Problem With Usb Hdd

Hello everyone,

I have a little problem with a HDD that I'm trying to check out using SeaTools for Windows, although it's a WS Black 320GB
I've connected to the USB port of my laptop by a USB - SATA adapter and a SATA cable; power is provided by the 15 pin connector straight from a VP450 desktop PSU

I ran SeaTools for Windows, and it is detected by that program. It ran Disk Info, and ShortDST with difficulty (I had to do this twice because it got stuck) and then the Short Generic It got through the Outer and Inner but got stuck doing the Random Read. I tried again with no luck. I then decided to check my connections and when I tried again was worse - it would do the Short DST and the Disk Info test had disappeared.

I decided to check some more basic things in Windows

The disk is not seen in Windows Explorer. I see it in Widows Disk Management - screenshot. Right clicking on the disk area brings up the usual menu except everything's greyed out except 'Delete Volume' and 'Help' and if I R-click on box to the left of that area I get the menu with everything greyed out except 'Properties' and 'Help'.

What I'd like to as a preliminary is either or both of assign a letter and/or a label to this disk and/or format it,

I think the disk is empty (contains no data) Anybody have any USEFUL suggestions ? (The comment 'the disk is U/S is not helpful)

Dumb_Question
23.March.2019
HP Pavilion dm4-1050ea Windows 7 Home Premium

 

It seems as though the partition currently on this WD Black 320Gb may have a hidden flag applied to it given that Computer Management sees the HDD / partition but there is no volume label next to it (at top). This would also explain why the partition is not being displayed in Windows Explorer

Get GParted (one of my preferred progs), or your favourite Partition Manager software and check. If it has the hidden flag applied remove it. Also check the status of the boot flag (as yours says Active). You will also be able to ascertain whether the drive is empty or not.

If you want to delete all the existing partition from the WD HDD, GParted can do this.

My suggestion would be to create a bootable CD or USB for this.

As regards checking the integrity of the HDD which you say seems problematic, personally I would also do this outside a Windows environment. Not sure if that was what you were doing.

Create a bootable CD or USB and run a disk diagnostics program from there. If Seatools seems to work with your WD drive then run the Long Test. From memory the last Seatools for dos is v2.30.

Good Luck

 

That sounds like a good plan.

It seems that to run GParted it is necessary to make media with it on, and boot from that. Is that true ? Is it possible to download, install and run it without rebooting ?
I have been working from within Windows 7. I have SeaTools for DOS on a CD somewhere, but I've been using SeaTools for Windows, and this has worked for me in the past, under both XP and Windows 7

More Information

I have found that AOMEI Partition Assistant (standard edition [which I take to mean free version]) can see the WD disk. However, although there is option to 'Hide Disk' which I assume also includes Unhide disk, that is greyed out. It says that it can hide and unhide partitions.

I also have Easeus Partition Master 10.2 but I can't find, if there is one the command for unhiding disk.

The Easeus and Aomei software run as windows applications;

I've looked at my OS command 'diskpart' -> list volume; the WD disk is not there.

Dumb_Question
23.March.2019
HP Pavilion dm4-1050ea - Windows 7 Home Premium

 

GParted needs to be run outside of the o/s ie on CD or USB. It is Linux based.

I have never used AOMEI partition Assistant but if it is showing an option for 'Hide Disk' seems to suggest that it is not now hidden. This does conflict with what Computer Management and Windows Explorer are showing, as detailed in my previous post.

I don't use Easeus Partition Master either. Not sure why you can't find it as in your screenshot of Computer Management it is quite clearly shown in the optical drive below Disk 1

The only other Partition Managers that I use are Terabyte's BootIt (outside of o/s) and the free version of MiniTool Partition Wizard within o/s but that is just to double check items or partition alignment on SSDs. I do not use it to make partition changes.

Any partition manager software will have to reboot into either Dos or Linux to effect any changes you make. In my opinion booting from CD or USB is easier but I appreciate that people are different.

Not sure if a USB volume would appear in DiskPart.

Personally, I still stand by what I said to you, namely that you should use GParted in the first instance as it may show that your partition has issues. I have had infrequent issues with partitions and GParted has always been one of the most accurate free partition managers. It will also detect HDD connected to the USB bus.

PS. It could be the MBR on the HDD that has become corrupt that would likely have the same symptoms.

Good Luck

 

I can report to all that the WD external disk (bare disk without case) has just passed the SeaTools for Windows Long Generic test with no faults reported !

