Hi,
I'm still in a bit of shock. On friday three SATA drives stopped working at the same time. When I came home the PC was still running but the screen was black and unresponsive. Did a hard reboot and then it got stuck at POST. Turned out only 2 of 5 drives were working.
I'm still going through them one by one. One isn't even detected by BIOS, or parted magic or anything. But one is being listed in BIOS, I can see it in Parted Magic, HDD health should be good according to SMART data, TestDrive finds a partition and all my files are still on it. I can browse through it.
My question is, what can I expect from this drive that works? Can I expect to be able to save all the data? I'm too afraid to do anything on my own just yet so I don't make anything worse. Is it possible that I will never be able to get my data back despite being able to see everything just sitting there?
Thanks.
SATA system damaged, what to expect?
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When asking for technical support:
- Search for posts on the same topic before posting a new question.
- Give clear, specific information in the title of your post.
- Include as many details as you can, MOST POSTS WILL GET ONLY ONE OR TWO ANSWERS.
- Post a follow up with a "Thank you" or "This worked!"
- When you learn something, use that knowledge to HELP ANOTHER USER LATER.
Before posting, please read https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf
Re: SATA system damaged, what to expect?
The topic has been approved but unfortunately won't do any good. I've found out that none of the damaged drives will spin. Probably a fried PCB on all three. 
Still wondering how TestDisk was able to browse through all the folders without the head spinning.
Still wondering how TestDisk was able to browse through all the folders without the head spinning.