Solved Seagate 2TB Hard Drive not responding, stops programs from working

[Questionerer]

Hello,

I have a Seagate 2TB external hard drive which I used to store things in.

Recently, it stopped working. When I connect the USB into the computer, it takes longer than is normal to get detected as "Local Disk (G" in Windows Explorer. But it shows no data bar and no "X GB free of Y GB" detail in the Computer folder.

When I click the "Local Disk (G", Windows Explorer becomes "not responding". EDIT: when I right-click it, it goes "not responding".

Trying programs to interact with the hard drive is impossible. When it's connected, programs I try to run such as Seagate's "drivedetect.exe" and "FILE RECOVERY for Windows" don't start up and give the "The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion" error. When I try to look at the drive in Disk Management, it gets stuck at "Connecting to virtual disk service."

When I disconnect the hard drive, everything starts working again. All the programs I tried to open when the drive was connected which don't start up, actually start up.

I think the situation is pretty dire. Is there any hope for this hard drive?

 

[TanyaC]

Hi,

Welcome to Seven Forums.

That does sound like the controller on the drive has gone.

Is the drive still under warranty?

If you don't know - Is it possible to open the drive case? (The external casing not the actual drive case).
There will be a date code on the drive. That will tell you when it was made. Or grab the serial number and plug into Seagate's warranty page and it will tell you.

There are several "hacks" that some people use to try and get drives working, though the mostly pertain the drive heads more than controllers. I'm not going to recommend you try those because the can be destructive. However, if you use google, I'm sure you will find some.

You could send it off if it's under warranty. If the controller has failed Seagate will probably swap it out (since they really don't like replacing drives unless they have to).

However, they will not guarantee the safety of your data, and won't take much care not to lose the data.

Alternatively, there are disk recovery services around. However these tend to be expensive. Depends on what the data is worth to you.

I assume you've tried it in different computers/different USB ports? Have you also tried a different cable?

I've also come across cables that need a little bit of a "jiggle" at the drive end to make them work.

Tanya

 

[Questionerer]

Thanks for the reply.

It seems the drive is out of warranty.

I've tried the drive on a laptop as well and the response towards the drive was much the same.

I've also bought a new USB cable just to test if it would work but no difference there, either. It does detect the drive on the computer to an extent, enough to stall things on the computer, so I wouldn't assume the cable is a problem.

So... then what "hacks" could be useful and what are some possible disk recovery services?

 

[essenbe]

You can try this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/287439-emergency-kit-save-your-files-dead-os.html Complete with videos. Linux 'sees' drives different than wondows

Or this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93347-copy-paste-windows-recovery-console.html

I'll see if I can find more, but from the top one, any Live Linux distro will work. But, Mate is excellent

Another thing you can try is install Macrium Reflect, create an Image of the drive with it. You can mount the image and see if there is data on it. Here is a tutorial of imaging with reflect. You can mount the image within the Macrium program. It shows imaging but you will see in the program the mount image after it is created which will take just a few minutes, depending on the size of the drive.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

 

[Questionerer]

Thank you both .

I tried the Linux method and it was able to detect the drive!

I was able to recover some files that weren't damaged but the majority of the data was not even visible on the disk via the file browser.

So I am in the process of recovering those files with Photorec. There are just so many files it'd take a while to reorganise them, but at least they'll be recovered!

 

[essenbe]

Did you try the Macrium method I mentioned? Install the free version of Macrium, make an image file of the hard drive, after it is completed, mount the image in the Macrium program, it will create a virtual hard drive containing the image. You can browse through the drive and use it as any other drive and copy/paste files and folders to any other drive.

I have used it when I accidentally deleted a file I needed, but had an image that contained that file. I have mounted the image containing the file, copied it and pasted it back where it Was before I deleted it. That may work for you.

 

[Questionerer]

Haven't tried the Macrium method yet. I didn't notice you'd mentioned it until today. I will probably give it a try tomorrow (it is 10:30pm right now).

Will the free edition be enough to do the job?

 

[essenbe]

Yes, it will do just fine. It's all you need.

 

[jumanji]

Hi Questionerer,

Since you said you intend to try with PhotoRec, I would suggest this.

Instead run Test Disk first. You will be using up/down Left/right Keys to move to any options.

First Screen: Select No Log ENTER

Second Screen: Select your correct drive (your faulty drive) ENTER

Third Screen: Intel ENTER

Fourth Screen: Select Advanced File System Utilities ENTER

Fifth Screen: Does it show your drive with the first Partition and other partitions you had on the drive?
If it does, select the first partition and Boot (would have already been selected by default if
not Select Boot) and ENTER

Sixth Screen: From hereon the screen may present different options depending upon your drive
condition and take appropriate action.