That still leaves me not knowing for sure if the is anything on the disk - I suspect that it is empty but formatted

Dumb_Question
24.March.2019
HP Pavilion dm4-1050ea - Windows 7 Home Premium

 

More info

I can find and run the Easeus tools. The CD you can see is the cloning software only. This is included in the Windows version, but I think that to use use that, as you say, it somehow has to restart the computer and retain the cloning system while it makes the clone. I prefer to use the CD version, because I've used it before and I know that it works It is the command for hide/unhide that I am unable to find.

Maybe the AOMEI hide option is greyed out because it is only available in the advanced version of the software, or maybe it is greyed out because the disk is already hidden. Either way, I can't use it.

Dumb_Question
24.March.2019
HP Pavilion dm4-1050ea - Windows 7 Home Premium

 

If you use a Linux Live CD you will be able to access data, if any, on the WD HDD. Linux Mint is quite good for that otherwise Puppy Linux.

That is of course a possibility that is why progs such as GParted are more useful.

Good Luck

 

In fact, I've remembered that I have Linux Mint on a USB drive...

Dumb_Question
24.March.2019

 

I have found the free Mini Tool Partition Wizard very useful.

 

OK. I have made a GParted Live CD.
I am running GParted as I write.
(I don't like it, it takes too long to start and is difficult to see, and the GUI doess't start immediately, and it's difficult to see and....)
The USB disk (WD 320GB) is detected. It says 7.84MB is unallocated, then 298.08GB, file system = hfs+, labeled as 'HDD' of which 306.14MB is used and 297.68GB is unused; in the flags column there is the word 'boot', finally 2.49GB unallocated (order is vertical list)

Is the disk basically empty ? Is the 306.14MB a boot file ? How can I find out what is in it ?

OK, I found out that hfs+ is an Apple disk format, and I don't use Apple products, historically.
I deleted the central large partition (hfs+) Now GParted show only one entry, 298.09GB of unallocated space. I should be able to go back to Windows and verify that everything is OK and proceed to the next step of the operation

Thank you for all your replies, especially risk_reversal. Although GParted, alone of the disk management tools I tried, solved the problem, I wouldn't choose it ! However, I now have the live CD which works

Dumb_Question
25.March.019
HP Pavilion dm4-1050ea - Windows 7 Home Premium (and occasionally Linux based applications !)

 

GParted may not be to everyone's taste but as you have experienced first hand it works where (some) other free partitioning software fails.

Good Luck

 

Yes, thanks. I agree Gparted worked when many other software tools did not.

I tried to clone my working disk (a Hitachi 320GB) to the WD disk, but it kept failing with slow copy rate (MB/minute instead of GB/minute)
Back in Windows disk management, after I had put the disk on line, I could see it had four partitions like my working disk, but they were unformatted. I tried to 'long format' one of the partitions, and it failed. I kept getting messages 'to use this disk you must format it', and then 'format disk J' (or whichever of the four letters it was using) ? so I tried to format other partitions: they started OK but didn't get far. But now, more of the R-click options were enabled, so I deleted all the partitions so I had just one partition to deal with which occupied the whole disk. Then I tried formatting this and at the fourth attempt it completed. It showed up in Windows explorer. It is a mystery to me why I had so much trouble with this disk, which on one occasion SeaTools showed me that it was 'good', but after one success at each stage, I didn't try again, not wanting to push my luck
Then I tried cloning my working disk to that disk again and this time it completed.

Dumb_Question
26.March.2019

 

Cloning one hard disk (A) to another requires that the disk being cloned to (B) is at least the same size as the first disk.

Personally for whole disk clones, I use Clonezilla. This is also run from a Live CD and is Linux based. If you did not like GParted my opinion is that Clonezilla will be much the same.

I have used MiniTool Partition Wizard boot cd once to clone a drive and it was fine.

Obviously, the speed of cloning will be determined by the bus over which it is cloned ie USB2 will be slow. I recently cloned an SSD drive to a bigger SSD drive with both disks connected to SATA III controllers on the mobo and Clonezilla was copying at 23.5Gb min.

 

I used an old version of the Easeus clone program, also fr9m CD and I think, Linux based.
The fonts are bigger than those in GParted and the display better laid out, in my opinion, with better use of colour. My hardware is not USB III compliant, only USB2.1 Many people use clonezilla (I've never tried it), I have read, and more choose to make their back-ups using software designed for that purpose.

The two HDDs were of the same size: Easeus v3.2.1 clone gives a reminder that if your target disk should be the same size or larger. I tried once to clone a Hitachi 500GB laptop drive to a Seagate one and found that that the Seagate 500GB disk was 2 sectors (1024 bytes) smaller than the Hitachi one. However the clone was mostly successful, only the end, small partition of HP tools was not copied properly.

Dumb_Question
28.March.2019