Hi All

I have a Barracuda 7200.12 Model: ST31000528AS

It powers up and starts to load windows. It gets to the windows logo and then freezes. After resetting the pc the hdd is no longer detected in the bios. (A complete power down is required to get it to re-detect the drive)

When plugging the hdd into another computer already booted and then scanning for hardware changes, the computer detects the drive momentarily and drive becomes visible in windows explorer but then the pc freezes - locks up a few seconds later.

When Running SeaTools in dos mode and selecting one of the scan options the util begins doing the scans then fails a few seconds later after getting through a random number of sectors. I then need to do the acoustic test to power the disk off and on again before it can be detected.

My goal is to get the data off if possible

Any help would be great

Thanks

@azureai:
This specific behaviour of the disk needing to be power-cycled before further reading is possible (which is common for certain types of problem that I've seen in my non-DR experience), means that a DIY approach is unlikely to be successful - it's been tried by other members on drives with similar symptoms.

However a DR company using specialist disk cloning equipment (like DDI), is likely to be much more successful at recovering the data off the disk - although the more you use the disk (e.g. doing DIY recovery attempts), the greater the risk that the disk will deteriorate, and therefore increase the cost/difficulty of recovery. It's your choice as to how important the data is, as to which recovery route you choose.

Cleanroom work isn't necessarily needed for this type of behaviour, based on previous reports here, so in that case a reputable DR company would charge just for the work which was necessary e.g. cloning the disk using their special equipment, which can cope with the likely unreadable sectors. However, it would need more detailed diagnosis to confirm exactly what recovery work is needed - just try to avoid using one of the less-reputable companies (you may get some recommendations for good companies from members here).

If you want to collect extra evidence about the type of disk problem, then if you supply the full raw SMART data from this disk (e.g. using HDDScan), then this will give extra info to the readers here. I'm expecting to see many already reallocated sectors, and yet more pending reallocation. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

I already have some of those cases, where a power cycle is needed to get the drive reading again.

@dmarques:

I'm not surprised. I've seen this failure mode quite often, in my non-DR experience, and it took a little time to understand exactly why this happens...

But the good news is that is possible to solve

By you, yes! However after a drive is in that state, I have not seen a DIY solution, which is what I was trying to explain to the OP (DDI was successful in cloning at least 2 similar cases on this board, that I remember).

Yes, you're right.
It's not a DIY job.