XP won't start when faulty secondary HD is connected

[JPD]

I'm attempting to recover data from what I hope is a "slightly" failed
secondary hard disk (Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA, model
ST3250823AS).

The trouble started a few days ago when I could no longer see the D:
drive in Windows. (The D: drive is my data disk. It has no OS
installed.)

So I rebooted. The XP startup image appeared, but that's as far as
things went. XP wouldn't finish loading.

So I removed the D: disk and XP loaded successfully.

Then I reconnected the D: disk to see if it would show up in POST. It
did. The message was "S.M.A.R.T. enabled, status OK." Then I checked
to see if the BIOS saw it. The BIOS saw it fine, No error messages or
warnings.

The drive spins up and and makes a quiet, normal "seeking" sound --
not scary sounding, except the sound doesn't stop.

Hoping the problem was just a bad sector on the disk, I booted up with
the XP installation disk, with the idea of hitting R to get into
Recovery and then trying to access the disk to run CHKDSK on it. No
luck. Still can't see the disk.

Now I'm out of ideas -- well, besides taking the disk to a pro, which
I hope to avoid because there's lots of personal info on the disk.

Does it seem odd that XP won't finish loading while this drive is
connected?

Any ideas on how I can proceed from here?

I'd be happy just to be able to copy files from this disk to another,
or to some other media, but I can't seem to get the disk mounted at
all. (I also tried accessing it in my trusty old Drive Image 7
recovery environment (PQRE), but no luck.)

 

[Louie Pham]

I'm attempting to recover data from what I hope is a "slightly" failed
secondary hard disk (Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA, model
ST3250823AS).

The trouble started a few days ago when I could no longer see the D:
drive in Windows. (The D: drive is my data disk. It has no OS
installed.)

I had same problem a months ago with this Seagate HD, and I had to
return it to Seagate for replacement. I had read some where that you
could put this HD into a freezer for 1 hours, then take it out try to
recover your data. My best it you do a google on this to make sure
the correct procedure.

 

[JPD]

I had same problem a months ago with this Seagate HD, and I had to
return it to Seagate for replacement.  I had read some where that you
could put this HD into a freezer for 1 hours, then take it out try to
recover your data.  My best it you do a google on this to make sure
the correct procedure.

Thanks, Louie, I might try that.

MORE INFORMATION:

After Googling around a few more hours I found some stories, similar
to mine, that said XP might boot if you just wait A Really Long Time.
So I tried booting again with the faulty drive connected, and sure
enough, XP loaded after nearly an hour.

And interestingly, while "My Computer" doesn't show the bad drive,
Device Manager does. However, Device Manager shows the volumes as
being empty.

Also, I tried using Seagate's "SeaTools (for DOS)" on the drive. The
program found the drive, ran some tests, and pronounced the drive
"Failed." Said the drive was not responding to commands.

I think I'm going to try the freezer trick....

 

[Anna]

I'm attempting to recover data from what I hope is a "slightly" failed
secondary hard disk (Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA, model
ST3250823AS).

The trouble started a few days ago when I could no longer see the D:
drive in Windows. (The D: drive is my data disk. It has no OS
installed.)

So I rebooted. The XP startup image appeared, but that's as far as
things went. XP wouldn't finish loading.

So I removed the D: disk and XP loaded successfully.

Then I reconnected the D: disk to see if it would show up in POST. It
did. The message was "S.M.A.R.T. enabled, status OK." Then I checked
to see if the BIOS saw it. The BIOS saw it fine, No error messages or
warnings.

The drive spins up and and makes a quiet, normal "seeking" sound --
not scary sounding, except the sound doesn't stop.

Hoping the problem was just a bad sector on the disk, I booted up with
the XP installation disk, with the idea of hitting R to get into
Recovery and then trying to access the disk to run CHKDSK on it. No
luck. Still can't see the disk.

Now I'm out of ideas -- well, besides taking the disk to a pro, which
I hope to avoid because there's lots of personal info on the disk.

Does it seem odd that XP won't finish loading while this drive is
connected?

Any ideas on how I can proceed from here?

I'd be happy just to be able to copy files from this disk to another,
or to some other media, but I can't seem to get the disk mounted at
all. (I also tried accessing it in my trusty old Drive Image 7
recovery environment (PQRE), but no luck.)

(In another post, JPD writes...)
MORE INFORMATION:

After Googling around a few more hours I found some stories, similar
to mine, that said XP might boot if you just wait A Really Long Time.
So I tried booting again with the faulty drive connected, and sure
enough, XP loaded after nearly an hour.

And interestingly, while "My Computer" doesn't show the bad drive,
Device Manager does. However, Device Manager shows the volumes as
being empty.

Also, I tried using Seagate's "SeaTools (for DOS)" on the drive. The
program found the drive, ran some tests, and pronounced the drive
"Failed." Said the drive was not responding to commands.

I think I'm going to try the freezer trick....


