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Test #1. With the cover ON the spinning of the drive is imperceptible. Absolutely. Anyone NOT familiar with the inner workings of PCs would probably think the tiniest of vibration, that I can feel, could be a fan. No way is this a definitive test to, what I like to affectionatly call: civilians.
And you've been in this biz for how long? You think some civilian is going to be that good at it?
...I see myself touching a lot of PC's today to test this out.
Unless you have gloves on bro, you can feel it.
You may have to remove the drive from it's bay. Do this with the power off of course. You obviously have to leave the power to the drive connected, lay the drive flat. Power on the system, place your palm on the drive if it's a 3.5", your index and middle finger on it if it's a 2.5".
All I know is that I can feel it on HDD's. SSD, obviously not and no, not rocket science.
My first guess is the same as the others - the bios has lost its setting for IDE, SATA or AHCI.
BTW, some bios in setup, will detect and display the hard drive type/brand (and the DVD) even if it's not spinning. Be interesting to see if it's in there.
If it is the hard drive, I have had some luck with flaky drives by removing the drive and putting it in the freezer for an hour or two and then back in the computer and quickly copying the data off that I wanted.
By "some luck", I mean it has worked for me a couple of times, but usually not.
Also, if you remove the drive from the case, hold it in your hand, and still have the wires attached, the biggest clue that it's spinning is the gyroscope effect when the computer is turned on. That's very noticeable.
'Some civilian?'....it doesn't sound like rocket science;
As opposed to GG and I that are in the trenches every day. I've built, repaired and replaced 100's if not 1,000s of computers.
So, yea: civilian. It's not an insultr.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gguerra
Unless you have gloves on bro, you can feel it.
On this tiny micro PC I can feel something. As someone with decades of experience, I know it's the drive spinning but it is so very slight. On a full size stand alone PC, if you can feel the drive spinning by placing a hand on the case, that drive IS failing or that case sucks!
Quote:
You may have to remove the drive from it's bay. Do this with the power off of course. You obviously have to leave the power to the drive connected, lay the drive flat. Power on the system, place your palm on the drive if it's a 3.5", your index and middle finger on it if it's a 2.5".
Or...just open it up and stick your ear next to it. I think OP's drive has failed. I sincerely doubt it's a BIOS setting that was somehow changed. I'd bet $1.00 if he put his head near it (cover removed) he'd hear the chk chk chk sound that Turco described earlier. The old failed platter arm telltale noise that we professionals are more then familiar with.
...I see myself touching a lot of PC's today to test this out.
I like that idea.....OH crap, I no longer have any with regular HD only SSD.
But if you can do this :
A couple of years ago I had a win 10 machine show me the message "No Hard Disk Found" while it had been running. I tried to reboot several times and it just would not do anything.
I pulled the HD and plugged it into another machine with usb caddy.. A usb to sata cable would do the same thing..
The HD showed up but win 7 said there were errors on the disk.. Would I like them to fix it.. Uhh SURE ?
It took a couple of hours and I reinstalled it in the original box...
It booted up and looked like it did before the problem
I ordered an SSD within 15 minutes... I have found that you can locate the SSD or memory at Crucial and then click on Amazon from within the Crucial site.. If you have Prime - you will get the SSD in a couple of days...Same Price....
Once I got the SSD I cloned the HD to the SSD and switched them out..
Everything worked the way it had.. I did not have Office 365 but nothing else gave me a problem.
You'al probably heard that huge sigh of relief....
Crucial and Samsung are probably the top dogs but Intel, Kingston and other brand names are very good too.
I typically tell people to stay away from the brands I see dead inside the computer that come to the shop way more frequently than other brands.
Of course, in all fairness, we can speculate and wonder if this was the case because:
- More of them sold/bought?
- Their users abused their machine or used them more aggressively?
- Another faulty component killed them prematurely?
Or, those drives were indeed of inferior quality?
The brands I ran into way more than any other are: ADATA, Verbatim, Sandisk, SK Hynix and Lite-ON
That said, I know these are not necessarily unknown or have bad reps. I used CD-RW/DVD-RW drives from Lite-On and had very good experience. I like and use Sandisk MP3 players. Also I use/used ADATA and Sandisk flash drives and have been happy but when it comes to SSD/M.2 drives, I couldn't recommend them to anyone.
All of the above is a side note to the main thing I wanted to share to all those home users who are using SSD/M.2 drives and not running frequent backups: when those drives fail, there will be a lesser chance of data recovery from them. And if they need to go to a recovery specialist, it will cost you a lot more due to their inherent difficulty.
I also do not recommend them for long term data or as permanent backup storage, mainly for the above reason but also the cost per GB/TB factor.
Here is the following bit of info as to why you have more of a need to use regular HDD to backup your important data stored on SSD/M.2 drives:
Store bought backup solutions, regardless of the drive type used, will have lower quality/speed drive in them. If it is an SSD/M.2 type, not only they cost more but also use higher level cell types which which lesser performance and shorter lifespan. Higher capacity HDDs usually are not affected as they all use the same read/write method per sector. Just make sure you but a quality drive from a reputable drive and you are good to go. If it would be powered on and used a lot, then get a NAS drive which would be even better.
Most any SSD you buy that is 4TB or larger capacity, is guaranteed to be using TLC (at best) and quite possibly QLC (at worst).
Besides cost, this should arguably be the most important factor in deciding which SSD to buy.
Read this article to educate yourself on different levels of cell utilization to store data and how it affect the overall drive capacity, performance and its lifespan. In a nutshell, lower the level, the better the performance and its lifespan but higher the cost.
This is the main reason why Samsung PRO performs better, last longer but costs more than EVO which performs better, last longer but costs more than the QVO drives.
Choose wisely.
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Stop it!