Hard drive repair (or HDD - Hard Disk Drive) – a procedure for bringing the HDD to a working state in which it is possible to read the necessary data from it, including service information, a file table, user data, multimedia information, etc., even if the BIOS does not see the hard drive. In this article, you will learn how to repair your hard drive, if possible, and what to do if the hdd is not detected in the BIOS or an error appears when you try to boot the operating system.

What to do if your hard drive clicks suspiciously

Clicking sounds while the HDD is running is another characteristic symptom when the hard drive does not start and, accordingly, is not detected by the system. The cause is usually worn out or broken hard drive heads. Like any other mechanical failure of the HDD, you cannot fix it with your own hands.

However, if you hear clicks on a working hard drive (that is, it reads and writes files normally), then you urgently need to take certain measures and play it safe. Be sure to back up valuable information to another hard drive, flash drive or cloud hosting, fortunately, in our time this is not an expensive procedure at all. After all, at one point it may happen that the hard drive will not start or will no longer be detected - and if you made a backup, then the loss of information will not cause a shock.

Repairing a hard drive with a faulty ROM and damaged service information (BIOS does not detect the drive)

What to do if the BIOS does not see the hard drive? The HDD on which such errors occurred has characteristic symptoms: it is not detected in the BIOS, and can also produce strange noise (clicking, tapping). In some cases, the hard drive is available in the BIOS, but is not able to boot the operating system.

Accordingly, to restore ROM and service data on the HDD, the above-mentioned components of the hard drive will need to work correctly. This type of repair is carried out by specialists using special equipment. It is impossible to produce it with your own hands. At the same time, the physical structure of the hard drive surface is read correctly, so the data remains physically intact.

Are the methods for restoring an external hard drive different from an internal one?

Answer. Definitely not. The hardware of the devices is identical, the only difference is in the form factor for storing information - that is, roughly speaking, in the box in which the disk's hardware is packaged. An external drive is more susceptible to physical damage and other risk factors. But they are more mobile and offer the user a convenient connection via eSata or another interface for connecting to a PC. Thus, this guide on how to restore a hard drive will be useful to both owners of “traditional” drives and external ones.

The hard drive was in the laptop, the system in which stopped loading. Why am I going to format it - but! It was not there, as an “External” disk (I stuffed it into the case from an external “Transend” 500 GB) it is visible only as a local disk “G” and “F” without any information. All attempts to call the properties lead to Windows 8.1 freezing on the laptop - it is not visible in Disk Management, HDD Low Level Format is also not visible. Tell me, if the hard drive doesn’t work, how can I bring it back to life with my own hands?

Answer. Try partitioning the hard drive again (Partiton Magic can help), it is advisable to perform low-level formatting of the HDD, see information on the topic. By the way, in addition to HDD Low Level Format, there are many alternative utilities for formatting. It would be a good idea to check the working condition of the disk; to do this, check the SMART indicators and scan the disk using HDD Regenerator or Victoria HDD.

What to do if your hard drive clicks? That is, it works, but sometimes it makes characteristic sounds - that is, clicks. At some moments, a freeze occurs, and the operating system freezes, and then dies along with the disk.

Answer. In rare cases, the problem is associated with broken power contacts and sata/ide connectors connected to the motherboard. Therefore, the first thing we recommend is to turn off the PC and check the connection to the hard drive. Second, be sure to make a backup copy of the data on the disk, since clicking sounds are an unhealthy symptom, indicating that the HDD has problems, and a crash can be expected at any time. Third, to diagnose the condition of the disk, use specialized programs - HDD Regenerator, Victoria HDD Doctor, etc.

If the hard drive clicks and is not detected, the situation is more dire (good luck). In this case, the mechanics are already worn out, and you will not be able to restore the HDD; only replacing the hard drive with a new one will help.

How to increase the speed of your hard drive? I have Windows Vista OS.

Answer. Users of Windows Vista and higher operating systems are angry about the slow operation of the disk subsystem. In practice, copying files is noticeably slower than in XP. Why is my hard drive slow? One of the reasons lies on the surface and can be easily eliminated. The fact is that by default in Windows the maximum performance of the hard drive is disabled. Therefore, we urgently take measures:

1. Open Device Manager (Win + Pause Break, “Device Manager” link).
2. Find the disk device in the list of devices and select “Properties” in the context menu.
3. Select the “Policies” tab and activate the “Enable enhanced performance” option.
4. To speed up your hard drive, restart your computer.