Generally, if boot Sector/Backup boot sector are OK you will select MFT Repair and proceed further. If boot sector is not OK but backup boot sector is OK, you will write the backup bootsector to the boot Sector and check whether it can list all the files.If both are not OK, you will rebuild boot sector and then try to check whether it can list all files. It is interactive and therefore difficult to say what you will see. If you can't makeup your mind on what action is to be done post the fifth screen.

Note: You can close TestDisk and rerun any number of times. But make doubly sure to select the correct drive each time. If you do any of these operations on the wrong drive, you may lose it.

 

[Questionerer]

I tried Macrium but it didn't work. Looks like the drive just stops programs from working, as usual. So Macrium just becomes not responding.

Tried to boot into Linux Mint again but didn't work. Only the terminal comes up and doing a "startx" didn't get the GUI up either. I must've messed up something. So I reinstalled Linux Mint.

Now, for the testdisk. Both Boot sector and Backup boot sector were OK. But the MFT Repair failed.

"MFT and MFT mirror are bad. Failed to repair them." Don't really understand the significance of this error.

If I try the

• in [Rebuild BS], I only get the following list:
  
  >dr-xr-xr-x 0 0 0 7-Jun-2014 18:28 .
  dr-xr-xr-x 0 0 0 7-Jun-2014 18:28 ..
  
  What to do from here?

 

[jumanji]

It would seem that your drive has developed too many bad sectors that Windows has difficulty in reading.

As you have seen even MFT and MFT mirror is corrupted. This is because of bad sectors gobbling it up.

Under these conditions Macrium Reflect even if it succeeds in cloning the drive will only clone the faulty drive as it is and that wouldn't help. Now you have seen Macrium Reflect couldn't even read the drive. Thanks for the feedback.

If you are intent on getting maximum data possible from your defective drive , your only option now is to try to clone that drive with ddrescue and once the cloning process is over, try data recovery on the cloned drive, may be live Linux.

This is a long drawn process and depending upon how fast your drive is deteriorating and has already deteriorated, you may be able to recover some more files than what you have recovered already but not all the files. It would depend upon how many bad sectors ddrescue was able to recover and straighten out those files.

If you want to take this route and try cloning with ddrescue, follow this thread
http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/334762-how-do-i-recover-data-non-responsive-hard-drive.html We are on the verge of doing ddrescue clone. That information should help you do it.

Good Luck.

 

[jumanji]

In your case, there is no need to test your drive using Parted Magic and so I would recommend that you straightaway get into cloning with ddrescue as indicatd below:

Here is the best cloning method. ( Do not clone with conventional imaging software that is principally designed for back-up.)

Tool: ddrescue Source: SystemRescueCD

1. Download the SystemRescueCD from Download - SystemRescueCd systemrescuecd-x86-4.2.0.iso 380MB and create a bootable pen drive with that ISO using Rufus Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

2. Boot your computer with that pen drive with your source disk (your current problem disk) and a destination disk (formatted empty disk of capacity of 2TB) plugged in.

3.Against the command prompt type: fdisk -l [ENTER] This will list all your drives. Note the nomenclature of your source disk(1 TB faulty drive) and destination disk ( 2TB ). The option is lower case L = l and not one 1

4. Next against the command prompt type: ddrescue -r3 -n -v /dev/sdb /dev/sdc recovery.log [ENTER]
( Note: ddrescue[space]-r3[space]-n[space]-v[space]/dev/sdb[space]/dev/sdc[space]recovery.log

Note: Replace sdb and sdc with the correct device nomenclature of Source disk and Destination disk as obtained in step 3.

Make doubly sure that you replace sdb with the correct nomenclature of your 2TB faulty drive (source drive), and sdc with the correct nomenclature of the 2 TB empty drive (destination drive)

5. Sit back and relax. The cloning process may take hours/days depending upon how bad your Source disk is. The saving grace is you can stop the process any time with Ctrl -C and then restart. It will take the cue from the log file and start from where it left

Once the cloning is over, reboot, and check how the drives looks like in Windows Disk Management.

Now you can perform any data recovery operation on the cloned disk.

Note:As far as the second command in step 4 is concerned wait to see what Anshad recommends in the other thread http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...i-recover-data-non-responsive-hard-drive.html and use it. That may be better than what I have recommended.

 

[Questionerer]

Okay, regarding the ddrescue method.

I would need to have an empty hard drive that has more space that the faulty drive, right?

I don't have an empty drive handy and I cannot simply just empty any of my current drives. So that method is no go?

