Four fucked up harddrives, what are the odds?

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ImagesAndWords

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For a few years now, my main desktop pc has been running fine with 7 harddrives inside it (yes, I know now that I should have kept them separate in an NAS configuration of some sort). They're all SATA drives btw.

This summer though, my drives started acting up. Drive letters would come and go in Windows and sometimes or not come back after a reboot. Then all the sudden one day - only three of them were left. :(

It's pointless to go the usual chckdsk or diagnostics tool route, because neither Windows or Linux will even see the disks there. I really suspect that the problem lies with the disk controllers and that the data stored on them are still fine.

My question is - how do I get around this so that I can access my data again? How can I repair or replace my hdd controllers so that they can be recognized again by an OS?

I contacted a hdd recovery firm here in Norway but they wanted $1500 PER DISK to fix them...lol.

I've tried switching around the SATA wires to different ports on the motherboard. I also tried to hook the disks up to a SATA->USB adapter but that didn't work either.
 


I was gonna suggest recovery too. Is it worth $1500 a disk to get back? Try searching for some cheaper recovery companies?

Maybe invest in backups now too :p
 
they weren't in RAID, right?

Sounds like the controller may have been causing corruption on the drives. Don't do the freezer thing, that's for a mechanical failure.

They do spin up, correct?
 
TLott said:
they weren't in RAID, right?

Sounds like the controller may have been causing corruption on the drives. Don't do the freezer thing, that's for a mechanical failure.

They do spin up, correct?
Click to expand...

No they were not in a RAID. Yeah I thought it was so odd how all the drives went bad around the same time. :confused:

They do spin up just fine, and back when I could access them now and then - all the data seemed to be there. This was after they would go away for a while and come back after some reboots. But now they're all inaccessible.
 
Tried a different computer?

Find drives of the same make and model and take the controller board off them and put them on the broken ones. Never actually done this myself but I've seen it suggested elsewhere.
 
7 drives in one computer and you are surprised they are having problems? That was probably the problem, low voltage at some point. Sometimes overclocking can corrupt drives as well.

I would make a boot computer setup and try one drive at a time. Unplug all other drives and as many components as you dare.

If you can buy the same model of drive or as close as possible and see if the controller board is the same you can swap the boards.

But I would try a lot before that as it will take a lot of searching on EBay to find all the drives probably, buy them, and get them shipped to you.

If you can get a drive working at all you might try Spinrite Boot CD. Google it you can buy it and it is very basic connection to drives to repair them. Works miracles.
 
It could be heat, or it could be the motherboard controller, or it could be the power.

Put them in a separate known good PC one at a time and back up your data first. That's what's important.

Are you using a cheap-ass power supply? Get a big fat one with more than enough power *from a reputable company*. Don't just look for the lowest price. NewEgg reviews are usually a great way to shop for new parts.
 
Usually if the drive itself is bad it will make some really distinct clicking noises when it tries to spin up, but from what you describe and the fact that it is all 7 disks, it sounds like the SATA controller on the motherboard (or something further up the chain) is a more likely culprit.

get an external USB/firewire enclosure ($15-$50 USD) and try connecting the drives that way.
EDIT: oops, see you tried that already. Your best bet would be to look for a circuit board from the same model drive and swapping them.

If they still don't work, maybe the freezer trick, but before you try the freezer trick (worked like 3/4 times for me) you will need to accept that the drive is already gone. Put it in your junk drawer for a day or 2 so you can learn to live without it.
 
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