PC can not recognize Seagate Internal Hard drive

[sc300]

For some reason my Seagate hard drive is no longer being recognized by my pc. It is not in MY COMPUTER, Bios, or disk manager. I have no idea what happened I have not been inside to computer at all and it was working just fine a day or so ago. I checked seagates website and my model number is not listed under the firmware updates, so I have no idea what happened.

There is no clicking, all cables are fine, I tried different sata ports including power and still nothing.

I pulled the hard drive and hooked it up to 2 different transfer kits and neither worked. I hooked it up to a usb data transfer kit and it powers on but will not show in Device manager, disk Manager or My computer. There is no odd noises or excessive heat. Then I plugged it into my hard drive enclosure and that to did not work.

After I pulled the hard drive I noticed the following message in device manager with a yellow exclamation mark.

"a2rnr08h ide controller"

I tried to update the driver and received a message stating that drivers could not be found, I put the Mobo disks in and still nothing.


So after doing some research I found that this is a common problem with these drives and Seagate has an update for it. While I went and downloaded the ISO update and booted into it, but I got the following message while trying to install the new firmware

"scanning for controllers
scanning for devices
scanning for devices on Generic PCI ATA

Found 0 Devices

Scanning for devices on Generic PCI ATA
Found 1 Device
Scan complete, 2 controllers and 1 device detected

****************
Exit with Code 2

****************
Error: Specific Model Not found.. Expected"



I have no clue why it cant find the exact model because I triple checked the model before trying this and I unhooked my primary Western Digital drive while doing this, so I dont know why it cant find it?

Although the interesting thing is that on the box it has the model number as ST3500641AS-RK, but on the hard drive itself the model number is ST3500320AS and that is the number I searched and found out that this is a common problem. The serial numbers are the same.

So at this point I have no idea what else to try and I will tell you this I will NEVER again buy a single Seagate product..............when I was purchasing this I had a bad feeling about it and I STILL put the WD drive down and got this POS instead

 

[jitpublisher]

Return it, sounds to me like it simply died.

 

[sc300]

Its 2 months old and Circuit City is out of business I have been waiting days for a response from Seagate.

 

[mobom]

Seagate drives are pieces of ****. I just received an external hard drive last week that did not even power on for more than 10 seconds. I am not buying seagate drives again nor am I shopping at the place where they passed it on to me.

 

[sc300]

Well not only do their drives suck but their customer service is just as bad. So far 4 emails and 4 calls and yet NOTHING.

 

[Homeboy2]

just bought a seagate 1.5 TB drive and it rocks!

 

[jitpublisher]

just bought a seagate 1.5 TB drive and it rocks!

Congrats on that, nice big fast drive..... if it runs more than 2 months I would consider you extremely fortunate.

 

[Homeboy2]

we'll see, but i think seagate has fixed the problem. if not, its back to the factory. they dont fix im out eighty bucks easy come easy go

 

[j46222]

I second the motion of Seagates are pieces of junk from china or where ever.
As for your problem. I would keep pounding on their support. If nothing else. Replace the cable.

 

[Homeboy2]

mine come from thailand. all the companies have had problems remember ibm?

 

[PiranhaPete]

If you have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 This may be your problem

Urgent Firmware Update Required For Some Seagate Hard Drive Models

Please refer to:http://www.ximeta.com/web/

If it is the problem I am pretty sure they will fix it for free.

Cheers

 

[sc300]

If you have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 This may be your problem

Urgent Firmware Update Required For Some Seagate Hard Drive Models

Please refer to:http://www.ximeta.com/web/

If it is the problem I am pretty sure they will fix it for free.

Cheers

It probably is a firmware issue but since the drive is not being recognized by any pc no matter what I do there is no way for me to update it

 

[PiranhaPete]

If it is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11, read the article fully. If your drive fits the criteria listed in the article you will not be able to fix it, it has to be returned to Seagate.
In the article you will find:
"If you have already experienced a problem and have a drive exhibiting this failure, please contact your appropriate Seagate representative for support in recovering your data - Seagate will be providing data recovery services at no charge to users impacted by this problem."

 

[sc300]

If it is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11, read the article fully. If your drive fits the criteria listed in the article you will not be able to fix it, it has to be returned to Seagate.
In the article you will find:
"If you have already experienced a problem and have a drive exhibiting this failure, please contact your appropriate Seagate representative for support in recovering your data - Seagate will be providing data recovery services at no charge to users impacted by this problem."

I understand what the article is saying, but it contradicts what the Seagate reps are telling me about the data recovery. Here is the ONLY email I have received from Seagate from about a weeks worth of emails and phone calls...........

"Thank you for sending your Seagate E-mail inquiry.

I apologize for the late reply. I understand you have a drive that has a possible firmware problem and is not accessible in the BIOS. If the drive qualifies for a firmware update as determined by our serial number checker then we provide a service to update the firmware on the drive if you cannot. It is not free data recovery. However the firmware update may be able to restore your drive. To see if you are eligible, please give our technical support line a call."


Now when I FINALLY I got through to someone at Seagate via the phone I was told the same thing, that they are not doing free recoveries because data lost is not their fault, it is the customers responsibility to backup their data. Which agree with, except for the fact that this is their error and I have not had the drive long enough to back it up. I have since emailed the above link to Seagate, so lets see what BS they try and pull now.