 

[jumanji]

Yes, when cloning you are going to do a sector to sector copying. So that drive should have minimum as many writable sectors as your source drive.

Anyway, wait to see how things progress in the other thread. You can take cues from that thread.

 

[jumanji]

And so there you go.

Please do not go for a destination drive more than 2TB.

I had this doubt suddenly and started editing my post stating " more than 2 TB" but let it remain till there is clarity on the issue and advised you to watch the other thread and take cues.

Simultaneously this issue came up on the other thread. So the verdict destination drive not more than 2TB.
I have since edited my post #12 deleting "or greater".

Different brands of 2TB drive can have a slightly more or less number of total sectors. If it is less it will spoil the broth.

So go in for the same brand, same capacity drive for your destination drive.

That's the utmost caution I can suggest.

Now in the second command Anshad may recommend writing the log file to the pendrive. In your case it will be advantageous since it will leave all 2TB free for cloning.

So for the second command in ddrescue go by what Anshad recommends in the other thread.

And if you need any further clarifications you may raise the issue on the other thread stating you have a similar problem with a 2 TB drive (give full details of the drive and reference to this thread) and what make and capacity drive you should buy for the destination drive for cloning. He will be the best person to advise with his on-hand experience.

 

[Questionerer]

Hello jumanji,

Just got the items needed to clone the faulty hard drive.

For the nomenclature of the drives, would they just be either "sdb" or "sdc" or something else? I'm not sure what the nomenclature should be.

And is it possible to use Windows or another OS with ddrescue running in the background or does the computer have to be stuck displaying the command prompt?

 

[Anshad Edavana]

And is it possible to use Windows or another OS with ddrescue running in the background or does the computer have to be stuck displaying the command prompt?

Unfortunately you can't use the system for any other thing until the cloning finishes. Cloning a 2TB disk with lot of bad sectors may take a lot of time - probably more than 24 hours. In your case, NTFS structure seems to be damaged (MFT corruption ) so cloning alone won't be enough. After the cloning succeeds, we may need to rescue data from the cloned copy using recovery tools. But let's focus on successfully completing the cloning task first.

For the nomenclature of the drives, would they just be either "sdb" or "sdc" or something else? I'm not sure what the nomenclature should be.

Usually the disk connected to SATA port 1 will be "sda" and 2 will be "sdb". But we should check it and confirm first. Please follow the below steps.

1. Make sure to connect the failing disk to SATA port one ( or zero in some boards ).

2. Make sure to connect the new HDD to SATA port two.

Make sure there are no other disks connected to the system ( other than the source and destination disks ).

3. Boot the system using "System rescue CD" and enter the below command exactly.

fdisk -l

You need to take a clear screenshot of the output with a digital cam or smart phone and post it with next reply.

 

[Questionerer]

Unfortunately you can't use the system for any other thing until the cloning finishes. Cloning a 2TB disk with lot of bad sectors may take a lot of time - probably more than 24 hours. In your case, NTFS structure seems to be damaged (MFT corruption ) so cloning alone won't be enough. After the cloning succeeds, we may need to rescue data from the cloned copy using recovery tools. But let's focus on successfully completing the cloning task first.

What about the DDRescue-GUI for linux?

Make sure there are no other disks connected to the system ( other than the source and destination disks ).

Do I have to disconnect the internal hard drive?

I'm running something right now so it'd be inconvenient for me to reboot, but I did the "fdisk -l" in terminal in linux and got this:

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
102 heads, 51 sectors/track, 187768 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000001

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 51 268428401 134214175+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 268428402 976769135 354170367 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 268428453 976769135 354170341+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
Note: sector size is 4096 (not 512)

Disk /dev/sdc: 2000.4 GB, 2000398929920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30400 cylinders, total 488378645 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf48020e0

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 63 3907024127 2743194372 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdd: 2000.4 GB, 2000398931968 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029164 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf48020e0

Is the above informative enough or do you need me to reboot and do the "fdisk -l"?

I'm not sure which ports are which so I tried different methods of finding out which dev was which drive. I'm guessing that the sdd is the faulty and the sdc is the new drive. (I did "fdisk -l" with the faulty drive not connected and got only the sdc part).

 

[jumanji]

@Anshad Edavana,

I think OP's faulty disk and the one he got now to clone are both external drives.

OP may please confirm this Anshad. You are in best hands now.

 

[Questionerer]

Yes, my faulty drive is the Seagate 2TB external hard drive. The one I just got to clone the faulty drive on is also a 2TB external hard drive (similar type but I think it is slightly different somehow).