Hello everyone,

I am on a laptop with 7 Ultimate x64.

After doing a Windows Update and rebooting the PC doesn't recognize the internal hdd any longer and gives me a ""missing os" error.

The HDD, a 750 GB WD Scorpio Black, emits an humming sound that ends with a sort of high pitched beeping.
This is repeated 3-4 times after which the hdd seems to power off.
No clicking or anything and I don't even hear the platters spinning.
If anyone knows how I can record this sound and thinks it might be useful to determine the problem I might do so and post the recording.

The disk in question had 1 weak sector reported by HDSentinel before the incident but was still assigned 100% health.

I tried to see the HDD through Knoppix to no avail.

I connected the HDD externally and Window's Hard Disk Management asks me to "initialize the disk".
Being unsure i cancelled the request in order not to possibly create further damage.
Should I initialize it?

If anyone can help me somehow I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Hi Spildit,

I have no idea what stiction is but i am going to research it.

Is there any recovery software of sort that you think might recover some data?
A friend recommended PC Inspector File Recovery but I want to be sure not to cause any further damage before attempting anything.

Should I initialize the hdd as Windows Disk Management asks or will that corrupt the data?

Thank you.

It's a physical issue, nothing any software can do.

Quit trying to run software on it, you will do more harm than good.

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Strange, i would say stiction, but here the message tell the hdd is somehow recognized.

Are you sure it is exactly the text as you reported?

You have to understand how the WD drives work. In Italy there is a highly recommended member BlackST and he could do this one for you if you want back your data on this drive. Other wise if under warrenty take it back to the market and get it replaced and fixed. WD is not such a wonderful drive to work with. PCImage is right if you keep up what you are doing you will only end up making the drive worse and then for sure loose all data on it. So now it is up to you want you want to do on this one.

_________________
Iorana Haraharaini

Any "stupid" question is because I am not expert and do not understand how hard disks work indeed.

Can you give me more details about how BlackST could help me please?

Again I am asking for help since I understand little of the subject and yes i was referring to the Bios message.

Anyway I did manage to worsen the situation: the drive started spinning and Windows did recognize it but asked me to format the drive.
So I moved to Knoppix in the hope it would see the drive and let me access it but that it didn't.

Unfortunately powering the defective drive on and off during my attempts made it start death clicking and now if i try to power it it clicks few times and than powers off.

Why is WD bad?

Can you guys recommend a good drive for my laptop since I still need to replace the broken one, data recovery or not.

Also, since the broken drive is still under warranty, if I just send it to be replaced do you know what WD will do of my data?
I am not asking if they are going to recover it for me as i am aware they won't, but I am asking from a privacy point of view: is there any concern?

Thank you

Data is not coverey by warranty - its the users responsability to make
back ups to secure the personal data.

Its general knowledge that one should back up important data - its
not the laptops or hard disks manufacturers fault if a user ignores
that - and therefore its not covered by warranty.

If you want your data back - you need a data recovery from a professional
- like BalckST (one of the best) - but you will lose your harddisk.

If you want to get your harddisk replaced, then you have to either
send in the laptop for repair - or you just need to send your hdd
back for exchange - this has to be agreed by laptop manufacturer.
... but you will lose your data !

+++

I said that myself and that was not my question anyway.

I do have a backup but not that recent.

Thank you.

You can chose any brand and model, Seagate, WD, Hitachi you want, Drives will get broken in time...The importent thing is to have a decent backup.
If you send the drive back to WD you should not be concerned, or do you think they have all the time in the world to do a recovery of all RMA's and after that search the drive for private things?

_________________
Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

Ok thanks that's what I thought so I'll start to buy another hdd since i am working on an old one which has only 20% health left.
On the other side the one that broke had 100% health and just up and died (never happened to me like this).

As for WD technicians I hope they are busy enough but I have read of people that got replacement drives with previous data still recoverable on them.


Thank you.

P.s. There is another post of mine with an update on the situation of the drive (I managed to wreck it) but it got blocked in moderation for whatever reason.

Yes that can happen if you get a drive or other digital media that have been swaped out in a store, ie a customer had tryed out a drive or a phone, and then returned it within 30 days for a newer or bigger and better one.
But if WD get the drive back, and decide to refurb it they will rewrite all the SA...so there is no way that your files can be reopend.

_________________
Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

OK good to know thank you.

WD did send me a refurbished (they say re-certified) drive that died in a week though so i don't know how thorough they are but maybe this events are in the cards too.

Anyway the broken drive has 5 years of warranty so if I can recover the data for a reasonable price I have plenty of time for warranty replacement if that will be the way.

mr_spokk has kindly answered your other questions, but just FYI for you and any other new members who read this, I want to add some comments about this point above.

Tools which give such a percentage (e.g. HDD Sentinel) are trying to merge lots of health-related data into one number, to make it easy for non-experts to interpret the result. Unfortunately some of the important details also get lost in that process. Indications about "xx% health" are only a guess / approximation, and they cannot know when a drive could catastrophically fail - it is rarely a linear decline, and some symptoms (e.g. unreadable sectors) could already exist. Of course, backups are important for this reason. Anything lower than 100% health is a warning sign, and the reason for that lower percentage should be investigated.

Yes very good advice thank you.
The failed disk had 1 bad sector which appeared and disappeared but the health reported was still reported as perfect.
I'll keep this in mind for the future.

I used to backup regularly with Acronis but after an update it ruined my system and took me a week in Knoppix to recover it and by than, not having found another backup software I liked, I kinda forgot and just backed up manually here and there.

Do you guys recommend anything?
I am now using BackUp Maker which seems all right but haven't tested it on a recover yet so cannot be sure.

As for recovering the data what could i attempt and who to contact?
Do i need to contact the user mentioned or how it works?
Can i contact other users too?

I checked on some data recovery sites and some say you need a "white room": is this true?


Thank you

Yes Contact BlackST member5409.html He nows he's stuff and can help you out.

_________________
Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

Thank you all , contacted and replied.

Sorry this one is funny to me

_________________
Iorana Haraharaini