Hard drive:

Western Digital 2TB WD20EADS SATA 32MB Cache. Plugged into Thermaltake removable HDD tray dock installed into case.

First symptoms:

A file transfer application reported semaphore time-out error. Subsequently, on a different day, this same application reported CRC errors. I attempted to copy some files off this drive onto another drive. Process was taking a long time. Win8 Task manager reports 100% disk utilisation but little data is being transferred. I exited the file transfer application that was accessing the hard drive. I put Win8 into sleep mode. The drive activity indicator turns off. I press my keyboard to reawake Win8. During this resuming process, the hard drive causes Win8 to crash with a "kernel error". The PC reboots successfully.

From this point on, things being to deteriorate quickly:

1) I'm no longer able to browse the file folders on the drive.

2) On the first reboot, the problem drive appears in Win Explorer; clicking on it causes Win8 to report "CRC error", "I/O error", "please format drive".

3) On subsequent reboots, the drive no longer appears in Win Explorer, but appears in Disk Management as an unformatted blank drive. I get prompts to either "initialise" or "format" the drive.

4) On one or two occassions, the drive didn't even show up in Disk Management, but it now shows up in DMgmt on a consistent basis (even when attached as an external USB device).

Solutions attempted:

1) TestDisk reports "I/O errors" — it cannot even scan the drive.

2) HDD Regenerator reports "HDD is not ready" (even after following the instructions to plug it in directly to motherboard SATA, switching ACHI to IDE in BIOS and booting from USB stick).

3) Booting from Linux Fedora LiveCD — the OS sees the drive but is unable to mount the problem drive.

4) GetDataBack unable to detect the drive.

5) Booting SpinRite from USB causes the program to stall for a long time with screen message saying "Discovering Mass Storage Devices". I can hear the drive chugging along with a mild, intermittent rhythmic grind. (I left it on overnight and gave up.)

Other symptoms:

1) Pressing my ear against the drive, I can hear the platters spinning up gradually after the initial pause, the head makes vigorous, rhythmic reading sounds before settling in silence. The platters continue to spin strongly for hours until I disconnect the power. Different drives make different sounds. Some are noisier than others. All in all, I'm wouldn't say the drive is making any obviously abnormal sounds on startup.

2) Initially, after the initial Win8 crash and reboot, if my memory is correct, the problem drive showed up in WD Diagnostic Utility along with my other drives with a green tick arrow next to it. Subsequently, the problem drive no longer showed up in WD Diag Utility. HDD Regenerator can detect presence of drive for physical scanning purposes in separate window, but does not report SMART info in main program window.

HELP!

Thanks for reading. I would like to hear from experience DR professionals what you think the likely problem with the drive is based on the symptoms reported? Software-fixable? Internal mechanical? Logic board?

I do not own a Torx, so I'm unable to visually examine the underside of the logic board for chip failure.

Which is the absolute best DR program out there that professionals use? R-Studio or something else?

I've tried operating the drive vertically, upside down and different angles to no avail. I've also tried to access the drive from a different computer with no positive outcomes. What other solutions should I attempt? Should I sing to it or stroke it gently near the rear SATA/power connectors to coax it into coughing up my precious*** data?

In all seriousness, I'm now desperate enough to try the "freezer technique"..... :\ (It appears to work for some people whose drives show the exact symptoms as mine (CRC / I/O errors)). :/

Thanks for any suggestions!

*** not precious enough to justify a professional DR service :\

If the drive is not seen anymore at POST it is likely toasted (internal problem). Game over , bin it and carry on as data is not valuable.

Small chance about the problem being the PCB , you can maybe tinker with it (to me less than 5%).

If it is seen in POST, then the problem can be just "some errors / bad blocks" , try to get out data with what you have or with what you can afford (free stuff) - it can die during the process or it can become unresponsive depending on what exactly the problem is , but you stated that your data is not valuable so again it's not an issue.

Plain and simple.

Hi, thanks for the first response!

By "POST"..... (Powered On Self Testing?)...... I presume you mean BIOS? The problem drive is detected within BIOS setup and within Win8/Manage/Disk Management (brand, model, serial number, capacity detected), but not within Windows Explorer (so I can't browse or access the files).

Small chance it's the PCB because the drive is still spinning and the actuator arm audibly moving around at startup?

I'm unable to get the data out because none of the programs I've tried are able to mount or read the drive. It all boils down to an "I/O error".

The data has some "value" but not to the tune of hundreds or thousands it might cost to get a professional DR service. (That's what I meant.)

99.999% chance it's not PCB related.

_________________
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Data Recovery Cape Town

Hi Nick, thanks for your response!

What's the reasoning behind that? I'm trying to learn as much as I can.... (In any event, the chances of securing an identical PCB with identical firmware for a home amateur like me with limited resources is probably extremely low.)

Okay, I've just plugged in another working WD Green 2TB drive (this one has 64MB cache) into the same USB drive caddy. I had a very close listen to the sounds the drive is making. I'm now very certain that the problem drive is making the identical sounds in the first few seconds from power-up:

The same initial pause... then platters slowly spinning up to optimum speed... actuator arm/head engaging... the same exact timing and sequence of "chirps" as the heads tries to position itself....

The only difference is, after this initial sequence of sounds, with the working WD drive, this is immediately followed by a rapid succession of mild "chirps" as the head seems to have successfully "established itself"... and the Windows Explorer pops up displaying the contents of the drive.

With the problem drive, the actuator arm/head goes silent after the initial sequence of excitement.... but the platters continue spinning. The drive fails to mount.

These seem to be the key symptoms of my problem HDD:

1) BIOS and Win8 recognise existence of drive model, capacity, serial. (Win8 reports it as uninitialised, unformatted blank.)

2) But software trying to access or scan the drive report some form of "I/O error" or "drive not ready". (I just added R-Studio to the list of DR software that fails to recognise the existence of the drive. SpinRite and HDD Regenerator do detect it.)

3) The drive itself spins up heartily on power-up every occassion with audible sound of head engaging before going silent (drive continues spinning until power is disconnected). There is no nasty clanking sound from the drive.

I'm just perplexed and really curious as to what (software / hardware) component has failed in this regard given these combination of symptoms.

To me 100% is NOT PCB related.