Hard Drive Troubleshooting

Problems that occur when you have just installed a hard drive are almost always a simple matter of a bad or
incorrectly connected cable, incorrect jumper settings, or some similar trivial problem. If a newly installed
drive isn't recognized by the system, turn off the system. Check the cables make sure that they're aligned
properly and seated completely and replace them if necessary. Make sure that the drive has power, and
restart the system.

Once a hard drive is configured properly and recognized by the system, it generally continues working
properly until it fails. If you're fortunate, you may get some warning of impending drive failure, such as odd
noises coming from the drive, dialogs warning of read or write failures, or a SMART drive failure warning when
you start the system. Unfortunately, hard drives often fail like light bulbs perfect one moment and dead the
next.

Isolating the problem

When a functioning drive fails or begins returning read or write errors, there are many possible causes. Take
the following steps to isolate the cause of the problem:

1. Before proceeding, note that a failing drive can become a failed drive at any moment. Insofar as is possible,
while the drive is still functioning, copy the important files to another hard drive or an optical disc. If you
succeed in copying all of the files you need, copy them again. A particular file may be corrupted on one copy
but readable from another. If you get a read failure error while copying a file, choose the Retry option several
times until you are sure it won't succeed. At that point, choose the Ignore option to continue copying other
files. Sometimes, a file that refuses to copy despite repeated retries on one pass will copy successfully on a
subsequent pass, so don't give up too early.

2. If read/write errors occur only after the system has been running for a while particularly during warm
weather or if you have recently added a fast video card or other heat-producing component it's possible that
the drive is overheating. Remove the case access panel and use your finger as a temperature probe. The hard
drive should feel warm (perhaps quite warm) to the touch, but not so hot that it's uncomfortable to press your
finger against it for several seconds. If the drive is very hot, leave the side panel off and point a standard house
fan directly into the case to cool the drive. If the read/write errors disappear, it's very likely that overheating is
causing the problem. Install a hard drive cooler (available from any online or brick-and-mortar computer store)
and/or add supplemental cooling fans to the case.

3. One of the most common but little-known causes of hard drive read/write errors is a marginal power
supply. Power supplies may begin failing spontaneously and non-obviously, so this problem is always possible.
But it's even more likely if you've recently added components to your system; particularly a hot new video
adapter or some other component that draws a lot of power. You can eliminate the power supply as the cause
of the problem by temporarily (or permanently) replacing it with a high-quality, high-capacity unit. Although it
doesn't completely eliminate the power supply as the cause a power supply can be failing rather than simply
being marginal for the load you can try reducing the load on the current power supply by removing
components temporarily; for example, by temporarily reverting from that hot new video adapter to the
embedded video or an older, slower video adapter.

4. If the hard drive temperature seems reasonable and the power supply is not the problem, you may have a
cable problem. Power down the system and replace the data cable with a new or known-good cable. Also,
remove the current power cable and use a different one. (Power cables seldom fail, but we have seen it
happen.)

5. Connect the drive to a different interface. Although it's uncommon for a motherboard interface to fail
spontaneously, it does happen rarely. If the drive is the PATA primary master, leave it configured as master,
disable the primary ATA interface in BIOS Setup, and connect the drive to the secondary interface. For an SATA
drive, disable the current SATA interface in BIOS Setup, and connect the drive to another SATA interface.
(Don't forget to change the boot device priority.)

6. The drive circuit board may have failed, partially or completely.

 For a PATA drive configured as master, the circuit board serves two independent functions: acting as the disk
controller for all devices connected to that interface, and communicating data between that specific drive and the
motherboard. The disk controller function may fail, but the data communication function continue to work. To test
for this possibility, reconfigure the drive from master to slave, and connect the drive to an interface that already has
a master device present, on the same or another computer. If only the disk controller function of the circuit board
has failed, you will be able to access the drive as a slave device and copy the data from it to another drive or optical
disc. If the problem drive still cannot be accessed, it's possible that its circuitry has failed completely or that the head-
disk assembly (HDA) is physically damaged.

 For an SATA drive, any circuit board failure makes it difficult to access the drive, because every SATA drive acts as its
own disk controller. Even if the data communication function of the controller is working, the drive cannot be
accessed if the disk controller function has failed.

7. If you have not already done so, remove the problem drive from the current system and install it in another
system. It is possible, although unlikely, that all of the motherboard interfaces have failed in the original
system. If so, the drive is not the problem, and it should function normally in the second system.

If none of these nondestructive testing steps allows you to access the drive, it's likely that the drive is
physically damaged, which does not bode well for data recovery.

Recovering data from a failed or failing drive

A hard drive failure is annoying, but hard drives are inexpensive and easy to replace. What matters are the
files on the drive. The first rule of data recovery is that a microgram of prevention is worth a megaton of cure.
The best way to secure your files against loss is to back them up regularly. If you find yourself trying to recover
files from a failing or failed hard drive, someone has screwed up.
Still, even if you implement an airtight backup scheme and follow it religiously, excrement happens. Those
backup discs you so carefully wrote and verified may turn out to be unreadable, or you may have added or
changed critical files since your last backup.

When a drive fails with files on it that haven't been backed up, decide how important those files are and how
much you're willing to pay to recover them. If the answer is, "not very and not much," you can take steps to
recover the files yourself. But if the files are critical and you are willing to pay someone to recover them for
you, the rule is "don't just do something; stand there." Any steps you take yourself to recover the files such as
installing a data recovery program may make it more difficult or impossible for a professional data recovery
firm to retrieve your files.

If you decide to attempt to retrieve the data yourself, the steps to take depend on whether the drive is failing
or failed:

 If you determine that the problem is a failed circuit board, and you have or are willing to buy an identical drive, you
can replace the failed circuit board with the circuit board from the new drive. Obviously, if you are using a circuit
board from an existing drive, be sure to back up the contents of that drive before you proceed.

 If the drive is not accessible and the steps described earlier do not make it so, disconnect the drive from your system
and place it in the freezer for at least an hour. (Take steps to avoid condensation; we wrap the drive in plastic with all
of the air exhausted and only the data and power connectors exposed, and connect them quickly when we remove
the drive from the freezer.) Once the drive is thoroughly chilled, reconnect it to the system immediately and try to
read the data from it while it is still cold. The drive warms quickly as it runs, so if this method succeeds you may need
to do multiple freezer sessions to recover all of your data.

 Finally, as a last resort although this sounds bizarre give the drive a good hard knock against a padded hard surface or
strike it with a rubber mallet just as the drive begins to spin up. Hard drives occasionally fail due to stiction, which
means that the drive motor is no longer capable of starting the drive spinning. Sometimes a hard knock will free
things up enough to allow the drive motor to spin the platters. This procedure, of course, risks doing severe damage
to the drive, and should be employed only if all other measures fail.

ANSWER the following questions:

1) What are some of the warnings of an impending hard drive failure?
2) When do you need to copy your important files?
3) What causes read/write errors?
4) How do you troubleshoot a failing power supply?
5) What is the importance of connecting the problem drive to another system unit?
6) How do you recover files from a hard drive that is not accessible?