I'm having trouble with my HDD, which I mainly use for downloaded movies. After an error during shutdown, my PC started rebooting and now it only boots if the HDD is disconnected. I suspect it might be corrupt or possibly infected with a virus. Is there any way to recover it without formatting?
2 Answers
Just to clarify, are you trying to recover data from your hard drive or the M.2 SSD? It sounds like you're focused on the HDD, which is good to know!
It sounds like your HDD might be failing. First, check the boot order in your BIOS to ensure the motherboard isn't trying to boot from the HDD when it’s plugged in. If that’s okay, try booting from a USB stick with software like Hiren's BootCD PE to see if it recognizes the drive. If nothing works and you can’t access BIOS with the HDD connected, consider getting a USB drive adapter, especially if it’s a SATA HDD. Good luck!
Thanks for the help! I can access the BIOS and my HDD isn’t in the boot list. I’m worried about losing my files on the 4TB drive, but I'll try your suggestions.
Yeah, I’m just looking to recover the hard drive, not the SSD.