Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
Post a reply

HDD not recognized by bios or fdisk

November 26th, 2011, 12:35

I have similar problems with more HDD's. After certain action the HDD is not recognized by "fdisk -l" or "lsusb" or "dmesg".

Latest HDD (Fujitsu MJA2500BH) just crashed today after falling down with laptop MSI X340 from 30-40cm to floor. Laptop was still running for a minute and than rebooted it self. Afterward the HDD was not recognized by BIOS anymore. I have put the HDD to external USB case and connected to my linux however it is not recognized by the system (fdisk, lsusb, dmesg).

It still spins and some noise comes out but only for a minute, than the noise stops but HDD spins further.

Do you have any hints if I can proceed with some software to gather the data or rather consider professional help?
Software like hdparm, smartmontools are working only when the device is recognized by the system and included in /dev/s...?

Would it help to put the HDD directly to the laptop (in comparison to external USB case) and try some linux live cd?

Re: HDD not recognized by bios or fdisk

November 26th, 2011, 12:59

falling down with laptop MSI X340 from 30-40cm to floor
some noise comes out but only for a minute

Seems to me that the heads are bad. Not DIY, see a pro.
Would it help to put the HDD directly to the laptop (in comparison to external USB case) and try some linux live cd?
If, as I think the heads are bad, no it will not help. Just, maybe damage it more.
Last edited by ici_lemmy on November 26th, 2011, 13:01, edited 1 time in total.

Re: HDD not recognized by bios or fdisk

November 26th, 2011, 13:00

No DIY doable here. The drive has a mechanical issue and hopefully no media damage.

Software solutions not applicable.

Strongly suggest to stop powering the drive on. Seek pro assistance.

Re: HDD not recognized by bios or fdisk

November 26th, 2011, 14:57

labtech wrote:No DIY doable here. The drive has a mechanical issue and hopefully no media damage.

Software solutions not applicable.

Strongly suggest to stop powering the drive on. Seek pro assistance.


Agree. No DIY

Re: HDD not recognized by bios or fdisk

November 28th, 2011, 6:23

Thank you a lot for reply. To me it also seems like mechanical damage.
I would suppose that professional company get retrieve the data out if media was not damaged?
If the heads are damaged, can that be repaired?

Re: HDD not recognized by bios or fdisk

November 28th, 2011, 6:38

If the heads are damaged and they did not damaged the platters surface, it can be repaired.
Post a reply