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NuTech · 11th Dec 2008, 00:08

Got a rather strange problem. I bought a Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA HDD about 6 months ago. Installed it and it's been working fine up until this morning. This was only used as a storage drive (no OS installed).

When I started up my PC today, the BIOS hanged during the drive detection. After about 2-3minutes the BIOS booted to the OS. Once in Windows I was unable to access the drive at all.

I've tried changing the cables and switching the port the drive plugs into, but the BIOS will not detect the drive at all (so I doubt it's a driver/OS issue). However I can hear the drive spinning fine.

Anything you guys think I can try? Or is the drive dead?

ModMinded · 11th Dec 2008, 02:52

I'm having my own Sata problems, so take my advice with several grains of salt...

What model mobo is it? You might consider checking if there's an updated bios. If the bios can't see it, that's a problem. Do you have another board (or a friends board) with Sata that you can try it out on, or vice versa another Sata drive you can check the board with? You might try to update the ECSD to let it try to detect drives again.

A 3rd option off the top of my head is to see if you can pick up a PCI based SATA controller to add into windows, and see if its visible there.
Also, if you can, try a linux live cd, or something like BartPE, to let you boot outside of windows and see what the system detects as installed.

I'm gonna assume since you can't see the drive in BIOS that you can't see it in Windows. (not just not able to access it, but not able to show up in windows disk management.)

You don't have a piece of crap Asus P4PE board with an onboard RAID controller that only lets you set up the drives via a FastBuild utility, do you? (I do!) My drive doesn't show up in bios, but does in the Raid Utility. (Ctrl-F) after the bios.

Most drive manufacturers offer a drive checking utility usually as a downloadable bootdisk (or included on the CD if you got the retail version), but I think it won't work for you if the mobo/bios won't see it.

Good luck, I feel your pain.

Sleepy Ben · 16th Dec 2008, 09:55

I had exactly the same problem with a Seagate 500GB 32mb cache drive. Owned for 2 months, it was stonking fast until one Sunday morning 3 weeks back it just didnt show up in the mobo's bios.
It's not uncommon unfortunately - I believe the fault is that the firmware on the drive becomes corrupt and there's no remedy other than to RMA it. Data retrieval is impossible because you simply cannot access the drive.
For me it lost a lot of data including games with stringent DRM and activation limits so I didnt use the replacement as a main drive nor will I buy another Seagate.
I've had drives die before but usually its because of long use and you get some warning that there's a problem and chance to save data - not in this instance.

fathazza · 11th Jan 2009, 10:44

exactly the same thing happened with my 2 month old 500 GB seagate last night...
did any of you guys actually solve the problem or was it neccessary to RMA....

Mine was my main OS drive so theres no telling what useful stuff is on there that i'm gonna be losing...

fathazza · 11th Jan 2009, 14:11

ive done some googling on this and it appears the 7200.11 drives are spacktastic and randomly die after a few months as sleepy ben was saying.

Theres loads of posts on the seagate forums about it, and the main thread about it, seagates friendly response was to close the thread after 200 posts...
http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/...thread.id=3283
a word of warning to any one looking for a new HDD is dont get a .11 seagate!

NuTech · 30th Jan 2009, 20:25

Oh wow, I totally forgot about this thread, didn't realise there was so many replies.

But anyway, from every forum I read (including the Seagate ones with the Nazi moderator AlanM) it's obvious that Seagate really screwed the pooch with their 7200.11 drives. Ironically the huge failure rate (estimated at 40-50%) is nothing to do with hardware and is actually a firmware issue, but you all probably know this.

Anyway for the past month I've been waiting for the "Free data recovery" service mentioned in a press release, but all Seagate UK reps have no idea what I'm talking about and I really don't want to RMA the drive and lose all data which is just sitting there inaccessible (but undamaged) because some idiot screwed up the firmware programming.

I've decided to go down this route - I've ordered most of the parts from RS Electronics. Hopefully with a steady hand and a couple shots of whiskey, I shouldn't brick my drive.

Wish me luck.

11th Dec 2008, 00:08	#1
NuTech Mod Master Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: London Posts: 2,219	SATA HDD suddenly not detected in BIOS... Got a rather strange problem. I bought a Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA HDD about 6 months ago. Installed it and it's been working fine up until this morning. This was only used as a storage drive (no OS installed). When I started up my PC today, the BIOS hanged during the drive detection. After about 2-3minutes the BIOS booted to the OS. Once in Windows I was unable to access the drive at all. I've tried changing the cables and switching the port the drive plugs into, but the BIOS will not detect the drive at all (so I doubt it's a driver/OS issue). However I can hear the drive spinning fine. Anything you guys think I can try? Or is the drive dead? __________________ NuTech Last edited by NuTech; 31st Jan 2009 at 12:34.

