SATA Hard Drive Issue - Please Help

Pindy · 21 Aug 2007 at 12:11

Hi

I have two SATA hard drives on my PC, main one being 250Gb and second being 200Gb. Both are Seagate and almost identical spec from what I remember of them.

The main HDD has Windows on it (which I can boot into with no problem) and even has a few other partitions on it (Ubuntu etc) which I have been messing around with.

The second HDD all of a sudden is no longer working. It was not a bootable one, just used for data storage, but whilst playing with my main HDD with a fresh install of Windows etc, the second HDD was my only place of storing all my data.

Anyway, that's beside the point. I have tried the main HDD in both SATA ports on my mobo, trying both cables in all combinations and when ONLY that hard drive is connected it works fine, I can boot into Windows etc. When the second HDD is connected to either port, using either cable it is not recognised during the boot sequence. As in there is no device detected on either SATA port (obviously I know Windows will not boot!!)

The thing that stumps me though is that when both HDDs are connected, neither of them is detected! Weird eh?

I imagine it is the fact I only have one SATA controller on the mobo (Abit AV8 3rd Eye Skt 939), but would the defected HDD overpower the working one?

Also, any suggestions what to do with the one that isn't being detected to get the data back? A Linux live CD wouldn't be too much help if the physical drive is not detected would it?

All suggestions welcome!

Thanks

Marco

enigmo · 21 Aug 2007 at 12:27

Have you tried the duff HD in another PC or tried a different cable? If it's not detected on another PC with a different SATA cable it could be the controller board on the drive is gone, which could affect your primary disc and also make data recovery very difficult.

Pindy · 21 Aug 2007 at 12:38

I tried a different cable as I use two in my current set up and both cables worked fine with my working HDD.

My housemates PC has a similar mobo so I will try the drive in his PC later today.

So HDDs have controllers on board too? Can they be repaired at a specialist shop as I really do not want to lose any data!

enigmo · 21 Aug 2007 at 13:32

The circuit board on the bottom of your drive controls the actuator, the speed of the drive, performs the actual reads and writes etc. These can fry due to power surges, although this is quite rare in my experience. (Did see this in a Mac recently, though. Quite imrpessive!).
TBH, I guess if you have a drive of exactly the same model drive, you might possibly be able to pull the board and put it in your dead drive to resurrect it long enough to get data off, but you'd either have to be lucky and have the board, dataribbon etc socket-attached, or be very handy with a soldering iron. Never tried this myself, even though I have taken a few dead drives apart though. Thye actual removal of the controller boards were always quite simple, but I wouldn't try it unless I was quite comfortable with the possibility of losing both drives.

Pindy · 21 Aug 2007 at 20:23

OK, bit of an update.

I tried the faulty HDD in my housemates PC and it wasn't detected either. It also stalled his PC and didn't detect his fully working one alos.

Spoke to a guy at work before coming home and he thought that the fault drive might be stalling the SATA bus. Is that possible?

Is last train of thought was to put the HDD in an air tight bag and leave in freezer for a couple of hours. Then to remove it, let it get back to room temperature and try spinning it up again, freeing up any issues within the hard drive itself.

How bonkers but feasible does that sound?

enigmo · 21 Aug 2007 at 21:45

The freezing faulty hardware issue depends on who you talk to, from 'Yes, it's worked for me', 'Tried it once, didn't work', to 'You crazy, hombre'. I've done it with one error-filled HD once and managed to retrieve more data than I could at room temperature, so I guess it's kinda worked for me. Never heard of it resurrecting a totally dead disc before, but what have you got to lose?

Just make sure it's well sealed to avoid condensation, maybe even bung in a silica bag if you have one lying around. A small amount of rice wrapped in a muslin bag is also pretty good at absorbing water if desperate, but if any doubt, letting it come back to room temperature first might be the only option to avoid killing it even more.