Hard Drive shows in BIOS But Won't initialize in Windows

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edo101

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
480
Hi, during the weekend I was trying to backup a 4TB HDD to my new RAID 1 14TB HDDs. But during transfer, it stopped and told me HDD couldn't be found. I restarted my computer but my computer wouldn't go past the Asrock BIOS to boot into windows. It only booted once I unplugged the 4TB HDD in question.
I tried plugging it in after Windows 10 booted and it shows in disk management but when I try to initialize it with a drive letter, it shows up in My Computer but you cant open the drive. In fact sometimes when I plug it in, Disk Management won't load and Windows 10 file explorer locks up.

I even tried viewing it on the Hdd list when you boot into a Windows 10 PE installation USB and it won't show up properly. It makes the Installation USB glitchy.

I have some data I am trying to recover but I don't have any options. What can I do/try. I was going to swap logic boards with my other HDD.
The problem HDD is a WD Blue WD40EZRZ. I was going to try and slap on a logic board from a drive I no longer use. A WD20EARX.
 
edo101 said:
Yep all that jazz. All the port and wire swaps
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i guess run a partition recovery on it and keep finger crossed. was it giving you issues before, it that the reason you were trying to copy it?!
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
Have any USB to SATA kits? It really seems like the drive's logic board is on its last leg.
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pendragon1 said:
thats not going to help it the drives board is toast. he'd need an exact match pcb or send it to a lab, if its worth that much.
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CrimsonKnight13 said:
True, though I like to think of every method as a way to definitely make sure.
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Yes I plugged the drive into a HDD dock and same exact behaviour happened
This dock: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0759567JT?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

pendragon1 said:
i guess run a partition recovery on it and keep finger crossed. was it giving you issues before, it that the reason you were trying to copy it?!
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Partition recovery how?
 
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If you hotplug it, can you run a SMART tool? Sounds like a mess though. :( sorry for your loss.
 
toast0 said:
If you hotplug it, can you run a SMART tool? Sounds like a mess though. :( sorry for your loss.
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Funny, I was paranoid that a hotplug attempt I might have done prior to the the first backup attempt was what killed the board? Although I have hotplugged other drives in the past and had no issues. Hotplugging is safe right? It's not like it kills drives?
 
Yeah, sata is supposed to be hotplugable. But you said you can't boot if it's plugged in when you power on.
 
toast0 said:
Yeah, sata is supposed to be hotplugable. But you said you can't boot if it's plugged in when you power on.
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pendragon1 said:
try diskpart instructions here and if that doesnt work try the utility
https://www.diskpart.com/windows-10/recover-lost-partition-windows-10.html
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CrimsonKnight13 said:
Have any USB to SATA kits? It really seems like the drive's logic board is on its last leg.
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toast0 pendragon1 CrimsonKnight13
I am running chkdsk on the drive and it is giving me "file record segment is unreadable"
 
On windows 7, the drives shows up as a RAW drive that "needs to be formatted to be used with Windows"

Now it's saying:
"insufficient disk space to hotfix unreadable file"
 
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since chkdsk wont complete it sounds like its failing and/or has bad sectors. how bad to you want the data?
 
How valuable is the data? Sounds like it may unfortunately be time to have a data recovery lab get the data from it if it’s that crucial. If not, the drive sounds like it’s about toast. Sometimes with drives like this I’ve had success with the Sabrent clone dock. You basically press a button and it clones the contents from disk 1 to disk 2 without ever being connected to a computer. Could just let it run and see if it does anything.
 
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