HDD stops after about 2 minutes

[waigy]

Seagate barracuda compute 6TB 3.5 inch drive.
When I power on my pc, at 1 minute 20 seconds I am into windows and I can see and access this drive.
But only for 20 seconds then it will freeze and disappear from my system.
So it won't be in device manager or computer management/storage.
I've tried lots of different hard drive software that runs from a usb boot stick and the same happens there.
The drive is only available for less than 2 minutes then it's gone.

Same in the bios, it shows when first opening the bios, but if I exit the bios then go back into the bios it is gone.
If I restart my pc at any point it will not be there because restarting doesn't power off the pc motherboard, I have to shut down the pc and switch off the power at the back.
The drive will then work when powered on again but for the same 2 minutes.
I can recreate this behaviour over and over.

I can't hear any clicking.
Could this be a component on the hard drive board overheating?

[waigy]

Re: HDD stops after about 2 minutes

I had a look at the board with a magnifying loupe and this mosfet looks like it's a bit burned.
TR1 9
Would that cause the symptoms I am having?
The drive stops being accessible after about 2 minutes?

I forgot to mention in my first post that the drive carries on spinning after it stops being accessible or found on the system.

[CapLeaker]

Re: HDD stops after about 2 minutes

The HDD behaves like some had pulled the data plug, but the HDD keeps on spinning? Maybe try a different cable, check the sata drive data port pins. Get yourself a can of air, hold it upside down and freeze the win bond ic and that big IC with the pad on top and the 100 legs it got.
What’s on the other side of the board? Usually there are little finger on the HDD that make contact on little pads of the PCB. Get a WHITE eraser and make them nice and shiny, followed by IPA cleaning. Then try again.

[redwire]

Re: HDD stops after about 2 minutes

Yeah the NTR4501 "TR1" mosfet looks a bit faded in the middle.
I would point a cooling fan at the board and see if that helps enough to mirror the drive.

After 2 minutes it usually does a servo recalibrate due to temperature change.
Ensure the flex cable connections to the head are not oxidized, if they are just copper.

[waigy]

Re: HDD stops after about 2 minutes

I've tried a different sata cable into a different port on the motherboard, it does the same thing.
I've already cleaned the connections on the back of the hard drive board with contact cleaner and cotton buds.
In the past hour I've managed a workaround.
Before I had to wait for the pc to boot into windows (about 1 minute 30 seconds) then I had about 10 or 20 seconds to access the drive.
But I now have the drive sitting outside my pc case and I can easily pull the power connector out of the drive then plug it back in again.
(I know it's not the best thing to do but I consider this drive toast anyway).
So I can keep the pc powered on in windows.
At first it would allow me to copy files for the same 2 minutes then it would hang.
But earlier it just kept on copying for almost 1 hour and I managed to copy the most important folders I wanted.
I've already got 2 replacement 6tb drives so I'm now not too fussy about getting this working as, even if I fitted a replacement board on the drive and swapped the firmware, I wouldn't consider it reliable anymore.

[waigy]

Re: HDD stops after about 2 minutes

Update:
I got a replacement hard drive motherboard (used but working from Aliexpress) and successfully swapped the firmware chip from my bad drive to the new board as my pc recognised it straight away and I could access the files but, I
was back to square one with the drive stopping after 2 minutes.
So the board is very likely not the fault.

I also got a usb 3 docking station which allowed me to copy files from my dodgy drive for 2 minutes then I could switch the docking station off then on and it would carry on copying where it left off (The same as i was doing before but using a switch instead of pulling a cable out).
So I have managed to copy all the files I wanted to copy.
As before, sometimes when copying files it would run for as long as almost half an hour, but most times it would be around 2 minutes.

I tried leaving the drive in my fridge for a few hours till it was very cold but it was the exact same.

Is this going to be the hard drive motor lacking power or maybe getting too hot?
Or maybe as your replies have mentioned it could still be the copper connections where the main board connects to the drive even though I have already cleaned them with contact cleaner a couple of times.

I now consider this drive as scrap, but it would be good if I could get it working again as I bought it brand new about 2.5 years ago.

[stj]

Re: HDD stops after about 2 minutes

point a fan at the main chip.
i have had several seagate drives where the big chip is faulty and heats up - once hot it drops out.

if blowing air over the board keeps it alive then thats your issue.

[waigy]

Re: HDD stops after about 2 minutes

I tried a fan and it's just the same.
I've only recently looked at the smart info and it shows as "Caution reallocated sector count" (image attached) which after a quick google search is supposed to be unfixable.
I think I should take the drive to my nearest river and give it a float test to determine if it floats or not.
I've heard seagate drives are notorious for sinking in water.

[CapLeaker]

Re: HDD stops after about 2 minutes

232 reallocatated sectors? Time for it to meed the hammer.

[momaka]

Re: HDD stops after about 2 minutes

I've only recently looked at the smart info and it shows as "Caution reallocated sector count" (image attached) which after a quick google search is supposed to be unfixable.
I think I should take the drive to my nearest river and give it a float test to determine if it floats or not.
I've heard seagate drives are notorious for sinking in water.

Ah, you have a -DM003 series drive - a.k.a. DooMed drive. These are known to be unreliable.

Before you chuck it or turn it into something more useful like this, see if Seagate has a firmware update for it. IIRC, for some of these, Seagate released firmware updates that fixed some of the issues... though bad sectors is probably related to the magnetic coating deteriorating.

232 reallocatated sectors? Time for it to meed the hammer.

My worst one (ironically also a Seagate) has over 1000 bad sectors and still works OK. It's an old 500 GB from the 7200.12 series, IIRC.
I also have one older Toshiba 500 GB HDD that has even more bad sectors. That one, I just "isolated" the bad sectors into their own partitions and can still use the HDD for data storage on the "good" partitions. Haven't used it much, but for the few times I did, it's been OK.

[piernov]

Re: HDD stops after about 2 minutes

Main concern is "Current Pending Sector Count" and "Uncorrectable Sector Count", means there are sectors that are unable to be read and could not be reallocated. It can only get worse (and it often does over time). Firmware is probably trying its best to read and reallocate sectors in the background but cannot do so. Drive is dead.