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My secondary hard drive disappeared in windows and when I restart the DOS booting takes like 15 mins while it shows the "Starting Windows" logo.

How to solve this problem? Also how can I retrieve the files from this HDD?

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  • Dos booting? What version of Windows is this?
    – Unfundednut
    Jun 4, 2012 at 2:45
  • Windows 7. I mean basically before windows desktop shows up.
    – Joan Venge
    Jun 4, 2012 at 2:46
  • Try unplugging the second hard drive and see if that improves the boot up process. If it does, it sounds like your second HDD is dying.
    – Unfundednut
    Jun 4, 2012 at 2:51
  • Thanks its sata so i can do hot plugging? Also how can I access the files on it if it's dying?
    – Joan Venge
    Jun 4, 2012 at 2:54
  • Find a technician immediately. It sounds like you need help from someone who is more knowledgeable. I'm not trying to offend by any means.
    – user3463
    Jun 4, 2012 at 4:18

1 Answer 1

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If your drive is a Western Digital one, it is a bug in the Module 32 of the HDD firmware. Those thing may happen:

  • Drive reads very slowly. Starting Windows takes a very long time and it will hang a lot.
  • Using HDAT will result in very slow speeds, less than 100 KB/s in some drives.
  • Using MHDD to do a surface scan (F4) will show all the sectors as ABRT (Aborted), pretty much a timeout error. It will look like this.

The linked post says that the fix can be done by a normal user, but it is risky. If the data stored in the drive is important, you can send it to a data recovery company, and with the right tool they can do it with 3 clicks, so don't let them charge you exorbitant prices.

That's it.

And do not try to use a refurbished drive, it is sure to fail again.

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