3rd Master Disk Error/HDD shows 0MB in BIOS

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Nathw90

PCHF Member
Sep 1, 2019
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Hi all,

My PC has suddenly stopped booting. It makes two clicking sounds when powering on, says "3rd master disk error" and won't boot Windows.

I have now also noticed that the drive size of the HDD in BIOS shows 0MB, which from what I can tell is not good at all and may mean that it's completely fried and I have lost everything? I have a lot of pictures and files from over the years that aren't all backed up and I would be devastated to lose. It also now doesn't show the HDD as an option in boot priority, which it did before (after the error it was still an option, but after multiple reboots it's randomly disappeared since).

I have a bootable USB which allows me to boot from, but it doesn't recognise the HDD to run a disk check.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Really don't want to lose all of my personal files.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
What is on the bootable USB drive that you have.

You have not provided any hardware information which when looking for help is something that folk need to include in the OP.

What is the brand and model name or number of the MB and PSU and the HDD that has failed.

Do you have any other HDDs connected to the MB or alternatively do you have an internal CD/DVD drive that uses the same type of port that the bad HDD is connected to.

I normally use Puppy Linux in instances like this and if you have something similar but it is not detecting the HDD you may be out of luck I`m afraid :(
 
moving forward, you are going to need another drive to store anything that gets recovered off the dead drive.
and of course a working PC to do all this one.
either install the dead drive into another PC or into a USB caddy.
then you have to get the drive to be recognised - which will be the biggest hurdle.
if it is, great, time to copy and paste while the sun shines.
if not, depending on the importance of the data, it's time to take it to the professionals and pay for the recovery of your data.
 
Sorry to say that it's a hard lesson learned here, so in future remember data that is not backed up is data you don't care about.
 
Any update for us? This thread will be closed if not replied to within 48hrs.
 
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