External drives. How to recover bad HDD sectors

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.

I'll show you how to restore a disk using the HDD Regenerator 2011 program. I checked my hard drive using the Crystal Disk Info program. I came across this problem.

As you can see, reassigned sectors appeared on my disk, unstable sectors, and uncorrectable sector errors.

I'll show you how to restore a disk using the HDD Regenerator 2011 program.

Download the HDD Regenerator 2011 program (it's free). Reading from the disk S.M.A.R.T. The program information also shows that my disk is dying. And it is recommended to make a copy of all files on the disk (Backup data immediately).

Check the condition of your hard drive, as I showed in the video.

1. Create a bootable USB flash drive to restore damaged sectors.

To use the program to repair a damaged disk, we will make a bootable USB flash drive to safely boot from it and check the disk and repair damaged sectors. To do this, you will need a flash drive larger than 1 GB.

If you try to restore defective disk sectors directly from Windows (XP / Vista / 7 / 8), you will receive the error Unable to obtain exclusive access to Hard Drive 1, because disk is in use. Unable to access hard drive C because it is in use.

We return to the main menu of the program and click Bootable USB Flash to make a bootable USB flash drive to recover bad sectors.

If it gives an error Error has occurred! Bootable regenerating flash not created! An error has occurred! A bootable recovery flash drive was not created.

Then first we format the flash drive and erase all data from it. Click Reset Flash size.

All data on the flash drive will be destroyed and the flash drive will be reformatted. Click OK.

Select the USB Flash drive and click OK.

Ready. Now we have a bootable USB flash drive to repair bad sectors on the disk. The program asks to restart the computer now? Click Yes. By the way, a very good solution to the problem is an SSD drive in the article.

2. Set the bootable USB flash drive in the BIOS to first place in terms of boot importance.

Now go to the BIOS by pressing F2 or del or F10 or the key that is indicated at the very beginning when you turn on your computer at the bottom left

On my Samsung laptop I have to press F2 to enter the BIOS.

All devices from which downloads can be made are listed here. In my case the priority is like this:

1. USB HDD: WD My Passport 0743

2. IDE HDD: ST500LM000-1EJ162

3. IDE CD: TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-L633A

8. USB HDD: SanDisk Cruzer Blade

that is, first the boot information is read and searched from the external hard drive, then if it is not found, the search goes to the internal hard drive, then if it is not found, to the DVD drive, then to the flash drive. But you need to set it so that initially there is a search for boot information from the flash drive.

Select the flash drive and press F6 to move it higher to first place.

Ready. Now the boot information will first be searched on the flash drive.

Reboot the computer.

3. Recovering bad sectors using HDD Regenerator 2011

So now we booted from the flash drive. The drives connected to the computer are displayed here. I have

This is 1 disk simply divided into 2 parts. We choose the one that is larger, i.e. number 2 (type on the keyboard) and press Enter.

First, let's do a preliminary scan and find out how many bad sectors there are on the disk. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

1. Start Sector 0. Start from sector 0.

2. Resume Last Process. Resume the previous process.

3. Set Start/End Sectors Manually. Set the start/end sector manually.

Let's start scanning from the zero (initial) sector of the disk. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

A preliminary scan and search for damaged and bad sectors has begun.

After some time, a preliminary scan discovered that I had bad and damaged sectors on the disk.

After 1 hour and 48 minutes, the preliminary scan returned the result and showed that I had more than 46 bad sectors on my disk. They are designated by the letter B - bad. Delays on the disk (124) were also detected; they are designated by the letter D - delay.

1. List sectors scanned. List of scanned sectors.

2. List this session sectors. List of sectors for this session.

3. List all sectors. List of all sectors.

4. Clear Drive Map statistics. Clear disk statistics.

Let's look at the list of scanned sectors. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

Here's the list. After looking at it, press any key to exit the list.

