Is this Hard Drive done?

Question

The drive is a secondary drive. It is a seagate 120 GB.

Okay so I have been having problems with this drive off and on for a few months. My computer would sometimes freeze when I accessed the drive or when I shut down.

I've had it for about 7 months or so. No problems the first few months. Recently the drive is not even showing when I go to my computer. I've pretty much accepted at this point that I'm not going to be able to get back what was on there. Fortunately most of my important stuff was on my C drive.

I'm no expert but fidgeting around I was able to get it to at least show when I go to My Computer. However, I can't get inside and when I try to format it seems to be taking forever. I think this thing is done. Any advice?

Answer 1

Many computers have a Bios hd tester built in. Manufacturers use these to determine if they are going to send you a new hd.
It takes an hour or two to run. Usually smart drive this or intelli drive or something like that.

To go into your bios, when your computer restarts you will see for only a few seconds a prompt to enter SETUP. Whatever the trigger is for this, start pounding on that key until you enter your bios (or a dos looking screen that you have probably never seen before). If you go into the windows loading screen , you have gone too far and did not hit the key quick enough.

My advice is for you to pop that hd on another computer that has up to date virus protection on it and check it there too. But that HD test will tell you whats up.

Sounds 99.5% like it's toast to me. If not and you get it back, then it will be again. Could be onboard power or , media failure. Either way, toss it and forget it.

Answer 2

It sounds like your cables may be loose or the RS232 cable(information cable between the mother board and the hard drive)
incorrectly seated or reversed. Check the installation instructions to ensure you have properly set up the cables. Your power cord could also be loose.
You stated you cannot get inside the machine. WHY? You will not be able to correct the problem without removing the cover. Make sure the machine is off and you are grounded before you put your hands inside the machine.
It appears your BIOS has been set to correctly identify the new drive so it is not a BIOS problem.

Answer 3

First off, check the cabling of the drive.

Reseat the cable, reboot, and see what happens. Also make sure the power is firmly connected.

If that fails, call Seagate about the drive, as its probably toast. Fortunately not strawberry jam on toast, as most of your data is on your C drive.

Hopefully the drive is still under warranty, and you can get a better drive for free.

Just my .01

-dh

Answer 4

yap but its depends on the procesor n ram also,,if both are low it will take time,,,but have u try to scan viruses?some virus can make windows slow or spyware mybe got into ur com....the best is,back up ur file into an external hard drive and format the whole hard drive.after windows dont forget to install the anti virus then update and tranfer agen ur files den make a full scan

Answer 5

Trash that Seagate, try Western Digital or Maxtor. Seagates failed by the wheelbarrow load where I worked at.

Answer 6

If you are sure it is dead. Drop it in the freezer for a couple of hours, back in the PC, reboot, and then it MIGHT give you enough time to recover your data. Believe it does work, if you transfer your data fast enough before the unit heats up.

Answer 7

Sounds like something died; I think you're right on the money with that one. I had a harddrive that had similar behaviour, along with a clicking sound. (Clicking from a harddrive basically means you now have a very expensive paper weight.)