Hard drive not found

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JimmyLizar

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#61527 18-May-2010 12:14

I have two hard drives. One for OS and one for storing movies TV shows etc.

This morning when I booted my PC up it came up with a message saying "sata port 5 error" or something similar.

Now the drive with the movies etc is nowhere to be found.

Anyone got any advice on what I should do now?

Cheers
James

PC
ASUS P5Q PRO
Vista 32

.....c'mon sucker lick my battery........
binary solo...0000110000110000111...

marpada

487 posts

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#331311 18-May-2010 12:33

Open the PC and make sure that the SATA and power connector are firmly attached to the disk and the motherboard (sometimes unplugging and plugging again does the trick)

heavenlywild

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#331320 18-May-2010 12:50

+1 with marpada.

If still without luck, most likely the drive has died.

marpada

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#331330 18-May-2010 13:00

Also listen to the sound of the disk heads start spinning, that's usually a very good sign:)

wreck90

780 posts

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#331352 18-May-2010 13:34

What is the disk model?

Seagate 7200.11 drives have an extreme failure rate.

The model number maybe something like ST31000340AS , this drive family is unreliable.

There is a firmware update which you can apply that may help.

SMART is useless, the only time it ever reports an error is after the drive fails.

Ragnor

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#331381 18-May-2010 14:20

Other things to try:

Different SATA port
Different SATA cable
Try the hard drive in a different machine or in a USB enclosure.

If that fails buy a new hard drive and restore the data from your backup, you had a backup right... you didn't? Oh well lesson learned (the hard way).

JimmyLizar

321 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#331804 19-May-2010 11:39

marpada: sometimes unplugging and plugging again does the trick

Did this and it worked. can now see the drive again. Thanks.

Drive is a Seagate 7200.10. Have this morning ordered a new 1TB Samsung HD as an extra backup.

.....c'mon sucker lick my battery........
binary solo...0000110000110000111...

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JimmyLizar

321 posts

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#332124 20-May-2010 09:50

Ok, so turn on computer this morning and the bootup post says that one of my HDD in my RAID 1 is degraded.

Seems a strange coincidence that yesterday my additional storage HDD wasnt recognised and today one of the RAID drives has an issue.

Motherboard issue?

Anyone recommend a free HDD check utility.

.....c'mon sucker lick my battery........
binary solo...0000110000110000111...

Lias

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#332184 20-May-2010 10:37

HDsentinel

Has a free version and you can trial the pro version. Best HDD monitoring tool i've found.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Bung

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#332216 20-May-2010 11:05

JimmyLizar: Ok, so turn on computer this morning and the bootup post says that one of my HDD in my RAID 1 is degraded.

Seems a strange coincidence that yesterday my additional storage HDD wasnt recognised and today one of the RAID drives has an issue.

Motherboard issue?

Anyone recommend a free HDD check utility.

How many physical drives have you got? You started out saying 2

wreck90

780 posts

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Inactive user

#332223 20-May-2010 11:13

Your drive could be dying slowly.

This happened to me on my last drive failure.

The drive would function for a short period in which I would furiously recover data. Then, it would disappear from bios. Powering on/off , reconnecting sata cables would get the drive working for a while longer but it would be come less reliable over time.

I even tried 'freezing' the drive which apparently is supposed to work in some cases but I think it's an old wives tale myself.

"CHKDSK /f /v /r "can temporariliy help.

JimmyLizar

321 posts

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#332231 20-May-2010 11:26

I actually have three (but didnt want to confuse the situation earlier).

2x 320 GB in RAID1 setup
+
1x 320 GB for storage (movies etc)

The standalone storage drive was having issues yesterday.....today the RAID is reporting as being degraded.

Arggghhhh!

.....c'mon sucker lick my battery........
binary solo...0000110000110000111...

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JimmyLizar

321 posts

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#332257 20-May-2010 12:00

Took a full image of the c: drive (using Shadowprotect) before shutting the computer down.

Upon startup the 2nd time it said "rebuilding" and it is just stayed in the black screen that has the progress bar with 'Microsoft Corporation' below. The progress bar is still moving so I am assuming (hoping) it is rebuilding the array.

It has been going for 40 odd minutes now. Hope it isn't just stuck in a loop.

If this fails I am ditching RAID.

.....c'mon sucker lick my battery........
binary solo...0000110000110000111...