Windows 10: How Do I Reanimate an External 2.5" HDD (Advanced Troubleshooting)

I have a dying Seagate ST1000LM024 external 1TB SATA drive which is normally attached to a small Win 7 media server. I'm trying to troubleshoot it from a more easily accessible Win 10 PC, to rescue files before recycling the drive.

After the drive stopped working in its original enclosure, I moved it to another one. While it resumed working, it turned out that some of the files in the folder the drive head was probably in when it stopped working had been corrupted -- probably as a result of some impact damage it took after it stopped working. I ran chkdsk with all the repair flags, but while it identified and repaired indeed many files in the folder, it was slooooooooooow. Its counter stuck at around 10% for a week while it worked its way through about 12.500 of 25.000 files. It was working, but so slow that I lost my patience and terminated chkdsk. Bad, bad decision.

The drive has been inaccessible since. I suspect the MBR or something on that level may have been corrupted, or maybe the drive was already half-way broken and the intensive chkdsk activity just killed it off. It has once or twice appeared as an (inaccessible) Local Disk, while in Disk Management it appeared as a RAW drive. Setting it to active, I guess I was hoping it would stabilize the drive, it disappeared and has not returned since.

It is now in a Sabrent enclosure (which in the properties is identified as a SCSI device). The enclosure is detected every time, but the hdd inside it is not. (Note: other SATA drives work without any issues in the enclosure.) When HDD management or repair software of any kind is started, that software will freeze until the enclosure is turned off. This includes Disk Management. I tried HDD Regenerator on a bootable flash drive, but the entire OS froze whenever the enclosure was turned on.

So. I have drive which doesn't appear anymore by connecting it in the usual manner, it doesn't appear in Disk Management, or as an unlisted drive in any software and which freezes any software which I have tried to analyse it.

I would guess that If I'm going to get back in, it'll require some software capable of probing an USB connection even though the device connected to it is malfunctioning.

I would appreciate some guidance.

:)

 

external HDD

Hi,

Usually, this problem occur due to software incompatibility or corrupted USB drivers. For us to better assist you, we would like to clarify the following:

• Have you made any recent changes on your computer prior to the issue?
• Which driver did you uninstall? Have you reinstall the driver? If yes, how did you reinstall the driver?
• Have you check if the external HDD is visible in Device Manager?

If the issue still persists after uninstalling some games, we suggest that you run the troubleshooter for hardware and devices. If you're using the latest Windows 10 version, follow these steps on how to run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter:

• Click the Start button and select the Settings
  icon.
• Choose Update & Security from the list.
• Click Troubleshoot in the left pane of the window.
• Under Find and fix other problems, select Hardware and Devices and click
  Run the troubleshooter.

We're looking forward to your reply.

 

How to install Windows 10 on external HDD

Hello,

I have an external HDD. I want to install Windows 10 Enterprise which I have purchased recently.

Please guide me, if possible step by step on how to install Windows 10 on external HDD.

Thanks,

Siddarth Hegde

 

unlock hdd

Hi Johan,

It is possible that your
HDD was unreadable
causing the error message to appear. We recommend that you perform these troubleshooting steps and check if there are any changes:

• 
  Shutdown
  your
  PC.
  
• 
  Unhooked
  the
  HDD
  and
  turn on
  your
  PC.
  
• 
  Reconnect
  your
  HDD
  and
  restart
  your
  PC.
  

If the issue persists, we suggest that you contact your
laptop/computer's manufacturer
for further assistance.

Update us on how it goes.

Regards.