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Question

Accidentally touched HDD while copying, not working anymore

Mar 5, 2016 1:09AM PST

I know it was stupid and you don't do that, but I did it. I was copying some files and I had the hdd outside of the case. I took it in my hands and accidentally touched the circuit board. Everything froze and stopped working. I restarted the pc and it couldn't boot. I kept getting an error.. which code i can't remember... It said that this happens when you disconnect a usb, cd etc. while working and that I should remove the unnecessary drives and reboot.

Now I plugged it in another pc and I'm trying to backup some files and It's copying very slow.. After that I want to format the windows partition and reinstall windows.

Will that help or did I do permanent damage?

What else should I do?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: disk
Mar 5, 2016 1:46AM PST

Usually, one makes a backup as a precaution, before the original is damaged or lost. If you damaged the disk, you might lose data on it if the copy fails now.

If Windows on the affected PC starts normally when you don't connect this drive, all is fine. Otherwise you'll have to do some repairs. I'd start with Startup Repair and see what happens. A total reinstall (if you don't have a good image backup) is the last resort.

Kees

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.
Mar 5, 2016 2:44AM PST

the problem is that the damaged drive is the only one in my pc and it's the one I have the windows installed on. I guess I just have to wait untill my files copy at 10kb/s... and then reinstall windows. I can't even get to the startup repair, I get that error everytime. After the copying ends, I'll tell you the exact name of the error because I can't find it in the browsing history...

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I see.
Mar 5, 2016 7:57AM PST

It's quite uncommon (to say the least) to take out the disk you're booting from, and even more uncommon to touch anything with the power on.

Since you're willing now to give up on the files, put everything together, boot from your Windows install disk and see what you can do. But if the disk is damaged indeed, you need a new disk to install Windows on.

Kees

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scratching noise
Mar 5, 2016 6:14AM PST

After hours of copying I gave up on the files..
I've put my ear on the HDD and I heard periodic scratching noises (about one pet second). What do they mean?

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re: scratching noise
Mar 5, 2016 6:17AM PST

the noise is not loud.. it may be normal, I don't know.. you can barely hear it

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The heads are crashing
Mar 5, 2016 7:08AM PST

You can still try and get info off it, but the drive is almost dead. Scratching and "click of death" are classic sounds of a dying drive.

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Answer
Hdd
Mar 5, 2016 10:17AM PST

What you already know.
Never touch/move/handle a hdd when it's active.

Get a new hdd.
Load windows.

Put you old hdd in an external enclosure.
One file at a time see if you can recover anything.

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Answer
I did a dosdiag from wdc and here are the results.
Mar 8, 2016 1:51AM PST
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It's your call
Mar 8, 2016 8:54AM PST

If this is a wdc hdd I'll assume their diag knows what it's talking about.

If you want to play with the thing reinstall windows and watch that reallocated sector count.
If it starts moving it might be best to replace the unit.

Just so you know the more reallocated sectors you have the slower your hdd becomes.