How to Determine If a Hard Drive Is Dead [Step-by-Step Guide]

How can I determine if my hard drive is failed or failing? On this page, we will provide effective tips to inspect the disk status and guide you on how to handle a dead hard drive:

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Key Takeaways: How to Tell If a Hard Drive Is Dead:

Keep calm when your hard drive suddenly fails. Immediately stop using it. Then, follow this tutorial to determine whether your hard drive is dead or not. Additionally, you can find out what to do when a hard drive is dead from this guide.

Supported hard drive types: SATA hard drives, external hard drives, SATA SSDs, M.2 SSDs, NVMe SSDs, hybrid-HDD/SSDs, etc.

How Can I Tell If a Hard Drive Is Dead or Not?

你知道如何确定或确认硬盘是否已经完全损坏或只是暂时出现问题吗？我们在这里整理了所有检查技巧的表格，你可以快速浏览并从中获取线索：

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Editor's Thoughts:

In most cases, it's straightforward to determine whether a hard drive is dead or failing. If your disk exhibits 2 or 3 of the issues mentioned in the table, there is a 90% to 98% chance that it has already failed.

Here are some tips you can follow to accurately determine the status of your hard drive:

Now, you can follow these tips to check if your computer's hard drive is dead or experiencing temporary failure. Note that these methods are also useful for determining if your removable storage devices are not functioning.

#1. Check If the Hard Drive's Exterior or Appearance Is Damaged/Broken

• Applicable to: All levels of users
• Tools: Hard drive, visual inspection with your eyes, local disk repair center, and disk maintenance experts.

The simplest way to determine if a hard drive is deceased is by examining its exterior or packaging appearance. Here, if your disk exhibits 2 or 3 of the symptoms listed, it is 98% certain that the drive is dead:

• The hard drive is severely damaged
• The hard drive is partially damaged
• The hard drive is shattered or broken
• The hard drive has scratches

When this issue arises on your disk, it's almost 100% certain that you won't be able to restore or repair the damaged hard drive on your own.

If your disk has a similar issue, you may stop here as it could already be physically dead. So what should you do next? Here is the Tools Editor's suggestion:

If your hard drive is only partially damaged or its core components are safe, you can connect it to a healthy computer and continue following the steps below.

#2. Check If the Hard Drive Is Bootable/Detectable

• 适用人群: 所有级别的用户
• 所需工具: 硬盘、连接线、螺丝刀、一台健康的Windows电脑。

When the external appearance of your hard drive appears normal, you can follow these tips to check and confirm whether it is detectable, accessible, or bootable on your computer:

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• Boot your computer and connect the hard drive to your PC.
• Open Disk Management and check if the hard drive is detected on your computer.

如果存在，继续检查磁盘状态，看它是否正常、未知、无介质，甚至什么都没有。

Then you can check if the hard drive is bootable or accessible on the computer.

If the disk cannot even boot, there is a high probability that the disk might be faulty. If your hard disk drives are not detectable or not appearing on your PC, you can try the tips listed here for assistance:

#3. Test Hard Disk Health State to Check If the Disk Is Dead Translate only: Test the hard disk's health state to determine if the disk has failed.

• Applies to: All levels of users
• Tools: Hard drive, a healthy Windows computer, reliable hard disk health check software.

Relying on a trustworthy hard drive health test tool is the final and most technical method you should consider. The Partition Master tool offers a free feature called DiskHealth. With just one simple click, it allows you to scan and determine whether a hard drive is dead or not based on its SMART data results.

Here's how to check if the disk is dead or not using the tool Partition Master:

1. Launch the tool Partition Master and click "Disk Health" in the Discovery section. 2. Select the target hard drive that you suspect is faulty, and let the software scan this disk. 3. Then, analyze the scanning results to determine if the hard drive is indeed dead.

If you're searching for an effortless and suitable method to examine the health of your hard drive, this video might be able to assist you.

