Seagate portable hard drive not being recognised and making beeping sound

just curious.. is there a way to remove the HDD from the external enclosure? Usually, you can remove the drive, plug it into a sata port and get the data off it then. Try googling the model number to find instructions on opening it up and removing the HDD.

be sure that opening the drive enclosure doesnt void warranty  

The symptoms sound like a power issue. It may be that the USB port is unable to provide enough current to spin up the drive. USB 2.0 ports are current limited to 500mA whereas USB 3.0 can provide 900mA. A typical 2.5" drive requires about 850mA during spin up.

If a USB 3.0 port is not available, then try a USB Y-cable. This will pick up power from two USB ports. Alternatively, try a powered USB hub.

Alternatively, it could be that the drive has a seized spindle motor or a stiction fault (heads stuck to platters). This often happens if the drive has been bumped or dropped. Stiction can sometimes be overcome with a little "percussive maintenance", but there are significant risks.

hello, i m facng the same problem. My seagate 2.5" usb3.0 freeagent Goflex 500GB portable hard disk makes a faint beeping sound and failed to operate. I just bought it two days ago. Please help. I bought this item on 24th September 2011.

I also have a seagate 500gb external hard drive and I am having the exact same issues. I need my hard drive! Does anyone have any ideas?

I also having the same problem. anyway i gave it to guys at enlitesolutions.com.au to have a look...

hi people, if this kind of symptom persists, go buy a new casing for the mobile hdd. it usually solves the problem, unless like the other commentor mentioned, the problem is with the hdd itself. fyi

Had this same issue. Took apart the hd casing, turned out the arm was stuck. Most likely from being dropped, it jammed up somehow. Was able to get the arm moving again but the hd rate itself runs a bit slow. Warranty is still covered so plan to get it swapped out. Hope this helped a little.

This thread may be useful:
http://forum.hddguru.com/samsung-m750xbb-not-spinning-t...

If the drive is spinning slowly, then this would suggest a seized spindle bearing. This is a common problem in recent Seagate models.

To be honest, the more I search for an answer to the problem for seagate hard-drives corrupting like this... The more it seems like this is quite a problem for seagate hard drives... I myself own like a 800 g sized portable hard drive which was working fine then suddenly I plugged it in my laptop and it starts making a beeping noise and the drive goes really warm, i got a message saying about software needed but I already had software installed, so I reckon there's maybe a virus that's trying ti attack seagate hard drives, maybe I'm wrong, I have not backed up my files cause to be perfectly honest why should I have to when I've bought this hard drive that's a bloody lot of money out my pocket and I cannot afford to be buying more as I am only a student, the work I produce has such as big memory size needed so it wouldn't be possible to even bring USBs into the equation. I honestly think this is ridiculous how these hard drives are just going bust, I've had really important work on there and I am lucky to have found a local computing company in which are trying there very best to help me out for a decent price, but they do warn me if they can't fix it it'll be sent off to get fixed by a further third party of some sort which could go up to £500! I don't have this kind if money being a student... My advice is if you can get someone to copy the work from the memory board (I guess it's the memory board?) for as cheap as they can to another device.