I reinstalled the system and I have it on a PCE SSD, but suddenly another 4TB hard drive stopped being detected? Then I went into computer management, then into disk management, it shows a capacity of 3.7 TB and 3.7 TB is free, that is, the disk turns out to be 100 percent empty and there is 2TV of information! Please tell me what can be done?

Answer. Perhaps the problem is related to a file system table failure; in such a situation, you can recommend the TestDisk utility to recover a partition that is not detected by the system, but contains important information.

I have an HP 620 laptop. Everything was fine, but I started to close the windows and the computer froze. I thought it would go away, 15 minutes passed - nothing, there was no reaction to anything. Even a software shutdown could not reset.

I turned it off physically with the button, turned it on again and the message appeared on the black screen of the laptop: non-system disk or disk error replace and strike any key when ready. After this, the system does not see the hard drive. But when the laptop is turned on, it spins, that is, everything is ok with power.

About 2 years ago I updated the BIOS from the official website. Maybe this is why the hard drive won't open? But before that I worked hard, always good. What could it be? Help please, this is the hard drive I have - Toshiba HDD2E67 320GB.

Answer. If the problem was related to the BIOS, the OS would not boot. Or, at least, a factory reset could solve something.

Try to start looking for the reason on the surface: the hard drive does not work because it has failed. This could happen for a variety of reasons (such as physical damage or wear and tear - which is less likely). If it is possible to check a similar hard drive on the same laptop, do so.

The connector on the hard drive controller is broken. This sometimes happens when installing a new hard drive or removing it from the system unit. What to do? Repair or look for another controller? When replacing a controller, it may be difficult to find exactly the same electronics. Moreover, simply rearranging the board is unlikely to help. Modern controllers contain firmware that is tied to a specific hard drive.

Consider the option of repairing a broken connector. If the power to the HDD was turned off and in fact there was only mechanical damage, then eliminating the damage will return the hard drive to a working state. In the event of a breakdown of the power connector or interface connector, the entire contact block is replaced. The work is quite difficult. You must first remove the broken interface (SATA or IDE) and install a new one in its place. The work involves precision soldering and a lot of manual labor. But, often, this is the only option for repairing a hard drive. Since it is much easier to find the connector itself than the entire controller (as mentioned above).

Unlike failures of SATA or IDE connectors, the main reason for failure of a USB HDD connector is careless transportation of an external hard drive with a connected USB cable. Due to the design feature of the USB hard drive interface, the connector most often breaks off from the controller board. The work of restoring the connector can be complicated by broken conductive tracks on the HDD controller.

The internal contacts in the USB connector are damaged when the cable is connected/disconnected carelessly. In this case, the USB interface is simply replaced.

If the contacts in USB are deformed, the power contacts or data contacts may short-circuit to the connector body. Which can lead to failure of the USB controller or the controller of the hard drive itself (if the USB port is integrated on the hard drive itself).

Advice: If the connector does not work, there is no need to make greater efforts when connecting the hard drive and try to plug the USB wire deeper into the connector.

Over the past 20 years, the hard drive has been recognized as one of the most reliable computer components, but when it breaks, the consequences can be tragic. Below is the block diagram hard drive troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting Hard Drives

Is that all hard disks installed on the system unit should be displayed in the BIOS settings? Most BIOS versions tell the user that connected hard drives still at the loading stage. Every motherboard BIOS should be able to identify the hard drive by make, model, and specifications. Standard keys for accessing CMOS Setup after power on are DEL, ESC, F1 or F2 (in almost all laptops).

Can you hear the hard drive speeding up? If you can't hear anything at all when you turn on the power, you should start with . If you can't hear the drive spinning, you should make sure the power cables are well seated, this is more true on older ATA hard drives than new ones. If the hard drive is hard to hear, you can try removing the HDD from the case and holding it in your hand while turning it on. If the disk is spinning, you will feel it vibrate. But be extremely careful, there is a possibility of dropping it, it is especially scary if the hard drive falls during operation. To test a hard drive, it is convenient to use special USB-IDE and USB-SATA adapters.

• old ATA drive, also known as IDE or PATA (for Parallel ATA)
• new SATA (Serial ATA) drive.

