Is my hard drive dead?

synixx · 8 Jun 2012 at 12:18

So yesterday I moved my pc to my livingroom to watch a blu ray as I couldnt get it to stream properly (licence to blu ray software expired) and when I went to start up my pc it came up saying:

PC said:
Disk Read Error Occurred
Press CTRL + Alt + Del to restart

So I restarted and the message keeps coming up. The hard drive still shows up in the BIOS however iot only reads as 33MB. I then transferred it to another pc and it shows up in my computer and device manager, however it tells me I need to format it? What does this mean? Is there any way to save the data still on it and will it even work once reformatted?

Justintime · 8 Jun 2012 at 12:25

Whats the hard drive? Connect it to your other PC and run Crystaldiskinfo on it :
http://sourceforge.jp/frs/redir.php?m=iij&f=/crystaldiskinfo/55590/CrystalDiskInfo4_6_2a.zip

Run Seatools or manufacturers diag tools, dosen't sound good however.

Assume you've tried a new cable etc?

synixx · 8 Jun 2012 at 12:43

It's a samsung F1 1TB. I've tried a new cable and it didn't make a difference. What sort of things am I looking for to indicate if the drive is bad in Crystaldiskinfo?

OK, it says health status: caution (yellow)

Reallocated Sectors Count [05]: 63
Current Pending Sector Count [C5]: 27
Uncorrectable Sector Count [C6]: 1

Justintime · 8 Jun 2012 at 12:46

Check ID 05 and C4 through C8. However it might just show up as bad straight from the get go. Use Seatools for Windows and do a long generic test, even though Samsung hdds are now Seagate it dosen't matter anyway what brand it is.

edscdk · 8 Jun 2012 at 12:47

a) run a chkdsk if it fixes the issue and leaves no bad sectors you had a virus

b) if it fixes the issue and leaves bad sectors replace the drive...

c) if (a) left no bad sectors run a chkdsk /r jsut to be safe if there are bad sectors replace the drive

Justintime · 8 Jun 2012 at 12:50

edscdk said:
a) run a chkdsk if it fixes the issue and leaves no bad sectors you had a virus

b) if it fixes the issue and leaves bad sectors replace the drive...

c) if (a) left no bad sectors run a chkdsk /r jsut to be safe if there are bad sectors replace the drive

Did you get this from your A+ class?

synixx · 8 Jun 2012 at 12:59

Justintime said:
Check ID 05 and C4 through C8. However it might just show up as bad straight from the get go. Use Seatools for Windows and do a long generic test, even though Samsung hdds are now Seagate it dosen't matter anyway what brand it is.

C8 is reported as heathy.

edscdk said:
a) run a chkdsk if it fixes the issue and leaves no bad sectors you had a virus

b) if it fixes the issue and leaves bad sectors replace the drive...

c) if (a) left no bad sectors run a chkdsk /r jsut to be safe if there are bad sectors replace the drive

When I go to hard drive properties to schedule a chkdsk it tells me I need to format first.

edscdk · 8 Jun 2012 at 13:02

synixx said:
C8 is reported as heathy.

When I go to hard drive properties to schedule a chkdsk it tells me I need to format first.

attach to another working PC via sata cable - the OS should (hopefully) do a chkdsk on boot?

synixx · 8 Jun 2012 at 13:03

edscdk said:
attach to another working PC via sata cable - the OS should (hopefully) do a chkdsk on boot?

It is already connected to another PC as I can't get past the "Disk read error" message on my main PC. It didn't do a chkdsk unfortunately.

Looks like I may just have to format to get anywhere...

edscdk · 8 Jun 2012 at 13:05

I had one exactly like this last week (i see a few) it took several reboots for the windows install to decide to do a chkdsk, then it took 24hours for the chkdsk to complete it gets stuck on bad sectors for ages....

I think trying to force a chkdsk is the best bet before trying recovery software... (oviously if it refuses to chkdsk you only have that option)

Justintime · 8 Jun 2012 at 13:06

edscdk said:
attach to another working PC via sata cable - the OS should (hopefully) do a chkdsk on boot?

Fact that its being read as 33mb on the BIOS level may point to it not being a check disk repariable issue no?

synixx · 8 Jun 2012 at 13:12

I'll try rebooting a few times and see if I can initiate a chkdsk.

EDIT: I booted in safe mode and attempted to run chkdsk from there but it reported "Cdkdsk cannot be run on RAW file format" or something like that. Guess that's because it;s being read as an unformatted drive. Furthermore, when running the format tool on windows it is still showing up as 30MB. Dammit

synixx · 8 Jun 2012 at 14:58

I managed to resolve this problem. I did some searching and found other posts on google of hard drives showing up as 32MB. They pointed to some sort of corrupt file address system and from that I found out about samsung EStools which has a built in function to restore the hard drive to it's default capacity. Skip forward an hour and here I am in windows just about to start an extended chkdsk on the drive. Score.