Questions about removing a bad HDD

[Hisuoir]

I have two storages, my 512 GB SSD (C: ) for my OS, and my 1TB HDD (D: )for games and anything else. My 1TB HDD is the issue here.

I bought this HDD brand new 5 years ago for my gaming PC, and now the HDD is no longer accessible by my PC. When I go to "this PC" I noticed that my HDD drive doesn't have a bar that shows how much space I've used and when I click on my HDD (D: ) to get into the folder, it gives me "File or directory is corrupted and unreadable": the-file-or-directory-is-corrupted-and-unreadable.png (366×168) (easeus.com)
I've tried the command line "chkdsk /f d:" (d is my drive) and it is giving me this: file-record-segment-is-unreadable.jpg (357×132) (ubackup.com) It is giving me "File record segment is unreadable" for pretty much everything.

I’m thinking I might just straight replace the HDD. Based off a bit of my own research, I’m convinced it is done. I don’t have any important files on it that I want to recover anyways. That being said, I do have a few questions about replacing the HDD.

1. Do I need to tweak anything in the windows settings to let windows know I don’t want to be using the HDD anymore? Like since the letter D was set do I have to uncheck anything or unassign the letter D? Or can I just straight up unplug it from my case without having to touch any settings?
I’m wondering this because I’ve never done this before and not sure if I need to do anything to windows before taking away the HDD.

2. This question kind of links to the first in terms of doing something to windows first before removing HDD. Will I need to uninstall the programs that were on the HDD from my Uninstall Programs tab under control panel? I still see some of the icons under Uninstall Programs that belong to my HDD which is confusing me since if my PC can’t recognize the drive, why do they still appear there? What will happen if I uninstall them? Or will unplugging my dead HDD make these programs completely disappear?

3. I’ve noticed that there are still Icons of the games on my desktop that are from my HDD. The Icons are currently blank white and when I right click them, it takes 5 minutes + for a drop-down menu to show. Whereas when I right click the icons that are on my SDD, the drop-down menu is instant. Why is the drop-down menu for icons on my HDD slow to appear? Will unplugging my HDD make these icons disappear?


4. All in all, my computer feels a bit buggy ever since this HDD issue appeared. Such as right clicking the icons for drop-down is slow to appear. Opening up File Explorer and going to This PC and right clicking the HDD, the drop-down menu there is also slow to appear. One time after many restarts in my trouble shooting attempts, after right clicking an icon that was located on my HDD my screen turned to a blank white with my windows apps that I have opened only appear on the bottom left and the entire task bar was gone and desktop icons gone with only white at the back. Every time I start up my computer it would give “Scanning and repairing drive (D: ) 100% complete”(I can eventually log in though to get to my desktop). I assume every time windows starts its detecting that my HDD has issues and it’s trying to repair it every time, that might be why I’m getting this message? It would look something like this: windows-10-scanning-and-repairing-drive-c-stuck-at-100-750x430.jpg (750×430) (howtofixwindows.com) Could the HDD be causing these buggy issues or is there something else that may be causing it?

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

Hi Im my experience a dead or dying HDD can give windows all sorts of problems even if the HDD is not dying
In my case it was the actuall sata chip dying But lets see If its the HDD is faulty
Can you see the disk in partition manager?
Can you put the Disk into another computer
In terms of removing the disk without unplugging it i dont think its really possible

 

[Rhein7]

Well just a bit answer
1. Nope, you don't need to tweak anything in Windows. Just shutdown your pc, unplug the power cable from the mains and then take out the HD.
2. They are just some uninstall shortcuts. You can try to uninstall them but since your HD is undetected it will only leads to error message I think.
3, Just some shorcuts too and the reason they are white and slow on click because Windows tries to access them and failed (obviously). You can just delete them later.
4. Yeah. Honestly you could try to take off your HD and then boot the PC from the beginning. 5 years of usage from the HD is pretty decent time IMO so I think your HD is busted and just need to change it.

 

[Anarchy0110]

With a similar SSD + HDD setup, I have experienced boot issues with a bad HDD before. Same with other people I have encountered.
Better get a fresh new HDD and backup things over there imo.

 

[timta2]

Keep in mind that any or all of the data on that drive might have been corrupted and might not be recoverable or usable. That's why we backup before we have problems.

