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My seagate expansion 1TB isnt working

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  • Computers
  • Storage
  • Seagate
Last response: in Storage
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October 13, 2014 3:20:19 PM

Im hoping someone may be able to help me. My seagate is probably 5 or 6 years old and had been working perfectly most of that time. but now it wont connect to any computer. Ive tried multiple different usb leads, usb ports and computers. I even used a different power cord. The light will still come on but it no longer makes that wizzing noise when its connected to a computer and nothing shows up on the computer. Pretty much my sons entire childhood photos and other very important stuff is on there. Is there a way i can atleast save what is on there even if i cant use the hardrive anymore? Im desperate! I really dont want to lose all my sons baby photos :-(

More about : seagate expansion 1tb isnt working

a b G Storage
October 13, 2014 11:35:09 PM

Hey aithoz. This sounds very unfortunate. Is the drive portable or desktop (I'm asking, because if it's a 3.5" drive externally powered and you've tried only with a new power cord, you should also try with a different USB cable, not longer than 12"). Do you see your drive in Disk Management and if "yes", what does it say? It sounds like either your drive or external enclosure has failed. You could always try and take the HDD out of the enclosure and connect it directly to your motherboard to try and retrieve your data (I wouldn't usually recommend that, because this usually voids the warranty of a hard drive, but having in mind yours is 5-6 years old, I don't think it would be a problem). The safest and best option though would be a professional solution like a data recovery company.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD
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October 14, 2014 12:03:19 PM

STOP

STOP RIGHT NOW

If you want your data do NOT try to access the drive as if it IS faulty the OS could write to it and overwrite your photos.

If this is beyond you PM me and if you are close by I could help you recover your data.

If the drive is powered only by the USB then if the USB is faulty and does not provide the power it could be just that.

So you have some options but you should NOT boot this drive in Windows or respond to ANY messages offering to FIX IT, they will probably ruin any chance you have of recovering the data.

The first thing you need to do is ascertain whether the problem is power, the circuit board on the hard disk or the platters.

This needs to be done with hardware only, no OS

The best way to do this is to remove the drive from the casing, as it is old it may be IDE rather than SATA, do not mix up the interface the casing may have put on it. Whatever the interface (IDE or SATA) is you need the cables to install to it, you can get kits that connect these to USB or internal kits if you were going to install the drive to a PC. Whatever you do not not connect it to a PC with windows running until you have determined where the problem is.

To determine whether the drive has physical damage connect it to a PC that is booted but that has not booted the OS or has booted from CD, then listen closely, if it powers up, make the usual seek noises and settles down it may be fine, if it grunts, makes mechanical noises or spends ages trying to read you know it is more than a power problem with the cable.

At that point I would do data recovery which involves using non windows utilities that only READ the drive see what can be seen before I look at finding an identical drive and try swapping out the circuit board, this does not always work, it really depends on the drive, whether the replacement was in the same manufacturing batch and whether the specs of the drive and firmware are identical.

Mechanical noises usually suggest the drive platters and/or heads are damaged which means a 10% chance of data recovery and even then only in clean room conditions.

To recover data you really have to know what you are doing and do things in a certain order. The problem is that you are gambling with your photos.

Feel free to PM me and I will see if I can help but be warned if you try stuff yourself you could wreck any chance of me getting your data back.
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October 15, 2014 2:10:43 AM

Thanks everyone for your replies. Im not very computer tech/jargon savy so im thinking the best option may be to try find and take it to a data recovery place. I live in New Zealand so probably not close to any of you guys. I just really hope they can get at least my photos off of it. Everything else a can deal with losing. My partner has a seagate (the exact same as mine) about the same age too so ill tell him it may be a good idea to get a new external harddrive and transfer all his data before it stuffs out. It is just a portable one about the size of a thick dvd. it uses a power cord and a usb cord. I used his power cord and usb awhile ago and it didnt recognise it like it does his one so im thinking its more than just a power cord / usb lead issue.


Thanks again for all your help,
Hopefully i can get it sorted :D 
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a b G Storage
October 15, 2014 6:37:57 AM

well like them portable hard drives that gets handled and moved around a lot may get dropped or take shock to it in some way [not meaning elelectrial shock] and cause damage to the drive you got 5 years out of it to me I would call that good [opinion]
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