1. Prescan (show bad sectors). Pre-scan (show bad sectors)

2. Normal Scan (with / without repair). Normal scan (with\without recovery)

3. Version Info. Version information.

4. Show Statistics. Show statistics.

Now let's start scanning and repairing bad sectors. Type the number 2 on the keyboard and press Enter.

1. Scan and repair. Scan and fix.

2. Scan, but do not repair (show bad sectors). Scan but do not fix (show bad sectors).

3. Regenerate all sectors in a range (even if not bad). Recover all bad sectors in the range (even if not bad).

Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

1. Scan Sectors 0. Start from sector 0.

2. Resume Last Process. Resume the last process.

3. Set Start/End Sectors Manually. Set start/end sector manually.

Let's start scanning and recovering damaged disk sectors from sector zero. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

Scanning and sector recovery has begun. This can take a very long time (up to several days) depending on the size of the disk and the number of bad sectors. But you can finish the recovery and scanning, and continue it later, even after a few days or even weeks. The flash drive will save your recovery progress and the place where you stopped.

After about 2 hours, progress was 45% complete and 140 bad sectors on the disk were detected and repaired.

After about 8 hours, progress became 55% and 827 bad sectors on the disk were detected and repaired.

After about 20 hours, progress was 56% and 5,753 bad sectors on the disk were detected and repaired. And the inscription Interface HANG-UP! appeared on the top right. Set-up BIOS to compatible IDE mode! The interface is frozen! Set the BIOS to IDE compatible mode. But my BIOS does not have IDE mode. I have a laptop and it only has SATA mode. This is a program error, because... she thinks that the hard drive is not working in the right mode, but in fact. There are so many bad sectors on my hard drive that the entire recovery process almost freezes and movesooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooslowly of Bad sectors.

I interrupted the process by pressing ESC. And I loaded Windows and worked in it, the behavior of the disk became noticeably better and it began to freeze less. Then the next day I booted from the flash drive again and continued restoring the disk.

Returning to the main menu of the program.

1. Prescan (show bad sectors). Pre-scan (show bad sectors)

2. Normal Scan (with / without repair). Normal scan (with\without recovery)

3. Version Info. Version information.

4. Show Statistics. Show statistics.

Let's continue scanning and restoring damaged sectors. Type the number 2 on the keyboard and press Enter.

1.Continue process. Continue the process.

2. Show statistics. Show statistics.

3. Change start/end sectors. Change start/end sector.

4. Change mode. Change mode.

5. Exit program. Exit the program.

Let's continue the process of restoring damaged sectors. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

The process continues from the same place where it was interrupted.

A day later, the process reached 60% and 8,342 bad sectors on the disk were detected and restored.

After some more time, the process completely froze, stopping and restoring 10,001 sectors. The message Drive is not ready! The disk is not ready!

But this, again, is a problem specifically for my disk, which is already dying and there are places on the disk, having gone to which the disk simply becomes 100% loaded and hangs tightly and can only be saved from this by turning off and turning on the computer again.

As a result, statistics showed that she restored a lot of damaged sectors, but when she reached those sectors in which the disk was frozen, she was unable to restore them.

Later, when you try to continue scanning and repairing bad sectors on the disk. The program displayed a message stating that the Disk is not ready, restart the computer and try to continue the process again.

This is a problem specifically in my case, in which when moving to a certain sector of the disk, the disk completely hung. Then I didn’t try to restore it (it took a lot of time and I think my disk can no longer be restored, only if you cut it in size by separating the defective (dead part) from the whole, but then the hard disk will decrease in size) I simply copied the data that I could and bought myself a new hard drive. Hard drives for laptops cost from 1,500 rubles. In principle, it is not expensive and you can afford it.

4. Results

Before buying a new disk, I advise you to try restoring it. And if for some reason it no longer works, then buy a new one. Also, never forget to have a second hard drive on which to periodically copy all information from the main drive.

To be sure, you can also check the hard drive for errors and restore damaged sectors.

