Hi, i'm newbie here

May i have some advise for my HDD problem ? it's Hitachi GST 250Gb, for serial and model, i will inform later when i'm going back home.

I'm running on Asus P5K Mobo, with windows 10 installed, the drive was connected directly to SATA via 5.25 docking bay (HDD Dock on Cooler Master Elite 431). The current problem are the HDD are suddenly disconnected with unplugged device sound on windows, after reinserting to it's docking, the HDD was able to recognized.

Even without dock, it was a same result, can anyone help ? or any component on PCB should have a test ?

I already check the SATA port/connector, there are no issue with other HDD. i already clean the HDA and motor pin pads also.

Thank You

First, I'd check the S.M.A.R.T. readout of the drive to see if it is developing pending or re-allocated sectors which could reveal a serious problem, or if it has an excessively high number of power cycles.

Next, I'd double check your power connectors, perhaps try a different molex / SATA power string to plug into. The 4 pin molex to SATA adapters are notoriously unreliable.

Finally I'd try a different SATA cable on a different SATA port on the motherboard. Sometimes you can have just a bad port or cable.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

Hi Data Medics

Could you please explain, how i can check the SMART read out ? currently i have no data recovery tools / hardware, are the power cycle can be resetted ?

I'm using 600W of VenomRX PSU with SATA power connector not 4 pins molex, and already try another SATA data cable also.

As first suspect, it seems the HDD are shut down due to HDD mainboard/PCB power issue, there is head park sound, and HDD are disconnected randomly, even i was write/read data, if i reinsert the HHD are back to work normally, and should be disconnected randomly again.

Fyi, the docking are onboard with PC Chase, and there is no other driver board on dock, just port to port header.

Take a look please

I have basic knowledge and instruments on electronic, can anyone help me where should i start to check the power line components on mainboard/PCB ? or can send me the common HDD schematics ?

It's looks like my first reply are awaiting for admin approval, there is no important data on HDD, it looks like some of challenging things to repair the drive.

SMART could be checked with MHDD, hddscan, hddtune, crystaldiskinfo.

Based on my experience with Hitachi drives and the info provided so far by you, the drive should not have a PCB problem. Rather a bad sector or read-write component failure. Overall, I would lean toward a SATA cable connection, maybe a power supply issue as well.

Start with SMART tests and go from there.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Hi Labtech,

I will try with SMART check.

Same issue appear when i try on another PC, it's randomly disconnected, and there are head park sound, the sound is just like you shutdown the PC (one click and spin down spindle voice), that's why i assume it was failed on PCB power components.

I will post the result when i get the SMART read out.

Thank you.

Hi All,

this is what i'v got from crystaldisk

Hey, it looks like the drive are missing one of the TVS diode, does it impacting to the board power distribution ? can anyone tell me the equivalent for the replacement ?

Your drive is running, so likely not a PCB problem.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Hi labtech,

I already replace the missing TVS diode (googling and found the same code from another bad drive), problem still the same.

If the problem are on inner parts of the drive, so it's time to say "Done" for the drive.

However, at the last try, i already succeed to copy about 240 Gb ghost image file into the drive using direct SATA, then it's suddenly disconnected again in about 1 hour, the head parking sound, and drive was disconnected in 2 seconds, i have to disable hibernate/sleep mode on windows, still the same result.

What is your opinion about this case ?

Thanks

Is it the same SATA connection you were having trouble with before? If yes, then the problem is the connection. Tests so far do not support the theory of drive being the problem.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

I try with all 6 SATA port on my mobo, and also with another good PSU and data cable, still the same result, randomly disconnected about minutes or hours.

There is no important data to rescue, just for experimental hdd diagnose.

Fyi, it's connected in AHCI mode, i will give a try with IDE mode later and post the result.

Kind of strange case isn't it ?

Your testing environment is limited, so not sure.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

I had replacing four tiny capacitors on Tx - Rx SATA circuit, it's seems the problem has disappering, and i got more write/read speed also, from about 15 Mb/s to be 90+ Mb/s.

I'm now reformatting the drive, and re-copy as much as files into the drive.

Hope this is the permanent solution, and caused by weak caps.

A missing TVS diode would have made no difference to the drive's performance.

If those Tx/Rx capacitors were problematic, I can't understand why there were no UDMA CRC Error Counts in your SMART report. In fact there is no hint of any problem in the SMART data.

FWIW, ISTR that at least some Hitachi models had problems with NCQ. Perhaps you could try disabling this feature.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

The drive are running well for about 3 hours now, still fine.

Will try the NCQ method.

I'm not a master/guru on HDD world, just try any possibilities.

Maybe you have found the problem. Good luck.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.