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Could the BIOS see an Hard-Drive that is dead ?

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qase1234
Posts: 1
Joined: 2017-07-16 22:03

Could the BIOS see an Hard-Drive that is dead ?

#1 Post by qase1234 »

Hello !

I'm using debian with a motherboard ASUS-A88XM-A (amd64). It runs perfectly with live-usb distribution.

Earlier, I pluged a SATA-6G Hard-Drive to my motherboard in order to install a non-live distribution of Debian from a USB stick. This HD is the only one that is pluged to the motherboard.

The UEFI BIOS recognizes the HD. The BIOS's interface shows its name (MD06400-NSDW-RO) and its size (640.1GB), it is configured as AHCI.

But during the installation process, I noticed that the debian installer doesn't find the HD. Actually it only finds the USB stick.

So far I have tried some things :

- changing sata config in the BIOS from AHCI to IDE (even tried RAID, didn't go well...)
- Disabling secure boot by removing manualy all plateform keys and setting plateform to "Other OS"
- Trying to check this HD with a live gParter
- Trying to boot from a non-debian live USB (ArchLinux)
- Trying to boot each time not from the USB directly but from the "UEFI: <USB>" mode

It doesn't worked. The most recurring error was "The device is not ready"

So I've been considering another option: what if the HD is dead?

And it led me to this question: could the BIOS see an HD that is dead/cannot be seen by the installer?

Or, is there other way to fix it ?

Thank you !

EDIT: The "MANON" tool from ArchLinux installer finds the HD and also shows all spec (name, size), it doesn't find its MBR ("MBR unknown"). But ArchLinux still doesn't find it at the end.

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pylkko
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Joined: 2014-11-06 19:02

Re: Could the BIOS see an Hard-Drive that is dead ?

#2 Post by pylkko »

Boot a Linux and check the kernel log and lsblk. If it is recognized, then there might be some mounting issue

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cpoakes
Posts: 99
Joined: 2015-03-29 04:54

Re: Could the BIOS see an Hard-Drive that is dead ?

#3 Post by cpoakes »

qase1234 wrote:... The most recurring error was "The device is not ready".
Yes, it is possible. If the controller board is good but the motor, stepper motor or media is bad, the device can be recognized at low levels (reading from just the controller flash) but not accessed (because it fails to spin up/read).

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dasein
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Re: Could the BIOS see an Hard-Drive that is dead ?

#4 Post by dasein »

qase1234 wrote:So I've been considering another option: what if the HD is dead?
As cpoakes pointed out, yes, that's entirely possible.

Easiest way to confirm is the try to get another computer to recognize the HDD in question. Everything else is just speculative at this point.

pcalvert
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Re: Could the BIOS see an Hard-Drive that is dead ?

#5 Post by pcalvert »

Is the HDD new, or was it used previously?
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