HDD won't mount - what can I try???

[callagga]

Hi,

I have a HDD (Western Digital) that no longer seems to mount. What can I try prior to giving up? Here's notes:

* 1 year old drive - did make a couple of funny noises (whirring) recently

* On MacBook symptoms were it would not always mount every time, but now if it occasionaly does mount when I switch it on, then when I go to finder and click on a directory it dissapears. It's as if Mac O/S recognises there's a drive there & knows the diretories that were on the drive, but when you go to click on them it has an issue seeing them and removes that drive from the Finder application.

* On a PC - When I tried to run spinrite on it, it turned up as an empty drive in spinrite (which obviously it isn't).

* When I run a Spinrite Level 2 on it it does start, however every 30 seconds or so Spinrite seems to freeze for 10 seconds, before then keeping going. I run it for over 3 hours and Spinrite didn't even get past the first "dot" (i.e. from the screen of dots that represent all the data on the drive). I should mention I think there may be a video card problem on the PC I was running this on (as some of the DOS characters on the PC when in DOS mode, prior to booting into windows, are wrong. so when I run spinrite there are some funny characters in the display)

Question 1 - Is spinrite working as it should given the freezes?

Question 2 - should I try putting it in the freezer?

Question 3 - What other things could I try?

thanks

[craig6928]

im not total sure about spinrite in a way its ok but in another way its crap

mhdd does a better job and is free

normal with a graffic card it should not freeze up its possible that your seeing funny characters in the display

as the display ddram is corrupt on the card itself

when you use spinrite does it show you the name of your hard drive ok
and not a load of mixed characters

if you need some help we based in canada and the uk


do not put the drive in the freezer you will damage it
as when the drive heats up the condensation will change to water
and damage it.
use a ice pack or a computer cooler fan.

[callagga]

when you use spinrite does it show you the name of your hard drive ok and not a load of mixed characters

Normally spinrite gives a parent top line, and then another line indented under this, for each drive. In the case of this drive there is a top line representing it's detecting there is a drive, but the 2nd indented line shows an 'empty drive'. Don't have the details on line at the moment. Does this help?

[craig6928]

hmm not to sure with out seeing the drive itself.

which mac os are you using.

i thought spinrite was windows only that could be your problem there.

[HeadCrash]

Question 1 - Is spinrite working as it should given the freezes?
Yes but you need a salsa sauce and hot spicy chili sauce with it, ohh its better to pour hot water before you put it in freezer.

Question 2 - should I try putting it in the freezer?
Yes highly recommended

Question 3 - What other things could I try?
spend some money and send it to data recovery company.

[callagga]

drive has problem in both Mac & Windows. It's an external HDD. I'm on latest version of Mac & XP on the 2 computers I've used it on.

[rchadwick]

Did you drop it? Or did it maybe only tip over?

[rchadwick]

Also, if the data is important, don't run Spinrite on it.

[TerraNova]

This is head related problem.

[wiseleo]

If the drive can be imaged, you may yet be lucky. If the drive can't be imaged, you will be spending over $1000. So, make an MHDD CD (the download is on this site) and boot from it. Start a disk scan with MHDD. Let it run for 30 seconds and hit ESC. Let us know what you see. We are curious about the colored sectors and alpha-numeric symbols.

If what I just told you sounds like foreign language, make it someone else's problem.

[callagga]

tks - I can try this

But roughly what's so bad about Spinrite? (i.e. why say "Also, if the data is important, don't run Spinrite on it") And why is MHDD better?

[callagga]

PS. There isn't a MHDD for Mac I don't suppose? (can't see one)

[shahij]

PS. There isn't a MHDD for Mac I don't suppose? (can't see one)

MHDD for diagnose your drive. Will run under only prior DOS.

tks - I can try this

But roughly what's so bad about Spinrite? (i.e. why say "Also, if the data is important, don't run Spinrite on it") And why is MHDD better?

Spinrite developed for good/working drive for End User - Not for defective drive.
If the drive is defective then you should send to professional for data recovery, cos, you will mess it up more using your spinrite or similar utilities.

[callagga]

just running MHDD now- what' I'm roughly seeing so far:
- about 5 vertical lines (different lengths) of turqoise (bluey/green)
.......the 4th verticle has some 0's some come up
- about 3 verticle lines of purple
- there are some occasional lighter colored squares in various lines that come up

I just did a "SCAN". It has about 2 hours remaining (although this is jumping around) - Will this repair at the same time?

There is at the bottom right:
- Error: 284964
- Warning: 292485

Also UNC has the number "1" against it.

Q1 - Just leave it keep running I assume?
Q2 - What do I have to do in MHDD to recover data? (i.e. noting I can't current mount the drive) MHDD would need to repair the drive somehow for me first I assume...

[HDD Spaz]

no it wont repair at the same time. Disk is failing. disconnect HDD and find a data recovery specialist near you. You can then pay $1000 - $2000 for DR Guru to run Spinrite. Data Recovery is that easy.

[wiseleo]

I told you not to run it for more than a few seconds.

Why did you choose to ignore that advice?

Let me tell you what happens next if you continue the scan - firmware gets damaged, the drive starts to knock, your fee to fix it goes up. A lot. Think an extra thousand dollars up. Think I am joking? I wish I was.

MHDD is a purely diagnostic tool it will not repair the drive without irrecoverably destroying all data. Do not play with it beyond a simple and brief scan. Technically, it can do more than just diagnose, but data will be destroyed.

Lots of colors on MHDD screen mean you are probably beyond home remedies. If the screen output was mostly shades of grey with a few colored blocks I'd tell you to image it. Your drive will die, very very shortly.

Right now, a professional with a good imager can probably still save your data at a reasonable cost. As soon as your drive goes into the next phase, which it will, the drive would have to be opened and at that point you are looking at serious charges.

Here is what you need to know about professional data recovery tools - they never ever touch the original media. That is why to us Spinrite is something to be avoided. It causes irreversible changes.

In short, stop now.

[callagga]

thanks for the advice - in this case the data not worth that much to me - so I guess it's the end of the road for this HDD

Is it worth trying to use any tool to "reformat" it (or whatever the appropriate term might be) to get it to be useful again OR even just run a utility to ensure data is really wiped?

[Russwinters]

This is not a logical problem that can't be fixed using only software or a "reformat". This is a mechanical failure; only a combination of physical repair and software/hardware imaging and file system rebuilding will give you your data back.

Set the drive aside somewhere safe, and when you have money send it for professional DR.

[callagga]

yeah - but could I send it back under warranty without feeling worried about any backup data that was on it?

[shahij]

yeah - but could I send it back under warranty without feeling worried about any backup data that was on it?

Obviously.
If no need data, stop the topic here.