External Hard drive failed!!

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R

Reg

Active member
Am wondering if anyone can help/give advice on how who best to get to recover the data on my seagate external hard drive. I have spoken to their Tech support and it has to go back (under warranty fortunately) theonly problem is their partner :- data recovery services(i think they are called) say they will want between £450-£900 to recover the data depending on what it is :censored: which for me is outrageous to say the least.
seagate say i won't validate the warranty using someone else as long as they are certified and i give them a copy of the receipt.
Does anybody know any reputable and reasonably priced data recovery people. I don't have anything on there that is a matter of life and death so to speak but holiday photos,music, college work etc.

to make it worse i didn't really get chance to put all the info back on to my new pc that i bought from pcs as i had a gfx card problem(which was resolved v quickly), as within a matter of days my extrnal drive failed.
*not blaiming pcs of course :tt2: because the drive still has power,makes the usual noise but flickers every now and then and can't be recognised on my pc or other peoples and have tried different usb cables etc :(
 
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Pete

Pete

Bright Spark
nightmare, that's a lot of money but if your college work is on there and you don't have any other backups....

i googled and it said they have a student discount :p no prices listed tho : http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk/?gclid=CPi8y8DwlKkCFUFC4QodxCLTcA

if the case is open-able then you might find that inside is a normal HDD and you could try to plug in via a sata to usb cable - however this will surely invalidate your warranty so not an option for you. and if the drive is failing rather then the connection(s) then you're still stuffed. plus i'm not sure if newer drives are still like this, you'd need to google the model number for more info.

again sympathies but i'm sure you're always going to have multiple backups from now on.... :¬) can you hear that, it's the sound of other users realising they haven't done a back up since before they can remember and frantically dusting off their portable hdd's hehehe
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
Pete

Pete

Bright Spark
a recovery program is only going to work if the drive will stay on, so i fear this won't work.
out of interest how long does the drive stay on ?
does it help if you hold the data cable in a certain way (might be a dodgy connection) but if you can hold or prop it in place to copy everything off....
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
I know what you mean Pete,but Hdd regenerator is not a recovery program as such,it attempts to repair an unreadable drive.
Worth a try,I thought.
 
R

Reg

Active member
thanks for the replies guys, will have a look at them
pete this was my back up(2 hdd fail within a few weeks is bad luck surely :-( ) and it college work i have completed but may use in the future as i finished my adult apprenticeship.
the hard drive stays on constantly but you get a flicker from the light. i have attached a link from seagate talking about this problem. its a freeagent pro
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=208371&NewLang=en&Hilite=hard+drive+light+flashes+randomly+drive+lights

reference hdd generator - a non readable drive does that include a drive that the pc can't detect?
i also still have my internal hdd here as a friend tried it on his pc and put it in a cradle to see if that worked, but with no joy. so will be getting that off him. the problem with that was it came up corrupted and when we plugged it in, it tries to start then stops and repeats that process over again.
 
R

Reg

Active member
update
hdd generator won't do anything it is telling me my cd doesn't support recording ?????????????
recuva didn't find anything...not surprising really as my pc can't detect the drive (I:) that i have plugged my external drive into.
downloaded seagate recovery demo and in that it says if it physically is not recognised(which it wasn't) it is normally a physical failure and you should not continue attempts to recover files etc as it may cause further damage! .....great!!
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
Sorry you had no joy Reg.Looks like it could be a fault between the usb port & the hard drive inside the case.
I've heard of people with the same fault breaking into the case & taking out the drive,which worked ok in an enclosure.
No use to you I know,as obviously it would void the warranty.
 
duvetdave

duvetdave

Active member
Chances are the power and/or USB circuitry in the enclosure is faulty. The only way would be to remove the drive from the enclosure and either fit as an internal drive or fit in a different enclosure.

But this would void your warranty. So the choice is yours take a chance and recover the data or lose it and return it under the warranty.

It just depends on how important this data is.:(
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
i know that this is a risky job, but how about buying an empty HDD slot, getting the disk out of the external HDD then putting it in there and putting it into a PC, all they are is hard drives with a sturdy case and portability
 
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