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Starting Situation:

I have a 1 TB HDD with Windows 11 that was too slow and produced noises and vibrations. So, I added a new SSD to my laptop and installed another Windows 11, but even when I use the OS in SSD the HDD is always active and producing sound. I also have a Ubuntu dual booted in a partition of HDD. Now, I want to keep HDD inactive so that the sound is not produced, while I am working only in SSD (removing or keeping ubuntu will be ok).

Details:

When I click on continue the green bar starts to load but doesn't complete even in 30 mins (I assume it takes time to change the permission of such a big chunk). Is there an efficient way to access data in the new OS?

I can access the new OS from the old OS but the old OS takes forever to load and gets stuck a lot.

After some tries:

Is there any way with which I can transfer my data efficiently and remove or keep all the files and remove old OS or any other workaround to stop the HDD to produce grinding noises time and again? Could defragmentation do some help it is 34% fragmented. I waited for 5 hours for that but lost hope of it completing after that.

Now I am unable to boot the old os as it is extremely slow and the new OS can't load anything in my folders inside Users. Loading

I checked if my files are present from EaseUS it shows all the files (that I need) as EXISTING but still, I can't access the files from the new OS or boot the old one. EaseUS can recover up to 2 GB without cost but it's really not enough. Why is EaseUS able to load data within 2 mins and my new OS is unable to load even when the Hard Disk was working accurately? EaseUS

Current Situation:

I copied all the files by adding all the permission of the folder to the user of the new OS and canceling the process. This quick hack helped me to copy all the necessary files, I removed the os from the dual boot and cleared out most of the space from the HDD and still it is producing noises. Should I completely format the disk and try?

It doesn't produce noise while I type through this but as soon as I watch videos on Youtube (not a locally available video in an installed player). But there is no paging. Why do HDD's are active without any processes running on them?

HDD

The thing I want to do is I want to stop producing noises regularly (without the disk being removed, so I can store huge chunks that are not so important even if the disk fails for eg: movies that are not really important to me which consume lots of unnecessary space of my SSD). I tried revosleep which didn't work. I tried to set the power plan to sleep disk after 1min of inactivity but only works when I don't do any work on SSD.

I want the disk to be working only from the user's call or by manually mounting. Any other method to keep the unused HDD inactive most of the time (when there are no transfers by the user)?

Bibhav
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    So I gather you want to remove the HDD entirely? Without a larger SSD what you want will be difficult assuming you want access to the additional storage that is in excess of 256 GB. You should [edit] your question to clarify it while avoid unnecessarily using bolding font in your question body. – Ramhound Mar 27 '23 at 17:43
  • I understand that price can be a problem, but is there any chance that you could get a 1 TB SSD? That would make it much simpler. – Andrew Morton Mar 27 '23 at 17:54
  • @AndrewMorton Yeah, it would have been but I thought that when I will use SSD to run OS the HDD would have no task running so I could still use it to store data, without any problem. Now, I have a 256 GB SSD and there is no going back from here. – Bibhav Mar 27 '23 at 18:14
  • @Ramhound Edited with a better explanation *(I hope)*. – Bibhav Mar 27 '23 at 18:15
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    Consider one or two large capacity USB drives, back off what you need and then do a simple reinstall of Windows 11. This will most assuredly work better long haul. – John Mar 27 '23 at 18:20
  • It takes forever to boot os in HDD and coping 100 GB twice seems to be more hectic considering the fact that earlier it took an hour to copy 9-10 GB. I could copy the data are most important (around 100 GB) to SSD directly there is a method to access files from the new OS. – Bibhav Mar 27 '23 at 18:35
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    A disk that makes sounds and vibrates is perhaps not in good shape. I wouldn't trust it to hold any data for which I don't have good backups. – harrymc Mar 27 '23 at 18:41
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    Windows will respect the permissions of a Windows installation, What this means is, if the files permissions are restrictive, then you would have to modify the permissions in order to access them. Since you presumably are an Administrator on the machine, you can do this to any file or folder, with the understanding when you boot the other installation the permissions WILL BE CHANGED and potentially based on the location of the file or folder you modified effect users on THAT installation from accessing the file or folder permanently. If it takes hours to copy 9GB your HDD drive is failing. – Ramhound Mar 27 '23 at 18:48
  • Now, how do I back up or copy important data quickly to SSD? Cause waiting hours expecting permissions to be changed or waiting an hour per 10 GB or defragmenting to fix the drive at this point will be useless. – Bibhav Mar 27 '23 at 18:57
  • You may have already lost the battle. Find an old computer you have or can borrow, put the drive in a USB connected carrier and recover the data that way (if you can). – John Mar 27 '23 at 19:05
  • I checked if my hard disk has crashed from EaseUS it shows all the files as EXISTING but still I can't access the files from the new OS or boot the old one. EaseUS can recover up to 2 GB without cost but it's really not enough. Why is EaseUS able to load data within 2 mins and my new OS is unable to load even when the Hard Disk was working accurately? Is there any tool or process that I can follow to copy data? – Bibhav Mar 28 '23 at 02:59
  • @harrymc the only thing I want to do is I want to stop producing noises regularly (without the disk being removed, so I can store huge chunks that are not so important even if the disk fails *for eg: movies* which are not really important for me which consumes lots of unnecessary space of my SSD. In short, I want the disk to be working only form the user's call or by manually mounting. – Bibhav Mar 28 '23 at 08:39
  • buy a new 1TB HDD, which you can get for as low as 15 dollars(but I'd spend at least 25 for quality). It will make SOME noise, but it should not be disturbing. If there is any important data on your current HDD which isn't backed up, ask a professional service to copy the data for you. At this point, continuing to have that HDD connected to current will lower your options for recovery with every minute – 1NN Mar 28 '23 at 09:00
  • What does OP want from us?! What is the actual question? IF disk is dying you will need a new disk, simple as that. Dying disk should be treated as data recovery case, it should be cloned entirely. Not this amateurish fiddling. – Joep van Steen Mar 29 '23 at 11:08

1 Answers1

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Stop using your HDD

HDD's which make excessive noise, are FAILING !

You should avoid using your HDD altogether and disconnect it from current, as scratching noise can be a sign of the heads damaging the platter. Once you are that far, no one will be able to recover your data. I personally lost a 4 TB drive like this!

Get a professional service to recover your data, if it is not backed up. There is a dedicated Wiki on Superuser for such cases.

1NN
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    I agree the drive is failing hence upvote. I think doing a bitcopy off the drive (eg ddrescue) is oj at this time and could save the need for $$$$ recovery that it seems the OP cant afford/justify. – davidgo Mar 28 '23 at 09:26
  • Head crashes are fun. I had one drive which had a lovely set of tracks scraped into the plates. Irrecoverable, unless you had a time machine :D – Journeyman Geek Mar 29 '23 at 12:15
  • I beg to differ. Some HDDs simply ARE very noisy. The noise even gets "amplified" when it gets echo inside your metallic chassis (or make it resonate whatsoever). I got some brand new seagate ironwolf and it literally sound like some magnets or metallic cubes crashing / scratching with each others, yet no single bad block after repeated full drive random filling. (Checksum produced with reading afterwards matches with what produced on-the-fly during writing.) – Tom Yan Mar 30 '23 at 04:11