If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Why mechanical failure causes HDD being undetectable by bios or OS ?
Hi!
Could someone please explain why in the case of *mechanical* failure HD becomes sometimes undetected by BIOS and/or the operating system (e.g. win xp or linux)? If it was an electronic failure then such behaviour would be obious, but why the same happens with some mechanical failures? When electronics is working in my opinion it still should be detected by bios and/or the system (win xp or linux), but often it is not. I could recover about 80% of the data from my HDD (which apparently has a mechanical failure - plates spin up and down, heads create bad noises) if only the disk could be seen by the system all the time. But often during copying of the data heads hit with a loud sound so badly that sometimes even the plates stop rotating, and the disk then dissapears from the system. It is then very difficult to make it detectable by the system again, sometimes the sytem can detect it but only after several minutes of copying it freezes and then dissapears again. Recently, I was unlucky, and even after several dozens of retries it's still undetectable by the system. Could you please advice what to do to make the disk detectable by the system all the time? What causes that it is not detectable although the failure is in mechanics not electronics? BTW, if someone has the same disk model (Quantum Fireball ST64A011), please let me know. andy |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
"andy" wrote in message ... Hi! Could someone please explain why in the case of *mechanical* failure HD becomes sometimes undetected by BIOS and/or the operating system (e.g. win xp or linux)? Consider the options available to the HD designer. What do you want the user to see during POST about a HD that knows itself that it can't possibly work. The HD designer knows that many BIOSs have no ability to detect and display a HD error status during POST. The BIOS may only be able to report 'there' or 'not there'. If you were the HD designer would you want the HD to report 'there' during POST even when the HD itself really knew that it wasn't there? How would you answer the query of a poster in this NG who wanted to know why a HD reported 'there' during post but was not there for all intents and purposes for any booting steps after POST? Did the HD designer make the correct design choice in the first place which would likely cause a competent user to try another HD and assume that the HD was dead dead which in fact it is? If it was an electronic failure then such behaviour would be obious, but why the same happens with some mechanical failures? When electronics is working in my opinion it still should be detected by bios and/or the system (win xp or linux), but often it is not. What on earth for? Such would be highly misleading and a very poor design choice. I could recover about 80% of the data from my HDD (which apparently has a mechanical failure - plates spin up and down, heads create bad noises) if only the disk could be seen by the system all the time. Huh? But often during copying of the data heads hit with a loud sound so badly that sometimes even the plates stop rotating, and the disk then dissapears from the system. Duh! It is then very difficult to make it detectable by the system again, sometimes the sytem can detect it but only after several minutes of copying it freezes and then dissapears again. Recently, I was unlucky, and even after several dozens of retries it's still undetectable by the system. Could you please advice what to do to make the disk detectable by the system all the time? What causes that it is not detectable although the failure is in mechanics not electronics? The drive is DOA! BTW, if someone has the same disk model (Quantum Fireball ST64A011), please let me know. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Thanks for your reply. If it was an electronic failure then such behaviour would be obious, but why the same happens with some mechanical failures? When electronics is working in my opinion it still should be detected by bios and/or the system (win xp or linux), but often it is not. What on earth for? Such would be highly misleading and a very poor design choice. But I could then recover 80% of my data, and now I can recover 0% of my data. Does it make sense for you now? Is there any way to disable that feature? (I mean to make the malfunctioned HDD visible to the system again?) The drive is DOA! Don't get DOA. a. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
"andy" wrote in message ... Thanks for your reply. If it was an electronic failure then such behaviour would be obious, but why the same happens with some mechanical failures? When electronics is working in my opinion it still should be detected by bios and/or the system (win xp or linux), but often it is not. What on earth for? Such would be highly misleading and a very poor design choice. But I could then recover 80% of my data, and now I can recover 0% of my data. Does it make sense for you now? Perfect sense and no you couldn't recover 80% of your data. Is there any way to disable that feature? (I mean to make the malfunctioned HDD visible to the system again?) The drive is DOA! Don't get DOA. Dead On Arrival |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 20:59:17 GMT, "Ron Reaugh" wrote:
But I could then recover 80% of my data, and now I can recover 0% of my data. Does it make sense for you now? Perfect sense and no you couldn't recover 80% of your data. Why? a. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
"andy" wrote in message ... On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 20:59:17 GMT, "Ron Reaugh" wrote: But I could then recover 80% of my data, and now I can recover 0% of my data. Does it make sense for you now? Perfect sense and no you couldn't recover 80% of your data. Why? Soot. |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
"andy" wrote in message ... Could you please advice what to do to make the disk detectable by the system all the time? What causes that it is not detectable although the failure is in mechanics not electronics? For recovery only; I've had luck in the past by freezing dead hard drives, leave it over night in the freezer, have everything ready on your pc, i.e. ide and power cables loose so that you can plug it straight in and side panel off. Plug the drive in as soon as it comes out the freezer and boot your pc, don't bother fixing it into the case. You won't have long to recover your data (if it works at all) so before trying the procedure, make a mental note of what is most important to you on the drive and try and grab that first. Don't expect to be able to recover a large amount of data using this method, as the drive warms (quickly) you'll soon be back to the original problem. Good luck, I bet you'll start backups now HTH -- Apollo |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
For recovery only; I've had luck in the past by freezing dead hard drives, leave it over night in the freezer, have everything ready on your pc, i.e. ide and power cables Thanks for the advice, but I tried that already to no avail. a. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
"andy" wrote in message ... For recovery only; I've had luck in the past by freezing dead hard drives, leave it over night in the freezer, have everything ready on your pc, i.e. ide and power cables Thanks for the advice, but I tried that already to no avail. a. You're out of luck then I'm afraid. If the data is that critical then don't do anything else to it, contact a professional data recovery operation. Be prepared to pay a lot of money (2nd mortgage) though, these people are not cheap, and for good reason. They will probably strip your drive and mount the physical disks in their own apparatus under clean room conditions - this is what costs. Or write it off to experience and learn from it. Do regular backups, and remember backups are useless unless you test them and ensure they work. -- Apollo |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Or write it off to experience and learn from it. Do regular backups, and remember backups are useless unless you test them and ensure they work. I was doing backups of critical data, and that is why I'm not prepared to pay a lot of $$$ for data recovery. :P However, I'm prepared to pay a little bit for recovery of the rest of the data. I think that if I could purchase another such disk even with bad electronics, but with good mechanics, and then I could recover the data, even if I open the disk not in a virtually dust free conditions. a. |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
P4P800 acting flakey bios checksum failure | Stacey | General | 6 | March 7th 04 04:35 PM |
Harddrive Failure | Gerry Abbott | General | 3 | November 28th 03 01:41 AM |
Failure curve of hard drives | Lurch | General | 4 | October 24th 03 04:44 PM |
Boot Disk Failure | news.verizon.net | General | 2 | September 2nd 03 09:27 PM |
Laptop HDD: failure during enumeration? | rcm | General | 0 | July 25th 03 05:06 PM |