SATA breaks much less often, the data cable rarely causes problems, and is easier to install power, although some SATA hard drives Support both old and new power connectors. IDE or ATA drives have a clear feature in the presence of a cable that can support two drives; for this purpose they are included jumpers. Using jumpers on the disk, you can set Master disk for installation by the owner and Slave, or make a choice according to the connection via loops (CS).

The first SATA hard drives operated at speeds of 1.5 Gbit/s, this period was known as SATA 1. You might think that this wasn't a big leap over the old IDE drives, but the IDE interface speed was measured in MB/s (note that it's a byte, not a bit). SATA 2 generation supports 3.0 Gbps, and the latest release, SATA 3, supports 6.0 Gbps. Please note that high speed is achieved by transferring data from cache memory to disk, the rotation speed is inferior to “electronics”. If you are connecting a SATA 2 or SATA 3 hard drive into an old motherboard and it is not working properly, check for compatibility, explore the configuration using jumpers to make it work at lower speeds equal to SATA 1.

SATA hard drives are much nicer to work with than legacy IDE drives. For example, due to a special data cable, which eliminates all the confusion with setting jumpers, and is also more reliable than the old ones, which broke with frequent use. If your SATA drive spins up but the CMOS installer doesn't detect it, then it's possible that you have that rare bad data cable and it's not making the connection to the motherboard correctly. This usually applies to sat cables without latches. If you know the SATA cable is fine because it works on a different motherboard, try connecting to a different SATA port. If this is the only SATA hard drive in the system, and your motherboard supports SATA RAID and standalone SATA ports, use a separate port.

Have you connected two IDE hard drives to a wide cable with three connectors: one for the motherboard in the IDE port and one for each drive? If the cable goes directly, you need to set the jumpers on the boot disk to the “Master” position, and on the second disk to the “Slave” position. If it's an 80-wire cable with three connectors, or an old 40-wire cable connected between two hard drive connectors, it will support "Cable Select", then you can set a jumper on both drives - CS, the position is often the default.

Some computers are still built with older IDE drives, in Cable Select (CS) mode, where the 28-pin cable sets the drive as Master or Slave. The new 80-pin Ultra DMA cables began shipping with new motherboards about fifteen years ago, and began using color-coded connectors. Blue goes to the motherboard, gray goes to the Slave (in the middle of the cable) and black goes to the Master IDE drive at the end of the cable. It will always be the boot drive on the primary controller.

If, after setting the Master/Slave modes, the BIOS does not see the hard drives, check the power supply of the Molex 4×1 hard drive. It can take a lot of force to pull out the old power connector, the main thing here is not to use foreign objects to push, if your fingers start to hurt, you are doing something wrong.

The connector on the IDE cable is keyed so that it can only be inserted into the motherboard and into the hard drive port in the correct position. All cables must have keys, because they also identify pin No. 1 using the presence of a colored wire on the cable or using the numbers on the connectors. Pin #1 on ports is indicated by a number or arrow, and is located on IDE drives almost always at the end, closer to the power connector. If the hard drive is not displayed in CMOS Setup to register the presence of the disk, even with a new cable, there are 2 options: either the controller on the motherboard is faulty or the hard drive is broken. The next step is to test the disk on another system or using a USB-IDE adapter. If the hard drive is working, then the controller on the motherboard is broken, and the only option is to use a secondary controller (if you have not already done so) or buy an additional IDE drive interface adapter with the PCI bus. These PCI cards are not expensive compared to HDDs.

Process troubleshooting and diagnostics is the same for all IDE drives that are not recognized in the CMOS settings, regardless of whether they are PATA, SATA, hard drives, CDs, DVDs or other media. If the motherboard BIOS recognizes the drives and reports them in the splash screen or CMOS Setup, and the problem is with CDs or DVDs, go to the diagram for CD and DVD diagnostics and repair.

If your hard drive spins up and then stops, start by replacing the power cable. If it is not a SATA drive, make sure that the hard drive is hanging on the primary IDE controller and that it is the only drive on the cable, even if this means unplugging your DVD drive to troubleshoot. Try unplugging your data cable and see if it stops. If you hear a clicking sound inside the drive and nothing but power is connected, test it with a USB adapter before throwing it away.