HDD(HDD, HDD, hard drive) is one of the most unreliable components of a computer. It can easily be “killed” by a voltage surge or excessively large voltage ripples on the +12 V line (low-quality power supplies are guilty of this). Vibrations also slowly damage the drive if it is not firmly secured in the case. Flipping the disk during operation can cause the spindle head to move and, as a result, break the disk. This fragility of the hard drive is due to its internal design. In addition, like any product, a hard drive has a certain service life. Modern models have a service life of 5 years or more (depending on the build quality and components). In case of hardware problems, restoring a hard drive is often impossible, or it is possible, but for a short period of time, which will help to slightly delay the purchase of a new device.

Hard drive software problems also cause inconvenience to the user and can lead to the loss of important data, but they are not so dangerous for the device itself. Restoring the hard drive in this case guarantees its long and stable operation if the hard drive does not have hardware problems. How to recover a hard drive? Through the use of specialized software! This process is quite simple and can be carried out even by a non-specialist at home.

Hard drive recovery programs

Before you start restoring your hard drive, you need to install the following software:

1. Victoria HDD 4.47. A reliable and time-tested, but already outdated tool that has not received updates for a long time. Suitable primarily for diagnosing a hard drive; recovery is poor and cannot restore some hard drives;
2. HDD Regenerator. The main working tool for HDD recovery. It helps in most cases, but is paid (however, there are activators for it);
3. (optional) AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition 7.0. To restore those hard drives that have hardware problems.

The smallest organizational unit of the main memory of a hard drive accessible to the user is a sector. The sector size of modern drives is 4-8 kBytes. Their number is measured in hundreds of millions and even billions. Each hard drive has a certain number of “spare” sectors (~10% of the volume). If the “primary” sectors fail, the hard drive marks one of the “spare” sectors with the number of the sector that is faulty and the hard drive continues normal operation. The hard drive performs all these actions independently, without user intervention. However, various errors may appear in the operation of this system, and then it is necessary to manually restore the hard drive.

Step-by-step hard drive recovery: instructions

Let's figure out how to restore a hard drive. To do this, the following steps are required:

1. Launch Victoria HDD;
2. Select the drive you want to check in the list at the top right
3. Go to the “Tests” tab, then click on “Start”. All parameters should be by default, as in the screenshot:
   
   
4. Wait for the diagnostics to complete. This takes quite a long time, depending on the speed of the hard drive, the number of “bad” and “slow” sectors. Upon completion, the program will show the number of “broken” sectors of the hard drive. If none are found, then your hard drive is “healthy”. You can try to restore “broken” sectors in Victoria by selecting the “Remap” check script (see screenshot), but it is better to immediately go to HDD Regenerator;
   
   
5. Launch HDD Regenerator. After activating the key or hacking the program, the following picture will appear:
   
   
6. Click on the “Recovery” menu and select “Start processing from Windows”:
   
   
7. Select the hard drive that needs to be restored and click “start process”:
   
   
8. Enter “2” and press Enter:
   
   
9. Now enter “1”, selecting scan and recover hard disk sectors, then press Enter:
   
   
10. To check all sectors of the hard drive, enter “1” and press Enter again. If you need to reduce the recovery time, then you need to enter “3”, press Enter, enter the number of the starting sector (usually the number of the first “broken” sector detected by Victoria) and the final sector (the number of the last “broken” sector detected by Victoria). However, it is better to check the entire hard drive to absolutely make sure there are no “bad” sectors:
    
    
11. Wait until the scan is completed and the hard drive is restored. If everything is normal, the program will write about how many “bad” sectors were detected, repaired and replaced:
    
    

When HDD recovery fails

In some cases, only the DOS version of HDD Regenerator can restore a hard drive. If you were unable to restore your hard drive using the Windows version of the program, then you should try doing it from DOS.

