive is failing fast.

The most logical thing to do now is to retrieve as much data as possible. In fact you must have done it at the first opportunity when Lucid Puppy could access the three partitions without any problems and the fourth partition as read only. Do it now before it becomes never ever. Till such time do not use your computer OR disconnect the 1TB problem drive by plugging out the power cable and data cable and use your computer with only the system drive connected.

At the moment I am not sure if you can copy the read only files. If you cannot copy the read only files as such, try to save those with a different file name - for example dude.jpg as dudeA.jpg.

Meanwhile I have sent a PM to Anshad Edavana to have a look at this thread for his expert handling and opinions. He definitely has a better head than me.

 

[Anshad Edavana]

Hi Choudhari

I am here as requested by "Jumanji" to figure out what is going wrong with your disk. It will ease the troubleshooting if you can answer the below questions.

1. What is the make and model of your disk ?.


2. Have you succeeded in booting "Puppy" and if yes, what is the result.


3. You mentioned an error message. Can you reproduce it by opening that drive again ?. If yes, please post the exact error message.

 

[jumanji]

Thanks Anshad.

Just to clarify:

As I understand he was able to boot into Lucid Puppy and access the problem drive. Only one out of the four partitions failed to mount giving an error message but he could still access the files as Read only files.

He didn't copy the files from the other three partitions or attempt to copy the read only files on the fourth partition since he didn't have another storage device connected to do that.

When he now says that he is not even able to boot, I presume he is unable to boot into Windows with the problem internal drive connected.

OP may please clarify plus answer the queries raised by Anshad Edavana.

 

[jpchoudhari]

Hello guys,

Yes jumanji you said it correct. I am able to boot Lucid Puppy and as said earlier one drive was giving some I/O error and mounted as read-only. I was able to copy data though, from all the drives. I have copied almost entire data to my back up disk.

But now the question is whether I would be able to use the 1TB drive by formatting it properly? Or any other way you guys can suggest.

Thanks,
Jay

 

[jumanji]

I would suggest that you discard the drive.

You still did not answer Anshad Edavana's question " 1. What is the make and model of your disk ?."

Just to experiment, you may run the manufacturer's diagnostic/repair Utility. Since Windows itself does not boot with the drive connected, you cannot use the Windows version. You have run the DOS version booting from the pen drive / bootable CD.

If the utility does not find the drive or having found does not repair then your hard drive has failed, that is it.

Anshad Edavana may have some more tricks on his sleeve. That is why I requested Anshad to look into it. But when Anshad came on my request, you did not respond. Wait to see whether this catches his attention again.

 

[jpchoudhari]

It is Western Digital HDD. I don't remember the model no now.

Ok I will try to find if there is diagnostic utility.

Actually I was busy with some office stuff two weeks and could not check gmails and I guess my last response was unanswered for some weeks and lost touch with the topic.

Any ways, in last weekend only I transferred all the data. Hope Anshad Edavana will have some take.