WD Hard Drive Starts Spinning, Then Stops

Hello,

Now I have what I believe may be a dead hard drive (taken out from an external enclosure) and I'd just like a 2nd/3rd opinion on this.

So I have a WD10EACS Western Digital 1TB HDD. Now the reason I think it may be dead is because now when I power the HDD on, the drive spins for about 10 seconds or so, and then it stops spinning completely. And it doesn't appear to be detected by my computer at all (either in My Computer or in Disk Management)

I've taken it out of its enclosure and tested it by directly connecting it to my computer through its SATA ports, and still the same problem.

I was wondering if anyone here has experience with this type of issue, and whether or not there is an inexpensive solution for it?

And for what its worth, I think my issue might be the same as the one listed in this post: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=190085

 

Hi,

There is a difference between your problem and the other thread in that in that thread, his drive was seen in disk management. There has to be at least minimal functionality for it to appear there (Windows was at least getting some information from the electronics of the HD telling it the brand and model number). If the drive isn't seen in disk management then there is not much you can do with it in Windows. No Windows program will be able to see it as far as I know.

You could try Western Digital's Drive Diagnostic program. I don't think the Windows version will see it but there is a tiny chance that the bootable CD version might. (I really think it depends on whether or not your computer's BIOS sees the drive. That it doesn't at least show up in Disk Management makes me think even your BIOS doesn't see it.) You can try the program for the cost of a blank CD.

You want the lifeguard diagnostic for CD from here and then you need to burn the ISO file to a blank CD as an image file. Imgburn's "Write Image File to Disc" option will work or you can use your favorite burning software. http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61

Then boot from the CD (in the computer you have the HD attached to internally) and see if it can detect your HD. If it can then you would run the short test and the long test to see what it says. The long test is the one that will try to fix any errors.

I think it is a long shot that it will see the HD if neither of your computers will but it is probably worth a try. You can try the Windows version but with the drive not showing in Disk Management that is an even longer shot.

 

Hello, thanks for the reply.

I'm not sure if your suggestion would work since my computer does not seem to detect the hard drive at all. The reason I think this is because I've tried booting my computer with the HDD connected, and the HDD does not appear to show up in the BIOS. So I doubt running any software would help if my computer cannot detect the hard drive. And for the record I have tried it on another computer.

My "guess" would that be that there is some kind of mechanical problem. I'm thinking for some reason data can't be read from the read/write head (needle part, kind of like a record player) or the spindle (the part that spin the magnetic disks that hold the information). But of course I'm no expert on this sort of thing, so what do I know.

 

I'm no expert either. Just from experience if it isn't recognized in BIOS then that seems to be a problem with the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) of the HD. I would think that even if the platters are frozen and no data can be read that the BIOS should be able to "connect" to the HD and get basic information like model number and capacity. When BIOS doesn't recognize the drive then I don't think there is much hope. Especially, since you tried it with different types of hook-ups (internal and USB) and in different computers.

I only suggested the WD utility because I vaguely remember it once seeing a drive when no OS saw the drive. I don't think WD could possibly see the drive if BIOS doesn't but I'm not absolutely sure of the details of the time I was surprised.

If you have a stack of CDs around go ahead and burn the disc. If you have to go out and get some then I would skip it. It was just a last chance option.

I think your original analysis is probably correct, the drive is dead.

Can we get a third opinion, please!