One mechanism for destroying old HDDs is the magnetic coil that controls the read and write heads. If you don't want to spend a ton of money on data recovery, but you have data that you never backed up that you want to recover, try pressing the drive cover with a screwdriver, near the end of the cable and the beginning of the circular section where the platters rotate. This may simply free up a stuck head. Before attempting this, make sure you have a backup copy, or keep a USB flash drive handy, as you may only be able to restore the hard drive once, and perhaps not for long...

Is the BIOS registering an incorrect data transfer mode for IDE drives, such as UDMA/100, ATA/66? And if you added a new hard drive to an old motherboard, it may be that the drive simply isn't able to slow down data transfers enough to handle the old controller. At some point, backwards compatibility does you a disservice. But I wouldn't recommend reflash BIOS on an old motherboard just to try to get a hard drive that works in the desired mode. Rewriting a BIOS chip is a dangerous process and there is always a chance that something will go wrong, such as a sudden power outage leaving you with nothing and no way to start over.

Check the CMOS boot sequence, put the CD or DVD first. If the disk space is free, you can try creating a new partition again. If you are not seeing partition information or the disk is not showing up in FDISK and you are ready to say goodbye to the recorded information, you can try running FDISK /MBR from the command line. FDISK.MBR will try to rewrite it because may be damaged.

How to connect an IDE hard drive found less and less often, but these devices are going out of circulation along with our youth. Young people don’t appreciate them either, give it to everyone with Sata, but oh well, progress is progress, we need to move forward, but the question of connecting devices with an IDE (ATA) interface arises from time to time, so we decided to devote our article to this.

Note: Friends, if your motherboard does not have IDE connectors for connecting outdated hard drives, then you can still connect such a drive to your computer or laptop using these adapters:

1. - VIA VT6421A SATA

How to connect an IDE hard drive

They brought us to work a computer with an Asus P5K SE motherboard with a SATA drive, and for some reason the hard drive was separately and tearfully asked to make it work. Disk drive Maxtor-IDE connection interface (250 GB, IDE) install it in the system unit, everything is correct connect, But IDE hard drive not defined in . Maybe due to the incorrect position of the jumper? Either it was not included in the BIOS IDE controller, or... but first things first.

Let me say briefly: disk drives for the IDE connection interface need to be configured with a special jumper; the contacts on which the jumper is mounted are located at the end of the drive, and instructions for using the jumpers are on the top side of the hard drive case.

You can read here on how to properly configure hard drives using jumpers
According to the instructions, our hard drive is configured as a master with the jumper in the extreme left position, set the jumper

And so we insert the hard drive into a special basket on our system unit and secure it with four screws, the screws for fastening hard drives are larger than the screws for fastening CD/DVD drives.

Our motherboard has one IDE connector, two devices can be connected to it, according to the rules, one device on the cable is configured as a master, the jumper is also set as a master, connect it to the connector at the end of the cable, the second must be a slave ), it connects to the connector in the middle of the cable, but we will not connect anything to it, we have one hard drive, and the Sata interface drive is already connected.
Another rule: do not install a hard drive and a CD/DVD drive on the same cable.
Connecting an IDE hard drive to the motherboard using an 80-wire cable.
The IDE hard drive connection cable has one missing pin,

there is a special slot for it on the motherboard and it is almost impossible to connect it incorrectly,

if you do not use brute force, connected

Initial tab BIOS-Main, four SATA connectors on the motherboard are designated as four channels, the Optiarc DVD RW drive is connected to the third connector, we will look for our IDE hard drive in another tab

Any computer owner sooner or later faces such a problem - the hard drive is broken. In order to minimize the risk of data loss, you should make it a rule to duplicate all important information on another medium. You also need to know that before a breakdown, certain malfunctions appear in the PC, which are harbingers of the death of the storage device.