As I said before due to this experience I will NEVER buy another Seagate drive again. If their customer service was worth a damn I would consider purchasing their products again because every company has faulty items from time to time, but when customer service is this bad I can not bring myself to help support their company.

 

[PiranhaPete]

Well guys Seagate offer 5 years warranty. But before returning any Drive to Seagate check out this link: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=ATA_Troubleshooter&vgnextoid=90d04a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD.
If you still can't solve the problem and want to return the drive make sure that you follow their shipping requirements. They have replaced 2 of my drives including a Maxtor that Seagate took over. Customer Service isn't flash but at least they stand by their word.

 

[Homeboy2]

Hey jit, still rocking!

 

[Berryjiveuptown5]

Seriously, THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM WITH THE DRIVE. It is a problem with Windows. I'm having the same trouble getting mine to work in Vista, but it works (and has worked for almost a year now) like a dream in Ubuntu. Therefore, you can't really blame Seagate.

Reading up on SATA drives, you'll find that most drives are automatically recognized by the OS. All you have to do is plug it in and it shows up in the BIOS. However, Vista fails to recognize dozens of commonly used hds from several reputable manufacturers. What's worse is that I've found no successful way of adding to Vista's driver list, meaning what you see is what you get it. Look around and I'm sure you'll find people who have your drive working like a dream in XP. That is the case with mine, at least.

Also, consider downloading an Ubuntu Live CD. It only takes around an hour to download and mount the image and then you can run the os right off the cd. Then you can see if you see and save stuff to the drive. Willing to bet it works great with a stable linux distro.

 

[sc300]

Well Seagate knows it is an issue and they also know how to fix it therefore it is an issue with their drive. If it was something with Windows then Seagate would not honor it as warranty repair. It is a firmware issue that Seagate should have taken care of before releasing the drives, seeing how it does not work on my XP machine either, it is not just Vista. While it works on Linux you can not blame windows for Seagate not doing proper R&D, seeing how half the world uses Windows and only computer geeks use Linux, Seagate should have taken care of this issue before releasing anything

 

[Berryjiveuptown5]

I still say it's the firmware issue and not a problem with the harddrive. You say that Seagate knows how to fix the issue, and to be honest, I don't think they do. The way they seem to fix things is by removing the problems in their own forums. People started talking about this same problem in their forums and the moderators took the 19 page thread down to 3 overnight. All of the users with the problem are now posting here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128092&st=1140

Without question, Seagate has completely failed to offer a solution, offering no new drives, no free data retrieval, and never getting back to customers' service requests, particularly when they guarantee results within 24 hours.

That being said, you are an idiot to think that only computer geeks use Linux. Linux is a POWERFUL OS and an amazing resource, which is why I mentioned it in the first place. Also, the use of switchable opensource drivers means that somebody, somewhere has fixed your problem and can easily share the fix he developed with the rest of the people having trouble. Why do you think companies like Dell, HP, Sun, Novell, and IBM/Lenovo, and Red Hat all have their own commercial Linux Distributions? The NY Times reported last year there are over 10 million users of the Ubuntu distribution alone, and that number is rising ever since Dell started offering it preinstalled on their computers, Michael Dell being a sole Linux user.

I find it particularly interesting that you chose to voice your opinions about this IN A COMPUTER HARDWARE FORUM where...guess what: the people helping you just might be into computers...

 

[taheen]

got this sh** 1.5TB drive 3 months ago - now it's dead
but loking at your comments i just gonna dump it and go for another manufacturer

 

[Berryjiveuptown5]

Oh and btw, this is going to be a stupid answer, but it may fix someone's problems, so I'll go ahead and post.

Osx and Linux will both recognize and mount hd's that are disabled in the bios; WINDOWS DOES NOT.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE HARD DRIVE ENABLED/ACTIVE IN THE BIOS/BOOT OPTIONS!

 

[WanaFly]

After reading all the talk, I too have a 500GB drive, model # ST3500641AS-RK and it just died. System stops at the HP (Boot/Setup/System Recovery) blue screen. Tried usng the Seagate tool and it too locked up at the ICH5 test. BIOS does not recognize the drive. the drive appears to hum and spin up but never gets to the OS. Tech support recommends connecting as "slave" (need another drive), or to use a USB casing...else turn in and possible data recovery. I'll contiue to read...any other ideas. Ed

 

[mixerman_88]

Also have a Seagate 7200.7 st3160023a , same thing not found in BIOS, Went to there web site and it dosent even reconize the modle #.

Disk spins some what
makes a light sound while spinning
Never gets warm
Cannot fell any torq of the drive on bootup

 

[shovenose]

its called a failed hard drive. i hate seagte

 

[v3c7r0n]

Ok, well in an effort to quell the seagate bashing and help the poster out. Have you tried the drive in another machine? Also, you can usually find the Seagate firmware update online, a lot of people have posted it up because Seagate doesn't like giving it out.

Oh and as a note to you Seagate haters: I have 3 recert seagate 1tb 7200.11 series, 1 brand new 7200.11 series, and now 2 WD 1TB caviar black editions in software raid 5. Guess why I have 1 brand new Seagate and not 3 Caviars? One died within 2 months. And I had the recertified drives about 6 months longer. I've never had a problem with any of the 10 Seagate drives I've owned over the past 3 years, all run strong to this day. I will agree their customer service sucks.