What to Do When Hard Drive Is Dead (Tips You Need to Know) When your hard drive fails, it can be a stressful and frustrating experience. Vital data, documents, photos, and other important files may seem lost forever. However, there are steps you can take to recover your information and handle the situation effectively. Here are some essential tips to follow: 1. **Confirm the Issue**: Before assuming your hard drive is dead, ensure it's not a software or connectivity problem. Try connecting the drive to another computer or use a different cable to see if it's recognized. 2. **Backup Your Current Data**: If you have another working computer, immediately back up all important data on that system to prevent further loss. 3. **Boot from a Rescue Disk**: Use a bootable USB or CD/DVD with a data recovery tool, such as Ubuntu LiveCD or Windows Recovery Environment, to check if the drive can be accessed in a safe mode. 4. **Check for Errors**: Run a disk utility tool, like chkdsk (Windows) or Disk Utility (Mac), to scan for bad sectors or file system errors. 5. **Professional Data Recovery**: If the above steps fail, consider contacting a professional data recovery service. They have specialized tools and expertise to retrieve data from severely damaged drives. 6. **Purchase a New Hard Drive**: While your data is being recovered, buy a new hard drive to replace the failed one. Make sure to choose a reliable brand with appropriate storage capacity. 7. **Implement Backup Strategy**: To avoid future data loss, establish a regular backup routine using external hard drives, cloud services, or network-attached storage devices. 8. **Learn from the Experience**: Understand the reasons behind the failure, whether it's due to age, overheating, or manufacturing defects. Take preventive measures to prolong the life of your new hard drive. Remember, prevention is key when it comes to data loss. Always keep your important files backed up, and stay vigilant about the health of your storage devices.

So, what can you do if you're 99% or even 100% certain that your hard drive has failed? Is there still a chance to retrieve your valuable data? Here's a list of tips from data recovery specialists that we believe might be helpful for hard drive owners to attempt:

1. #1. Immediately stop using the hard drive, as it will not boot up or become accessible regardless of what you attempt.
2. #2. If your hard drive is not physically damaged or broken, seek assistance from a trustworthy data recovery service in your local area.
3. #3. If you have crucial data stored on the damaged or broken hard drive, send it to a local disk repair center for repair.
4. #4. Once you've determined that the hard drive is irreparable, it's advisable to safely destroy the hard drive.
5. #5. Lastly, always have a backup plan, such as purchasing a new hard drive to replace the dead one. Neither you nor the repair center can assure that the dead drive can be restored to its original working condition.

Conclusion

On this page, we have compiled 3 practical and efficient methods to help you determine whether a hard drive is dead from physical, logical, and technical standpoints. Among these methods, the tool Partition Master, equipped with its DiskHealth feature, offers an all-in-one and simplest solution to scan and test if a hard drive is dead with just one click.

In addition to this, the software also offers some hard drive performance optimization features that you can utilize fully to enhance your disk drives on Windows PC, including:

• Test hard drive speed
• Check file system errors
• Run Surface test
• Align SSD to 4K
• Change hard drive cluster size, etc.

If you find the tips on this page practical and helpful for determining whether a hard drive is dead, please feel free to share this tutorial on your social media to assist more people online.

Frequently Asked Questions About Determining If a Hard Drive Is Dead

Here are some topics related to determining whether a hard drive is dead. Feel free to explore if you're also seeking answers:

< strong >1. Can data from a dead hard drive be recovered?

It depends on the situation. If a Windows computer can detect the hard drive, there might be a possibility to recover the data from the non-functional disk by utilizing a professional data recovery service. However, if the disk is completely unbootable or has been physically damaged to the point of being in pieces, the chances of data retrieval might be significantly lower.

**2. How can I determine if my hard drive is severely damaged or just partially?**

First, you can inspect the disc's label or exterior to determine if it has been fully burned or not.

Secondly, attempt to connect the disk to your computer and check whether the drive can be recognized or accessed. If it can, congratulations - you should promptly backup all valuable content from the drive. If not, the disk might be severely damaged.

3. How to prevent a hard drive from failing?

Here's a list of guidelines you can follow to prevent disk failure and ensure the integrity of your personal data:

• For a new disk: Set an appropriate file system format for your drive, typically NTFS, regularly check and fix any file system errors, and scan for and remove virus infections.
• For an old disk (3-5 years or older): Test for bad sectors, monitor the disk's health status promptly, and backup valuable data to an external disk or cloud storage.