nah not necessarily completely dead, but it's def not good. usually means bad sectors or the drive head is failing. you might be able to get some files off with recovery software like recuva or testdisk. i've had luck sometimes just trying a different sata port/cable on another pc, or even an external usb enclosure. a live linux usb stick can sometimes pull data that windows gives up on too. good luck!
nah not necessarily completely dead, but it's def not good. usually means bad sectors or the drive head is failing. you might be able to get some files off with recovery software like recuva or testdisk. i've had luck sometimes just trying a different sata port/cable on another pc, or even an external usb enclosure. a live linux usb stick can sometimes pull data that windows gives up on too. good luck!
Hey, jumping in here. Had a similar issue before. Sometimes Windows just freaks out with older/failing drives. If the software stuff doesn't work, you could try booting into a live Linux distro (like Ubuntu or Mint) from a USB stick. Often, Linux can mount and read drives that Windows totally borks on, even if they have some errors. Might be able to copy files off directly from there. Worth a shot tbh before calling it completely dead.