JPD:
I just wanted to add that it's not particularly rare that a system will not
boot to a bootable functional primary HDD while a defective secondary HDD is
connected in the system. More than a few motherboards in my experience will
exhibit this behavior. As a matter of fact we've run into situations where
another defective component, e.g, an optical drive, also resulted in the
system failing to boot.

Good luck on the freezer "trick". It's been known to work so that the disk
can be brought back to life at least for a few moments - usually not more
than that if it works at all. Although we've had precious little luck with
that "technique". The usual advice is to place the disk in well-sealed
plastic bag before it goes into the freezer.

BTW, if memory correctly serves me didn't that Seagate HDD come with a
five-year warranty? So check that out if you haven't done so already.
Anna

 

[JPD]

(In another post, JPD writes...)
MORE INFORMATION:

After Googling around a few more hours I found some stories, similar
to mine, that said XP might boot if you just wait A Really Long Time.
So I tried booting again with the faulty drive connected, and sure
enough, XP loaded after nearly an hour.

And interestingly, while "My Computer" doesn't show the bad drive,
Device Manager does. However, Device Manager shows the volumes as
being empty.

Also, I tried using Seagate's "SeaTools (for DOS)" on the drive. The
program found the drive, ran some tests, and pronounced the drive
"Failed." Said the drive was not responding to commands.

I think I'm going to try the freezer trick....

JPD:
I just wanted to add that it's not particularly rare that a system will not
boot to a bootable functional primary HDD while a defective secondary HDDis
connected in the system. More than a few motherboards in my experience will
exhibit this behavior. As a matter of fact we've run into situations where
another defective component, e.g, an optical drive, also resulted in the
system failing to boot.

Good luck on the freezer "trick". It's been known to work so that the disk
can be brought back to life at least for a few moments - usually not more
than that if it works at all. Although we've had precious little luck with
that "technique". The usual advice is to place the disk in well-sealed
plastic bag before it goes into the freezer.

BTW, if memory correctly serves me didn't that Seagate HDD come with a
five-year warranty? So check that out if you haven't done so already.
Anna

Thanks for the reply, Anna. Yes to the 5-year warranty. Don't think
they'll recover my data, though.

I'm going to try the trick with the drive in an external metal
enclosure sandwiched between two frozen gel packs. If I prepare well,
maybe I can quickly snatch an image of the disk and report success.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I'm attempting to recover data from what I hope is a "slightly" failed
secondary hard disk (Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA, model
ST3250823AS).

The trouble started a few days ago when I could no longer see the D:
drive in Windows. (The D: drive is my data disk. It has no OS
installed.)

So I rebooted. The XP startup image appeared, but that's as far as
things went. XP wouldn't finish loading.

So I removed the D: disk and XP loaded successfully.

Then I reconnected the D: disk to see if it would show up in POST. It
did. The message was "S.M.A.R.T. enabled, status OK." Then I checked
to see if the BIOS saw it. The BIOS saw it fine, No error messages or
warnings.

The drive spins up and and makes a quiet, normal "seeking" sound --
not scary sounding, except the sound doesn't stop.

Hoping the problem was just a bad sector on the disk, I booted up with
the XP installation disk, with the idea of hitting R to get into
Recovery and then trying to access the disk to run CHKDSK on it. No
luck. Still can't see the disk.

Now I'm out of ideas -- well, besides taking the disk to a pro, which
I hope to avoid because there's lots of personal info on the disk.

Does it seem odd that XP won't finish loading while this drive is
connected?

Any ideas on how I can proceed from here?

Connect the drive to an external case and see if the demo version of
R-Studio can find anything at all. This should bypass motherboard/drive
controller issues.

If the software does find what you want, pay the fee to turn it to the full
version and run it.

I'd be happy just to be able to copy files from this disk to another,
or to some other media, but I can't seem to get the disk mounted at
all. (I also tried accessing it in my trusty old Drive Image 7
recovery environment (PQRE), but no luck.)

You may be limited to taking the disk to a professional service if you want
that personal data back and don't have backups. Expect the bill to start
around $1K.

As they may have to dismantle the drive to attach the platters to their
custom hardware - this is partly why their services are expensive and
produce better results than you or I can get - you can forget the warranty
on the drive.

As to the warranty, if there is personal info on the drive - don't exercise
the warranty. In the first place, you won't get the data back, as they
manufacturer does not operate a recovery service, and in the second place,
you surrender any control over what happens to that data, where it ends up
or with whom.

If the drive can't be accessed and you can't use the professional service,
and if the data is personal and/or sensitive, the only safe alternative is
to take the drive somewhere, put on safety glasses, and beat it to pieces
with a hammer. Make sure that the platters are shattered, and dispose of
the debris according to local regulations.

Call it therapy and bill accordingly.

HTH
-pk

 

[JPD]

take the drive somewhere, put on safety glasses, and beat it to pieces
with a hammer.  Make sure that the platters are shattered, and dispose of
the debris according to local regulations.

Call it therapy and bill accordingly.

I'm about ready to start a new life, anyway.