System Details:

• Operating System: Windows 10 Home (64-Bit), Build 18363

Hey guys and gals. New poster here.

I have a Seagate 4TB Backup Plus Desktop USB External HDD drive that stopped responding a few months ago and I'm finally getting around to having time to look at it. The drive has power and I can hear it spin up (though the indicator light on the drive doesn't light up). Here is a quick rundown of my observations:

Observations:

1. No drive icon is showing up at all in Windows Explorer
2. When I right-click on the USB icon in the System Tray on the right of the Taskbar I see "Eject USB"
3. In Disk Management I see Disk 1 listed as "Unallocated" with a value of 3.86 GB.
   - I know this is the correct disk because when I disconnect power from the drive, this unallocated disk 1 goes away.
   - When I right-click Disk 1, select "Initialize", and choose the GPT option, this error message pops up:
   
   
   Quote:
   Virtual Disk Manager
   
   Data error (cyclic redundancy check).
   
   
   
4. When I run Diskpart, it doesn't show the true size of my 4 TB hard drive like this Jamie Wagner tutorial says it should. Instead it shows it as 3.86 GB, just like Disk Management.
   
5. MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate 12 also sees the drive as a partition with capacity of 3.86 GB, BUT does not find any files on it. Similar results with Piriform's Recuva. The actual MiniTool error message is:
   
   
   Quote:
   Failed to find any file system information from the specified device.
   
   
   
6. I downloaded and used Seagate's own free diagnostic sofware SeaTools. Here are my results:
   
   Test: Result:
   ------------- --------
   Short DST: Pass
   Short Generic: Fail
   Long Generic: Fail
   
   - SeaTools has a "Fix All" option (fast or slow) and says its goal is to repair damaged and lost sectors, but I'm concerned because it ambiguously intimates that the process might make my data unrecoverable with this verbiage:
   
   
   Quote:
   Only Seagate or Maxtor drives may be repaired.
   
   Now is a good time to make sure that you have a current backup of your important data. This test has the ability to repair problem sectors that are difficult to read. For more information on this subject, see the Help file topic "Bad Sector Found." This test may take several hours to run and complete. You may abort the test at any time. After the test completes, at the Help menu, note the drive's serial number and view the test log file for details about any errors. If you select "Fix All," SeaTools will scann sequentially and repair as needed. SeaTools wil FAIL the drive if a repair is unsuccessful. If SeaTools repaired sectors, you can verify the status by running the Long Generic test again.
   
   Press 'F8' key to begin Fix All selection
   
   Seagate Technology LLC is not responsible for lost user data
   

Summary: TL;DR

So, I have an external hard drive that doesn't show up in Windows Explorer at all, but does show up in Disk Management, but with the wrong size and no data, even though I know there is lots of data on there! It's a 4 TB hard disk and I have a tremendous amount of data on there, I just don't remember what. And recovery software isn't seeing any data (but also isn't reporting the correct size). And I can't do the trick of converting the disk to GPT because I keep getting cyclic redundancy check error.

I watched many videos and based on my research, I think the issue is likely "bad sectors", but I'm wary about using SeaTools to fix it because maybe they are only going repair the sector without regard to keeping my data intact? I'm not so much concerned -- at this point -- about getting the hard drive usable as I am getting the data migrated off it.

Questions:

1. Is this combination of observations rare, or commonplace?
2. Is there anything else a 20-yr IT veteran who knows his way around computer hardware and regedit, etc, can DIY fix this issue?
3. If not, is there even anything Data Recovery specialists could do, or would that just be a waste of money?
4. If I were to use SeaTools' "Fix All" option, would that destroy my data?
5. What is the practical way that practitioners use to fix bad sectors on a somewhat-unreadable drive?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

KEYWORDS:

HDD, hard disk, hard drive, Seagate, Backup Plus, external drive, USB drive, 4TB, MBR to GPT, MiniTool Partition Wizard, Diskpart, SeaTools, Windows 10, Easeus, Recuva, Error, Data Error, Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC), Eject USB, Unallocated, wrong capacity, data recovery, Disk Management, Disk 1, lost sectors, unrecoverable.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Capacity of 3.86GB means the drive can't read anything from the platters and is displaying information based on the PCB.
This usually means that heads are gone unfortunately, or the drive is suffering from errors that won't let it read the Service Area. These drives are famous for such errors, so no surprise.

To answer your questions:

1. As said, these drives are prone to head damage, firmware errors and all sorts of goodies, so no it's not rare at all.
2. I'm afraid not. There are a couple of things you could try more, but please be aware that if your drive is suffering from mechanical damages (like bad heads), powering it up any longer can deem it unrecoverable. Having said that, and if you're willing to risk, you can power up the drive and listen to it carefully. If it's clicking and spins down after a while then 99% heads are gone. You could also find information about how to get terminal output from the drive (it's not difficult) and post it here. These drives have their terminal port locked, however they do spit some information upon power up. Again, I would advise against powering up the drive anymore, if you care about the data
3. Yes, a DR pro could be of assistance. No waste of money there and there are labs that follow a 'no data = no pay' policy, so you're good. I would suggest you contact Jon at https://www.datasaversllc.com/ and they'll be able to help you at very reasonable prices. They're in Atlanta so you're very close to them.
4. Most likely yes.
5. Bad sectors can't be fixed per se. Bad sectors means the surface of the drive has gone bad and a healthy drive will re-allocate this sector to another place, if that is possible. Software like HDD Regenerator or Spinrite that claim to fix bad sectors (all they do is insist on reading them and if not, reallocate them) have been known to put nail on the coffin of unstable drives, for obvious reasons: You don't go about hammering a dying drive, it will just die and take your data with it.

To sum it up:
If your data is valuable, don't power up the drive anymore and contact a professional.

Best!

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