Partition found, files can be read, but Windows will not access

[Psie]

Since I bought a new HDD, I removed my oldest drive and put it on a sata to USB adapter, hoping to transfer the files and make new use of it. It's made in 2015, maybe that's old for a consumer Seagate SSHD.

One day (weeks later) when I launched a specific program, the drive got 100% usage without any traffic. I could still access the drive fine but Explorer started to hang, after a few restarts, the volume stopped being detected and the PC would hang completely.

I'm trying to repair the drive. I had a WinRe boot where I could use the testdisk executable from my c drive. In Winre, using internal sata and usb will show an incorrect size and no partitions. In Windows proper, sata will not detect at all. Usb does however it's slow, since Windows explorer hangs. Testdisk found the partition though, with the volume label intact. It found the correct directory structure, I tried recovering some and it worked. I wrote the part table and rebooted, but no difference. I can just dd image or copy files but the problem is, since Windows explorer hangs in the background the transfer rate is incredibly slow <=1Mb/s. And I can't detect the drive in Winre. Any advice? Can I still make it accessible to Windows?

[recuperation]

Since I bought a new HDD, I removed my oldest drive

Where did you remove it from? Did you buy it inside a case that you removed it from now or was that a kind of "naked" drive built into a computer?

and put it on a sata to USB adapter, hoping to transfer the files and make new use of it. It's made in 2015, maybe that's old for a consumer Seagate SSHD.

One day (weeks later) when I launched a specific program,

Which program?

the drive got 100% usage without any traffic. I could still access the drive fine but Explorer started to hang, after a few restarts, the volume stopped being detected and the PC would hang completely.

I'm trying to repair the drive.

That makes no sense unless you made an effort to check that your drive has no physical dammage.

I had a WinRe boot where I could use the testdisk executable from my c drive. In Winre, using internal sata and usb will show an incorrect size and no partitions. In Windows proper, sata will not detect at all.

Did Testdisk show an incorrect size?

Usb does however it's slow, since Windows explorer hangs. Testdisk found the partition though, with the volume label intact. It found the correct directory structure, I tried recovering some and it worked. I wrote the part table and rebooted, but no difference. I can just dd image or copy files but the problem is, since Windows explorer hangs in the background the transfer rate is incredibly slow <=1Mb/s. And I can't detect the drive in Winre. Any advice?

Check how your drive behaves inside a clean machine or what happens when you put it into a docking station connected to a clean machine.
Post your smartmontools log file as described here:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10910

Do not use the windows recovery environment, rather use a live linux such as Gparted, Knopppix and others.

Can I still make it accessible to Windows?

I don't know. Until know that looks like a pretty bad idea.

[Psie]

Thanks for your response, recuperation. I will get back to the drive tonight and try more steps, meanwhile I want to clarify.

The program that started this issue was just a video enhancing program. Some video files were on that HDD. I suppose it wanted to read the video metadata and couldn't. I am tracking Windows Performance counters on my desktop: Disk activity went to 100%, but no read activity was transparent at least to the Windows API (the actual drive of course probably did try to read).

Force disconnecting the drive made the hang disappear and the program continued. Though, my OS drive is on NVMe.

The drive is an internal 3.5" Seagate HDD. I've had it in the computer case bay. I took it out and connected a SATA/IDE to micro-USB 3.0 + DC Power and did not encase it.

I don't remember what testdisk reported as size through motherboard SATA, if any, but diskpart reported a ~1500Mb unpartitioned drive with GUID '8 zeroes'. Linux lsblk did not detect internal SATA (but detected it through USB). I actually tried Ntfsfix first through Linux and the USB connection, but got stuck on "Going to empty the journal".

The physical disk does seem like it has reading issues. It doesn't click audibly but I can feel the spin resetting at fixed intervals.

I cannot try another system except for a laptop with USB again. I wasn't aware testdisk was available on Linux, I will try that tonight.

[recuperation]

Thanks for your response, recuperation. I will get back to the drive tonight and try more steps, meanwhile I want to clarify.

The program that started this issue was just a video enhancing program. Some video files were on that HDD. I suppose it wanted to read the video metadata and couldn't. I am tracking Windows Performance counters on my desktop: Disk activity went to 100%, but no read activity was transparent at least to the Windows API (the actual drive of course probably did try to read).

Force disconnecting the drive made the hang disappear and the program continued. Though, my OS drive is on NVMe.

The drive is an internal 3.5" Seagate HDD. I've had it in the computer case bay. I took it out and connected a SATA/IDE to micro-USB 3.0 + DC Power and did not encase it.

Try to exclude power supply issues. Either connect the drive internally (not using your bay) or put it into an external docking station.

I don't remember what testdisk reported as size through motherboard SATA, if any, but diskpart reported a ~1500Mb unpartitioned drive with GUID '8 zeroes'. Linux lsblk did not detect internal SATA (but detected it through USB).

Should that mean that you connected your drive internally to SATA or this referring to your internal SATA connections in general?

I actually tried Ntfsfix first through Linux and the USB connection, but got stuck on "Going to empty the journal".

You should have tried to diagnose the health of your drive instead of throwing in some medicine.

The physical disk does seem like it has reading issues. It doesn't click audibly but I can feel the spin resetting at fixed intervals.

Please post your smartmontools log file.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10910
Your error description suggests a possible hardware issue where trying to duplicate the drive using ddrescue could put the drive at risk.

[Psie]

I've done some more investigation and created a smart report. My observations with the drive is that it's unfortunately on its last leg, as SMART's pre-fail will also indicate. It sounds bad, first like a printer, then like a geiger counter.

Linux will detect the drive with internal SATA and IDE cable. But testdisk on Linux will not list any files on the drive, maybe this is due to the ntfs driver. I thought the drive was worsened, but I tested it on Windows and it did list the files again.

My observation is that when you first connect the drive, it will make these bad sounds. But, it will be able to read and copy files and won't sound bad anymore. But, after about 5 minutes you will not be able to read and copy files anymore. If you pull the cable out and reconnect again, the bad sounds happen and you can read the files for another 5 minutes. Not every file copied is recovered, some are 0b in size. Only Windows can find any files though.

I think the best is to recover the most important files on the drive, and forget about any media more than kilobytes in size and call it a loss.

I still want to say thank you. Without testdisk I wouldn't have been able to recover any file. Just shocking that it failed so suddenly. I am sure I check SMART values regularly and it was never this bad.

[recuperation]

Your drive is broken:

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 099 099 010 Pre-fail Always - 968
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 2921 ???
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 17904
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 001 001 000 Old_age Offline - 17904

You might consider the service of a professional recovery lab.