 

[theFOoL]

Best program is HWInfo

 

[qubit]

That HDD is toast as you suspect. Just disconnect it and get a new one. Out of interest, you could see if it's possible to format it and store files on it again, but don't use it in any serious manner any more if it does, as you'll just lose everything again. Run a utility like Hard Disc Sentinel to check its health. It should show it as faulty. And yes, a faulty HDD with a corrupted file system will make Windows feel sick, as you found out.

As the drive has a SATA interface it's hot pluggable which means that you can connect and disconnect it from the PC with Windows running with no problems. Same with the replacement. It's just like a USB memory stick.

1TB drives are very cheap nowadays, so I'd use this as a chance to upgrade it to something bigger and better.

Also, you want a proper backup regime in place for the future. I know you said that you didn't care what was on it, but it's still recommended. There are various ways to do this, but one way is to buy two identical replacement drives, then use the free Karen's Replicator to make a mirror backup of the primary onto the secondary. This clones the data from the primary onto the secondary.

Karen's Replicator the Backup Utility for Windows v3.7.6 Released May 25, 2020 | Karen's Power Tools | Karen's Software

Automatically backup files, directories, even entire drives! Karen's Replicator copies selected files from one drive/folder to another. Source and Destination folders can reside anywhere on your network.

www.karenware.com

 

[Mussels]

As long as nothing required to boot windows is on the drive, simply unplugging it will be totally fine

I would assume it doesnt contain your bootloader or anything, since it would have given issues booting being corrupted/dead.

 

[Maissilapsi]

File system of that disk hasn't turned RAW yet, right? (Obviously not if Windows reads it) That could be so many things including physical damage...

Anyway....

I'm assuming your file system is NTFS, did you try chkdsk d: /r too? /f tries to fix the file record, /r locates bad sectors and recovers information it can read (disk must be locked) /r fixes similarly as /f and has bonus effort to find physical disk errors.

chkdsk d: /x dismounts the disk if necessary. Costing all open handles on it. /x also has /f function.

If you can create image of that D:\ like, say on C:,\ then you can try chkdsk d: /b which clears bad clusters on D:\ and then checks all of the allocated and free clusters for any errors. But needs image first...

You can try online scanning with chkdsk d: /scan /forceofflinefix (latter parameter is optional but may help if /scan won't cut it)

Using chkdsk d: /scan /spotfix does spot fixing on the volume.

Finally:

chkdsk d: /f /dscleanup which cleans sec descriptors no one needs anymore but may "block the view " on the disk.

Also, If I was in your shoes... I would first pull PSU plug from wall, then strip all extra wires etc, unnecessary nodes and what not, check no cable ends can hit on any metal etc, check nothing behind motherboard, then unplugged and then replugged (not satire, seriously) all power cables firmly in place at PSU, GPU and motherboard etc... keeping the powers off all together some hours before plugging PSU back on wall and repeat the earlier chkdsk rumba and if it keeps failing turn focus of recovering data and saying farewells to the disk.

Then I would walk my dog. Probably goto store...

<Edit:> all the above because it can be caused by some part getting too little or unevenly electricity, even GPU, as it can create chain of events that shows as symptom elsewhere in the system such as getting slightly wrong instruction for PC to scan certain addresses at certain file records...

 

[Hardcore Games]

Looking at the screenshot the OP posted, get a new hard disk as the old one is toast

1TB disks are obsolete and lower cost disks today are suprisingly low cost sy 2TB and even 4TB

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

1TB disks are obsolete and lower cost disks today are suprisingly low cost sy 2TB and even 4TB

How is a disksize obsolete?
its not like 1tb disks are useless

 

[Rock N Roll Rebel]

try unplugging the power to the HDD and plug it back in maybe it came loose

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

For Western Digital HDDs, check the PCB for oxidation! (rust) It's a known problem with their HDDs.

 

[Hardcore Games]

For Western Digital HDDs, check the PCB for oxidation! (rust) It's a known problem with their HDDs.

I am on the WD forum and that issue was around with the RoHS changes in solder

About that time WD started offering their new green series disks which I have one of and it still works.

 

[eidairaman1]

I would backup your data if you can, if it can't hire a professional data recovery service, i would use a tool called disk fitness test by hitachi

 

[Mussels]

Looking at the screenshot the OP posted, get a new hard disk as the old one is toast

1TB disks are obsolete and lower cost disks today are suprisingly low cost sy 2TB and even 4TB

the early 1TB drives are slow by todays standards, but you should see how fast the brand new ones are... surprisingly, many blow past 200MB/s

I still wouldnt use them in my systems, but they sure have improved... we just dont notice fast, as mechs usually live for a bloody long time