If the hard drive runs out of spare sectors, and the detected “bad” sectors cannot be cured by software, then it will not be possible to restore the hard drive.

The problem of how to restore a hard drive that has hardware problems and is not amenable to the software recovery described above is relevant for many users. In this case, you will have to “cut” disk space, cutting off “broken” sectors in AOMEI Partition Assistant. You may need several such divisions; areas with “bad” sectors can be hidden in the same program so that files are not written there by mistake. This kind of “recovery” of the hard drive will only help in the short term. As a result, the HDD will be divided into n number of partitions, some of which (with defective clusters) will be marked as hidden.

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Our company professionally deals with data and information recovery from damaged external removable drives and works with all manufacturers. We have advanced specialized equipment for successful data recovery and will help you if you accidentally deleted data, formatted a disk, it became physically damaged, or was no longer detected by your computer. Restoring data and information from an external drive is not difficult in its original state, when the owner did not engage in independent recovery and the magnetic head unit is even less serviceable and has not caused damage to the surface and does not require replacement. External hard drives are popular among users due to their capacity and portability. However, compared to internal drives, they are much more often exposed to mechanical stress, which leads to operational problems that only specialists can fix.

The cause of failure of an external removable disk can be not only a fall, but also a power outage. After a fall, the external removable hard drive gets damaged in the magnetic head unit. During an impact, the BMG slides onto the magnetic surface from the parking zone and, depending on the force of the impact, the BMG gets stuck or malfunctions. In both cases, repairing an external removable hard drive is not possible. If sticking on magnetic plastics occurs, the BMG must be removed very carefully without leaving the sliders on the surface. To do this, they use a specialized tool that allows our specialists to lift it above the surface and transport it to the bmg parking area. The cost of restoring an external drive depends on the size and the resulting fault. The most common problem is data recovery after a shock or fall, when an external removable disk gets stuck on its magnetic heads or damages the disk drive. After a free diagnosis, you will be able to find out the reason for the loss of access to your data and we will help you get your data back in full.

As a result, users may encounter different types of problems:

• Electronics failure (the hard drive is no longer detected).
• Destruction of magnetic heads of HDD drives.
• Physical damage to the disk.
• Moisture getting inside the housing.
• Recovering data from an external drive after formatting.
• Recovering data from an external drive after deletion.
• The external drive asks to format itself.
• The external drive is not recognized by the computer.
• The external drive makes strange sounds that are not typical for it.

Let's take a closer look at the case described above and look at each point. In all these cases, you will need professional data recovery from a damaged external hard drive. After a fall, an external removable hard drive may develop a malfunction related to the magnetic head unit (mechanical). During an impact, the BMG may move to the surface or damage its sliders. When you turn on the hard drive, extraneous sounds appear; the drive beeps or makes clicking sounds that are more like knocking. The external removable hard drive beeps due to the fact that the magnetic head unit is stuck on the surface and does not allow the spindle motor to gain speed. In both cases, when extraneous sounds appear, if the hard drive beeps or knocks, unfortunately repairing it is not possible. Data recovery only. Removable drive, portable drive and remote drive are all definitions of an external hard drive. Whatever you call it, there is still a hard drive inside, and the plastic case is the packaging.

Restoring files after deleting or formatting from an external removable drive is possible in most cases when the user did not try to get them out on his own. The thing is that when you delete a file or partition from an external drive, the data is still on the sectors. With a new entry organized by the user, this data may be irretrievably lost. Recovering deleted data, files and other information is possible provided that the external removable hard drive, after detecting the loss of data, was immediately turned off or was not actively used. We will help you recover deleted files from external hard drive and other storage devices at the best price.

