I have an ST31000340AS Firmware version SD01. I found that the pc had rebooted itself and the screen showed "primary hd not found" message. I turned off and restarted and heard the hdd give a few regular clicks while the boot process waited before eventually completing the post and giving me the same message. The clicking had stopped. I'm assuming that this is not related to the firmware bug and is possibly a sector 0 seek problem. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Terminal report?

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Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

IF clicking at detection or startup even if not connected to SATA it is head problem / SA damaged and disk isolated himself.
IF it is recognised correctly and clicks before loading OS (POST done) it is user area problem (LBA).

If that's a report from a serial connection I can't do that

Haven't tried without a SATA connection but it is not recognised and won't get beyond post. If it is a head problem are there any tips on getting it going even for a short while? My backup is about 10 days old and I'd like to recover the latest emails etc.

10 day old emails aint worth what is necessary to recover this drive.

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Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

Of course it is. One of those emails told me I had won hundreds of thousands in a lottery I didn't even enter.

Lottery scam.
I get such mails with dozens a week.

Dobre

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Murphy was an optimist

Datarecovery in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany
Datarecoverytools http://www.drtools.eu

Is it too late to cancel my emails to Mr.Alfa M'aaoka Jeda, Esq containing my bank details for the deposit of $6,000,000??

Now that right there is funny !