11th Dec 2008, 02:52	#2
ModMinded Are you throwing that away? Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Oakland, CA Posts: 1,380	I'm having my own Sata problems, so take my advice with several grains of salt... What model mobo is it? You might consider checking if there's an updated bios. If the bios can't see it, that's a problem. Do you have another board (or a friends board) with Sata that you can try it out on, or vice versa another Sata drive you can check the board with? You might try to update the ECSD to let it try to detect drives again. A 3rd option off the top of my head is to see if you can pick up a PCI based SATA controller to add into windows, and see if its visible there. Also, if you can, try a linux live cd, or something like BartPE, to let you boot outside of windows and see what the system detects as installed. I'm gonna assume since you can't see the drive in BIOS that you can't see it in Windows. (not just not able to access it, but not able to show up in windows disk management.) You don't have a piece of crap Asus P4PE board with an onboard RAID controller that only lets you set up the drives via a FastBuild utility, do you? (I do!) My drive doesn't show up in bios, but does in the Raid Utility. (Ctrl-F) after the bios. Most drive manufacturers offer a drive checking utility usually as a downloadable bootdisk (or included on the CD if you got the retail version), but I think it won't work for you if the mobo/bios won't see it. Good luck, I feel your pain. __________________ My First Mod Log (Nzxt Lexa) (Ongoing) - What was that about idle hands?

11th Jan 2009, 10:44	#4
fathazza Freed on Probation Join Date: May 2002 Location: Gloucestershire Posts: 3,244	exactly the same thing happened with my 2 month old 500 GB seagate last night... did any of you guys actually solve the problem or was it neccessary to RMA.... Mine was my main OS drive so theres no telling what useful stuff is on there that i'm gonna be losing... __________________ I may be fat but at least I am not Ginger "The President is no longer a cross-eyed Texan warmonger, unelected, inarticulate, who epitomises the arrogance of American foreign policy" - Boris Johnson

11th Jan 2009, 14:11	#5
fathazza Freed on Probation Join Date: May 2002 Location: Gloucestershire Posts: 3,244	ive done some googling on this and it appears the 7200.11 drives are spacktastic and randomly die after a few months as sleepy ben was saying. Theres loads of posts on the seagate forums about it, and the main thread about it, seagates friendly response was to close the thread after 200 posts... http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/...thread.id=3283 a word of warning to any one looking for a new HDD is dont get a .11 seagate! __________________ I may be fat but at least I am not Ginger "The President is no longer a cross-eyed Texan warmonger, unelected, inarticulate, who epitomises the arrogance of American foreign policy" - Boris Johnson

30th Jan 2009, 20:25	#6
NuTech Mod Master Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: London Posts: 2,219	Oh wow, I totally forgot about this thread, didn't realise there was so many replies. But anyway, from every forum I read (including the Seagate ones with the Nazi moderator AlanM) it's obvious that Seagate really screwed the pooch with their 7200.11 drives. Ironically the huge failure rate (estimated at 40-50%) is nothing to do with hardware and is actually a firmware issue, but you all probably know this. Anyway for the past month I've been waiting for the "Free data recovery" service mentioned in a press release, but all Seagate UK reps have no idea what I'm talking about and I really don't want to RMA the drive and lose all data which is just sitting there inaccessible (but undamaged) because some idiot screwed up the firmware programming. I've decided to go down this route - I've ordered most of the parts from RS Electronics. Hopefully with a steady hand and a couple shots of whiskey, I shouldn't brick my drive. Wish me luck. __________________ NuTech

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16th Dec 2008, 09:55	#3
Sleepy Ben What's a Dremel? Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 18	I had exactly the same problem with a Seagate 500GB 32mb cache drive. Owned for 2 months, it was stonking fast until one Sunday morning 3 weeks back it just didnt show up in the mobo's bios. It's not uncommon unfortunately - I believe the fault is that the firmware on the drive becomes corrupt and there's no remedy other than to RMA it. Data retrieval is impossible because you simply cannot access the drive. For me it lost a lot of data including games with stringent DRM and activation limits so I didnt use the replacement as a main drive nor will I buy another Seagate. I've had drives die before but usually its because of long use and you get some warning that there's a problem and chance to save data - not in this instance.