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

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  1. m0nkey
    Posts : 6
    Win10
       New #1

    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.
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  3. Berton
    Posts : 14,022
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       New #2

    It does sound as if the drive is in a hardware failure. The mention of impact damage when dropped indicates the same. Might be able to send to a company such as Ontrack to see if anything can be salvaged but can get expensive.
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  4. m0nkey
    Posts : 6
    Win10
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Are you aware of a tool to update the "firmware" (system area) of Seagate drives, and a place to get the firmware for ST1000LM024?
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  6. storageman
    Posts : 1,020
    Windows 10 Pro 20H2 19042.572
       New #4

    Have you run SeaTools against the drive in question? I have had several older Seagate drives, but never have seen a means within the SeaTools program to update drive firmware. Further, I don't believe from what you have done to this drive (with the tools you have) will it ever be recoverable other than having a service that disassembles the drive and then connects their own controller to attempt to recover what ever data that maybe recoverable ? Also a full "Chkdsk" run against a 1TB disk to analyze each sector on a USB 3.0 connection takes around 4-5 hrs assuming their are no problems (I do it quite often since I have many backup 1tb disks).


    As Berton stated, it could be costly to have an outside recovery service attempt to recover any data from a 1tb disk.
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  7. OldNavyGuy
    Posts : 1,862
    Windows 10 Pro 2004 20H1
       New #5

    Create a Linux Live CD (USB), boot from that, and copy the data off the drive to a separate storage location.

    The 10 Cleverest Ways to Use Linux to Fix Your Windows PC

    Lots of other helpful tools on the Live CD as well.
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  8. Paul Black
    Posts : 18,044
    Win 10 Pro 64-bit v1909 - Build 18363 Custom ISO Install
       New #6

    Hello @OldNavyGuy,

    OldNavyGuy said:
    Create a Linux Live CD (USB), boot from that.
    Lots of other helpful tools on the Live CD as well.
    I think Linux Mint also has those options!
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  9. m0nkey
    Posts : 6
    Win10
    Thread Starter
       New #7

    I have indeed tried SeaTools for Windows, and SeaTools from bootable flash -- neither is capable of recognizing the drive. When it is turned on in BIOS, the whole machine freezes until the drive is deactivated. I don't think this is Gremlins, more like The Headless Horseman. And I better burry the drive deep in the woods.

    I'll noodle on the Linux Live CD, but I imagine it is the same approach as a bootable flash, to bypass windows drivers and get at the drive at a lower level.
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  10. Paul Black
    Posts : 18,044
    Win 10 Pro 64-bit v1909 - Build 18363 Custom ISO Install
       New #8

    m0nkey said:
    I'll noodle on the Linux Live CD, but I imagine it is the same approach as a bootable flash, to bypass windows drivers and get at the drive at a lower level.
    It should give you pretty much all the access that you need!
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  12. Berton
    Posts : 14,022
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       New #9

    m0nkey said:
    I'll noodle on the Linux Live CD, but I imagine it is the same approach as a bootable flash, to bypass windows drivers and get at the drive at a lower level.
    The Linux LiveDVD disc is a full Operating System but can't store on the disc, would need accessible drive either internal or USB. The LiveDVD can be used to create a Bootable USB Thumb drive but need the downloaded .iso file to use as the Source for USB Image Writer. There are other programs on the disc/drive such as Firefox and LibreOffice, music, photo and video apps, etc.

    I use the installed version of GPARTED that comes with several versions of Linux for working with drive partitioning and formatting.

    GPARTED is separately available as a Bootable LiveCD and runs a limited version of Linux.
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  13. OldNavyGuy
    Posts : 1,862
    Windows 10 Pro 2004 20H1
       New #10

    Ubuntu Live now contains GParted.
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