Data recovery and external hard drive repair. Logical faults.	price, rub.
	From
Diagnostics	for free
The disk is not detected and does not start	1.500
The disk is detected in the system as RAW	1.500
The disk is not detected after an impact	5.000
Replacing the connector on a USB external drive (without data recovery)	700
Replacing the board from usb to sata analogue on an external drive (depending on the drive model)	2.500
Recovering after formatting an entire disk or partition	1.500
Recovering after deleting information from a disk or partition	1.500
File system crash (asks to format itself)	2.500
Data recovery if there is a password or encryption on the HDD SSD	from 9.000
Service information or the surface of the data area is damaged	4.000
HDD controller is faulty	1300

Data recovery and repair of external hard drive with mechanical faults.	price, rub.
	From
Diagnostics	for free
500GB disk knocks when power is applied (~ replacing heads)	9.000
1000 GB disk knocks when power is applied (~ replacing heads)	11.000
2000GB disk knocks when power is applied (~ replacing heads)	12.000
3000GB disk knocks when power is applied (~ replacing heads)	14.000
4000GB disk knocks when power is applied (~ replacing heads)	16.000
6000GB disk knocks when power is applied (~ replacing heads)	16.000
The motor spindle is jammed or the BMG is stuck. Disk 500GB (beeps)	6.000
The motor spindle is jammed or the BMG is stuck. 1000GB disk (beeps)	6.000
The motor spindle is jammed or the BMG is stuck. Disk 2000GB (beeps)	6.000
The motor spindle is jammed or the BMG is stuck. Disk 3000GB (beeps)	8.000
The motor spindle is jammed or the BMG is stuck. Disk 4000GB (beeps)	10.000
The motor spindle is jammed or the BMG is stuck. Disk 6000GB (beeps)	10.000

How does an external hard drive work?

The structure of an external hard drive is no different from a conventional hard drive located in a system unit or laptop. Inside the plastic or metal case there is a standard 2.5 or 3.5 inch drive with a SATA interface and an adapter for a USB connector. Typically, the external drive is located in a plastic box, which cannot completely protect it from shock and damage. After an impact, the portable external drive begins to either click or squeak. During an impact, the block of magnetic heads moves out of the parking zone and sticks to the magnetic plates. In this case, when power is applied, the disk begins to squeak and cannot spin the engine. If there is a strong impact, the block of magnetic heads deteriorates and begins to knock, the knock informs that the bmg does not see the servo mark and parks the heads back to the parking zone and this action occurs in a cycle. If the magnetic head unit is faulty, repairing the external drive is no longer possible and all that remains is to recover the data from it. The BMG is replaced with a known good one with a similar head preamplifier preamp, with the same head map, and only after that the hard drive can be read into an image and data recovery can be done. The longer a hard drive runs, the greater the likelihood of surface degradation.

The procedure for restoring an external removable disk for storing information is no different from restoring files on an internal hard drive - in both cases, qualified assistance from specialists is required. If technically possible, it is possible to return information and data from an external portable hard drive after deleting or formatting. Data that seems to be lost is still on the drive. When recording again, the data can be permanently deleted and the sectors in which they were located are filled with new content. To successfully recover data from an external drive, you need to avoid repeated recording and unqualified intervention. It’s better to give the disk directly to professionals who know everything about it than to lose data or increase the cost of recovery.

Why can’t you do without qualified help?

An external removable hard drive is a complex device and its repair requires knowledge and specialized equipment. At home, it is impossible to carry out even high-quality diagnostics, the results of which determine the data recovery algorithm. Therefore, you should not repeat the mistakes of others and finish off a drive with your own hands that can still be restored. It’s better to immediately contact professionals and get your files and a working hard drive back without unnecessary nerves. More than a thousand clients have already entrusted us with their data; we do not charge money for diagnostics for any result - whether you agree to repair or refuse repair or data recovery.

If your drive starts up, it is detected by the computer, but when you try to access the data, the computer freezes.

