Problem with ST31000340AS

[GurbZ]

Hi, first time posting here, I have also posted this on another forum and pretty much copied from there.

Usually I can figure most problems with research and sites/forums like this, but this one I just cannot.

I built a computer for my aunt roughly a year ago havent had any complaints in that time, then yesterday(now a month ago) she called and said the computer is stuck ie not booting into Windows Xp.

So I went over to check it out, I played around with it for a bit and eventually her computer came home with me.

The computer does not boot into Windows, safe mode or normal mode, it just restarts and after disabling the Automatic Restart on System Failure, I took note of the error number although Im not sure if it'll helpful in this case. Stop 0x0000007E (0x0000006,0x80698c12,0xBA4C36E4,0xBA4C33E0). I did look it up and there is mention of it being a hard drive problem, but I pretty much already knew it had to do something with the hard drive.

I think the hard drive is losing it's connection for some reason. I think this because the motherboard is an Asus board with Express Gate, which I believe, runs off of the hard drive without having to boot into Windows. When the computer is first turned on it is supposed to show a type of welcome screen for Express Gate, instead it says Express Gate is not installed. Pressing the restart button does not bring back this menu, only after powering down it comes back.

Also, the HDD in not detected in the bios until the computer is fully powered down and turned back on.

Here's what I have tried so far, I booted off the cd into the recovery console and ran (tried to) chkdsk /r but it would freeze. I tried doing a repair install but that would also freeze (at 25 %) while checking C:. I loaded up UBCD to see if I could get anywhere with that. I can see the stuff on the hard drive but cannot access it, when I double click a folder I gives me a I/O error. Next I tried HDtune from within UBCD, I ran a quick scan and it showed no bad sectors so I ran the normal scan and it started showing every sector as bad, I didn't let it finish since the result seemed obvious. I switched it back to quick scan it also started showing all sectors as bad.

It seems to me if there is any type of thorough type of scanning going on, the hard drive loses it's connection(although the drive is still seems to be on and spinning smoothly) until it's fully powered down and turned back on.

I contacted Seagate thinking this was one of the hard drives that could have been effected by that firmware issue but the representative said it wasn't.

I had already updated the firmware before contacting Seagate, it didn't really have any effect but I did notice that after updating, it gave a S.M.A.R.T warning, saying "Pri Master Hard Disk:S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD Backup and replace press F1 to continue" whereas prior to the update it did not give any S.M.A.R.T warnings. My aunt didn't mention any S.M.A.R.T warnings. I m wondering if S.M.A.R.T was inactive on the HDD prior to the firmware update, is that possible?

Hard disk info

Model ID: ST31000340AS
S/N: 9QJ1EBAQ Revision SD15 updated to SD1A had no effect
P/N: 9BX158-303
Date code: 09031 Site code: KRATSG

Any help or suggestions would be most welcome. Thank you.

[harddrivespecialist]

weak head, head failure or too many bad sectors
Get a new drive and move on.
If you need data, contact a pro near you.

[GurbZ]

weak head, head failure or too many bad sectors
Get a new drive and move on.
If you need data, contact a pro near you.

would any or all of those cause this type of behaviour?

If there is any type of thorough type of scanning going on, the hard drive seems to loose it's connection, although the drive is still seems to be on and spinning smoothly, it is not recognized by the bios/computer until it's fully powered down and turned back on.

[HDD Spaz]

got one of these of my $10000 data recovery equipment at the moment. Its a weak head.