Signs of a hard drive failure

It is possible to determine that it is the hard drive that has failed if the computer is not operating correctly by looking at certain signs. How to understand that the hard drive is broken:

• The appearance of a blue screen while the PC is working or loading indicates that the media is broken. The system cannot read the bad sectors and Windows stops working or reboots. This results in the loss of unsaved information.
• If strange noises appear during PC operation, reminiscent of a clattering sound, then the head unit on the hard drive may have broken. In this case, you can try turning off the device and starting it again. The reason for incorrect reading of information can also be the accumulation of dust on the read-write elements.
• If, when you turn on the PC, the hard drive does not make any sounds, this may indicate damage to the batteries. Such malfunctions occur due to voltage surges, but modern devices are equipped with protection against power surges. But if this happens, then everything can be easily eliminated by replacing the fuse. Also, the reason why the hard drive does not make any sounds may be stuck heads.
• The appearance of such an inscription on the screen as “disk or device not found” indicates that the hard drive has failed. You can find out exactly what faults are present using special diagnostic programs.
• Modern storage devices are more resistant to overheating than older models. But this still happens, and excessive heating of the electronic boards is a sign that the drive is broken. Determining the presence of such a malfunction is very simple. It is enough to know that the maximum permissible temperature for hard drive operation is 50, and touching a working device with your hand will not cause discomfort. If the temperature is higher than normal, you will feel it.
• You can determine that the hard drive is broken by the time it takes to access files. If there is a malfunction, then such a standard procedure as emptying the recycle bin can take several hours.
• A signal that the hard drive is broken is provided by such signs as damage and disappearance of files, and program malfunctions.

How to tell if your hard drive is broken

Modern hard drives have built-in programs to monitor its condition. To find out about possible problems and malfunctions, you need to decrypt the data collected by the system. There are special programs for this. Some are designed to provide real-time diagnostics and send status data via email.

If the hard drive is broken, then first of all you need to take care of saving the data. Even the possibility that the hard drive will work for some time makes storing important information on it very risky.

Harbingers of failure

Before the hard drive finally fails, there are signs indicating this:

• Slowdown of the computer is reflected in the system startup. PC performance is decreasing and this is a reason to check the hard drive.
• If your computer constantly restarts, one of the reasons may be a problem with the hard drive.

If any malfunctions are detected in the computer, the best option is to turn it off. If the hard drive is broken, then prolonged use of the PC will lead to irreversible consequences. The storage area will become inaccessible and data will be completely lost. You can find and fix the problem yourself, but it is better to seek help from specialized computer equipment repair services.

Data recovery

If your hard drive breaks, then almost everyone asks the question of how to recover data. Today, you can return lost files yourself, without the help of specialists. There are recovery programs for this, but they do not provide a complete guarantee. If all the nuances are followed, it is possible to return most of the stored information.

The principle of operation of the programs is to scan the surface of the storage device. In this case, some files are only partially restored, their name and location are lost.

Popular data recovery programs:

• R-Studio is one of the most famous programs for recovering deleted information. With certain settings, disk scanning is reduced and it is possible to set the recovery area of ​​the hard drive. The program is available in Russian, which makes working with it very easy.
• Minitool Power Data performs a deep scan, making it possible to recover files that other similar programs ignore. The advantage of this utility is the ability to revive the entire disk.
• Rekuva is an easy to use program with a wide range of features. Allows you to restore information by setting the search area.

Hard drive problems on a laptop

If the hard drive on a laptop breaks down, it stops working and there is a possibility of losing all saved data. The signs of failure are the same as on a PC. But mechanical damage is not always the cause of hard drive failure:

• There are virus programs that can encrypt stored information.
• Malicious programs that damage operating system boot loaders.

How to minimize the risk of hard drive failure

The storage device will work much longer if you follow simple rules:

• The hard drive is poorly protected from power surges, so a high-quality power supply will be the key to its stable operation.
• To prevent the hard drive from breaking, it must be protected from falling and shaking. Mechanical impact can damage moving parts and render the device inoperable. Even a small blow is enough for this.
• Maintaining a certain temperature that is comfortable for the operation of computer components, including the hard drive. To do this, you need air flow through the PC case using fans.
• Cleaning computer components from dust using a can of compressed air. This will prevent the chips from overheating.
• It is not recommended to turn the PC on and off within a short period of time, as this will greatly affect the hard drive. If you need to take a break from your computer for several hours, it is better to put it in standby mode.
• To increase the performance of the hard drive, you should defragment it. This will speed up your computer.
• The drive on a laptop often suffers from temperature changes. Do not take the device outside at low temperatures.
• Laptops are more susceptible to dust clogging than computers. Therefore, to avoid overheating of the hard drive, you need to monitor the condition of the device.
• Make sure that the ide contact does not break when connecting the hard drive. One of the signs of a breakdown will be slow loading of files or complete inoperability of the computer. In special computer equipment repair services, such a breakdown can be repaired.

Have a great day!