Assuming this drive is dead, but...

strumpusplunket · 31 Dec 2014 at 18:53

I have a pretty old 320Gb Maxtor that's been a kind of utility drive in my system for a while - used to house my downloads, pictures, documents folders, temporary files, etc. so as not to clog up my SSD C: drive.

I'd had a few problems with it when I'd had to reset the PC or had boot problems caused by (I think) the AOC drivers for my monitor - I got chkdsk running on it when restarting, and some "$Mft is corrupt" errors, but it always worked fine after running chkdsk, and this only happened after having a second display connected and the AOC drivers installed and having a failed wake from sleep event.

Earlier this afternoon it disappeared from Windows, and the PC wouldn't boot up with it connected. Disconnecting the drive and everything else is fine except for all my annoying broken links.

I've ordered a replacement drive since I was meaning to get a bigger one anyway. Now, I'm assuming this drive is no more, it has ceased to be and gone to meet its maker. There's nothing totally irreplaceable on it since most stuff was backed up, but there are some things it would be useful to get off the drive if possible in terms of saving me many (many, many) hours of re-downloading.

Is there anything worth trying before I just smash and bin the thing?

Tomc@T · 31 Dec 2014 at 19:00

Do you (or a mate) have a USB HDD enclosure? You could try that and see if the PC will recognise the drive?

strumpusplunket · 31 Dec 2014 at 19:03

Yeah, I did have. I've been looking for the damn thing all afternoon and can only conclude it got lost/chucked out in our last house move. I wondered if it was worth getting another one to check, but they're not cheap. If I could get a reliable one for a tenner or so I probably would, but the 3.5" ones all seem to be around £30 or more. I'd probably stretch to that if there was a decent chance of success, but I guess that's not possible to judge?

AthlonXP1800 · 31 Dec 2014 at 20:41

You can find All in 1 HDD dockstation for £10 that fit 2.5", 3.5" SATA/IDE HDDs as it also has built-in USB Hub and memory card reader.

Tomc@T · 31 Dec 2014 at 21:04

strumpusplunket said:
I'd probably stretch to that if there was a decent chance of success, but I guess that's not possible to judge?

No, it is not possible to judge, I have several successes with problematic HDDs via a USB disk caddy.

How much do you value the data you want? Is it worth the £10 to £30 to try?

Good luck!

strumpusplunket · 31 Dec 2014 at 23:10

AthlonXP1800 said:
You can find All in 1 HDD dockstation for £10 that fit 2.5", 3.5" SATA/IDE HDDs as it also has built-in USB Hub and memory card reader.

Ah, ok. I'll continue searching to find that one. Cheers.

Tomc@T said:
No, it is not possible to judge, I have several successes with problematic HDDs via a USB disk caddy.

How much do you value the data you want? Is it worth the £10 to £30 to try?

Good luck!

Ta!

I'd say I value the data at around £10-15, but certainly not £30. I'd like to have access to it, but it's basically just saving me inconvenience. Anything irreplaceable was backed up anyway.

strumpusplunket · 1 Jan 2015 at 16:22

Little update - as a last resort I just tried disconnecting my DVD drive and plugging the HDD into the connectors I was using for that, and it's appeared in Windows again. Looks like a duff SATA cable or motherboard connector might have been the culprit after all...

Tomc@T · 1 Jan 2015 at 21:05

Nice one!!!

AthlonXP1800 · 1 Jan 2015 at 21:34

Wow nice, probably saved you £10. lol

ED209 · 1 Jan 2015 at 22:10

strumpusplunket said:
Little update - as a last resort I just tried disconnecting my DVD drive and plugging the HDD into the connectors I was using for that, and it's appeared in Windows again. Looks like a duff SATA cable or motherboard connector might have been the culprit after all...

I would grab what you wanted from it just to be on the safe side

darael · 2 Jan 2015 at 01:28

It could be a failing SATA controller on the motherboard, so make sure you keep an eye on that.

More likely is a poor quality SATA cable or it just wasn't quite plugged in properly.

strumpusplunket · 2 Jan 2015 at 10:17

ED209 said:
I would grab what you wanted from it just to be on the safe side

Definitely sound advice, and just what I'm doing now. I'm pleased to note now I can look through the drive contents again that everything irreplaceable was safely backed up and it is indeed only replaceable files that are left on there. Good to know my back-up protocol is doing its job, but nice to be able to copy over also the files that whilst replaceable would be a bit of a PITA to organise again.

darael said:
It could be a failing SATA controller on the motherboard, so make sure you keep an eye on that.

More likely is a poor quality SATA cable or it just wasn't quite plugged in properly.

Yeah, I'm kind of hoping it's just the lead. It does remind that I did have a SATA lead go bad some time ago, but just to be safe I think I'll switch the DVD drive to use that connector since I almost never use it anyway, and let my replacement drive when it arrives sit on the connector I've been using for the DVD drive. It's also made me realise that I've completely filled up the SATA ports on my motherboard though. Think I'll be looking for more than six ports when I upgrade...