This usually means that the magnetic surface of the plates has degraded, i.e. there are a large number of broken bad sectors). The disk tries to read the surface, repeatedly hits an unreadable surface and freezes. This is a fairly common problem, but unfortunately in this case the data can only be read using special equipment. Run SMART on the disk and if you see a large number of remapped sectors, the diagnosis is confirmed. If the data is important, contact professionals. If the data is not very important and you are willing to take the risk, then try reading the data using special software bypassing the damaged surface. The best option for this is ddd_rescue.

If the disc makes a beep sound

If you hear a sound and your external drive starts beeping, it's probably the spindle trying to spin up, but for some reason it can't. Most likely this happens for one of two reasons, but both are quite serious. Most often this is the heads sticking to the surface of the plates. The block of magnetic heads is parked either in the center near the axis or on the ramp at the edge. Remember, the heads do not come into direct contact with the surface of the plates, but fly above them. Sometimes, a failure may occur during parking, for example, if the spindle stops while the heads are not yet parked, but are above the surface. Due to the fact that the surface of the plates and heads is perfectly smooth, they literally stick to each other. In this case, it is necessary to open the disk and use a special tool to correct the situation.

The second case is the spindle wedge. A motor with an axle on which plates are installed. Quite rarely, but sometimes the spindle jams and it cannot rotate. This is possible, for example, due to a strong impact or simply due to wear. This problem most often occurs on older Seagate models. There are two ways to solve this problem, both require the participation of professionals. Replacing the spindle or moving the plates along with the BMG and the board to the donor HDD.

If your external drive is not detected or is detected with the wrong size.

This means there is a problem with a specific service data zone. Several years ago, there was a frequent problem with the Seagate 7200.11 with SD15 firmware, known as the Mukha CC problem. Google will give you many ways to solve this problem. But most other similar problems will require special equipment and knowledge. In modern drives, when an external hard drive is detected as zero capacity, this may indicate damage to the translator on Seagate in particular. If the translator in external or Seagate hard drives is damaged, it can take a very long time to restore the full amount of user data and this process can take up to a week.

The problem of recovering a hard drive and the information stored on it is one of the most pressing problems at the moment. Due to the seriousness of the issue, it is advisable to always have on hand a tool that could troubleshoot the operation of the railway. This can be either a comprehensive program for HDD recovery or a utility capable of diagnosing specific functionality of the disk.

HDD Regenerator is a program for recovering bad sectors of a hard drive and creating recovery bootable disks. Its main advantages include a simple interface without unnecessary hassles, the ability to monitor the status of the HDD, and support for different file systems. The disadvantages are that the official version of the product costs almost $90 and that using this program you cannot recover information after formatting the hard drive. It only eliminates bad sectors and then only at the logical level.

R-Studio is a universal program that is perfect for both restoring a hard drive after formatting and restoring its damaged partitions. It works with a huge number of file systems and is one of the most effective programs for recovering lost data. Its advantages also include an intuitive interface. Well, the main disadvantage of R-Studio, just like HDD Regenerator, is the paid product license.

The program compares favorably with other analogues due to its Windows Explorer-style interface, which allows its users to easily and quickly deal with the problem. Starus Partition Recovery also has the ability to view files before restoring them and has a built-in Hex editor, which will come in handy for experienced users. The price of such convenience is 2,399 rubles - which is the main disadvantage of the program.

Acronis Disk Director

Another paid, but very convenient and effective program for restoring a hard drive after damage. It has extensive functionality and allows the user to do whatever he wants with the hard drive, from restoring damaged information to optimization. Fast, powerful, paid.

Free program for diagnosing and restoring hard drive partitions. Its main task is low-level testing of the HDD and assessment of its performance. Its main disadvantages are that the program is no longer supported by the developer and has a complex interface that will be difficult for an inexperienced user to navigate.

Conclusion

Using most of the programs reviewed, you can easily manage hard drive partitions, recover lost and deleted data, and also diagnose HDD operation. Unfortunately, almost all of them are paid, but have trial versions or demo modes. Therefore, you can try and evaluate the performance of all programs and choose the one that you like the most.