Hard Drive 3F2

[Mandazi]

Guys please help,

So my laptop has a 264gb SSD with the windows OS on it, and a 2TB HDD where I store all my stuff.

I was trying to update the Intel rapid storage software (to enable Optane Memory) and after the installation it asked me to restart. 
when I restarted, my screen froze for about 5-10 minutes then showed the 3F2 error. 
I ran the quick hard disk test in the UEFI and it passed, but when I restart I still get the error. 
i looked online and people say go to the BIOS menu, boot options, and enable the legacy support. But when I did that my start up screen is stuck on “press ESC to get to the start up menu” but nothing happens, but after 10 mins it switched the BIOS menu and I resorted it to default, rebooted and got the 3F2 error again. 

So after switching to legacy again in the BIOS menu, the laptop worked this time by pressing F9 then ESC in the frozen start up screen.

But after login in my laptop it didn't detect the HDD drive, I open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology app and it shows the following (see attachment), i tried to clear the matadata but nothing happens, please help.

I have also tried to disconnect the HDD and reconnect it but nothing happens.

[Alberto_Sykes]

Mandazi, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.

 In order for us to be able to provide the most accurate assistance on this matter, please provide the following details about your platform:

What is the version of the Intel® RST that is currently installed?

Please provide the SSU report:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility-for-Windows-?product=91600

Any questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[Mandazi]

Well, I tested my 2.5 SATA HDD on another PC and it didn't run.

So I went and bought a 2.5 SATA SSD to replace the HDD, and it runs without any issues.

But I'm still curious, how did updating the Intel Rapid Storage led to "frying" my HDD.

[n_scott_pearson]

I doubt that RST played any kind of role in the failure. This kind of issue usually manifests during power cycles. System restarts won't affect it, but powering off and (later) on could do so.

Who is the manufacturer of the failed HDD? I have a pile of dead drives that I haven't recycled yet; four are Seagate and the fifth carries the Maxtor name but is actually built by Seagate as well.

...S

[Mandazi]

I rarely shutdown my laptop (might put it in sleep mode), so I'm not sure if the powering off/on theory applies here. 

The fried HDD brand is Seagate (lol?), the new 2.5 SSD is from Crucial.

Btw, this HDD is on an HP OMEN laptop that is only a year an half old, so I'm surprised the HDD failed this quick (thankfully it didn't contain the OS files).

FYI, I have an ASUS ROG laptop running since 2011 with an HDD that never failed (I'm assuming its would be a Seagate too).

So I'm still curious about the reason behind this.

The only strange thing I can report is that I have dropped this laptop exactly a year ago (it was inside a backpack) with no external damage, can that lead to an HDD failure after a whole year? 

[n_scott_pearson]

All of the failed drives that I have are desktop 3.5" drives. I have a whole bunch of 2TB 2.5" HDDs from Seagate and Hitachi and 2.5" Seagate SSHDs that I bought for testing in the various Intel NUC models. All are in systems and have worked just fine for, in some cases, between 3 and 5 years now. None have failed. Maybe there's something to be said for the slower spin rate...

In almost every case, drives failed overnight. They were working when I went to bed and dead when I got up. They are dead-dead; I can't get them to talk at all.

The failure rates for Seagate are typically on par with the other vendors. Backblaze, a cloud storage provider, publishes a report every year. Here is their most recent report: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-hard-drive-stats-q1-2020/.

I fried a laptop once. I am talking a real meltdown. It turned on all by itself while in my backpack -- where it couldn't exhaust any of the heat being produced. At home, I opened the backpack to get it out, but couldn't as the backpack had melted and the laptop was firmly stuck to it. So much for throttling and thermtrip protection. Luckily, I had everything backed up.

...S

[Mandazi]

Interesting topic from BackBlaze, but as per the link, they only focused on HDD sizes 4TB and above, (no mention of 2TB and below) any reason behind that?

[n_scott_pearson]

If you look back at the reports over the years, you will see smaller size drives included. Remember that they are a cloud storage company. They offer disk space and it is more efficient to use larger drives. This is tampered by cost, of course; they look for the largest drives in mainstream usage and thus priced better because of mainstream volumes (that is what I would do anyway).

...S