Hi, I had a Seagate external HDD (FreeAgent)which my wife accidently dropped. The HDD now does not work and when plugged in makes a very soft beep beep beep sound. Based on my searching, it is suggested that this is a power problem, which kind of makes sense as l dont hear the HDD "boot up" like it used to. As far as data recovery, the software l used cannot find the drive which again makes sense if its a power/electronic prob. As such l am looking for an identical drive so l can try swapping out the PCB in the hopes that l can get the drive working to extract the data.
The HDD inside the Freeagent was a Seagate Barracuda ST3500820AS (8MB cahce), but all l can find to buy are ST3500320AS (32MB cache). Was wondering if anyone knew whether the different cache size means the electronics are different or whether cache is determined purely by firmware etc.

Any help/suggestions would help - l am willing to try anything to get my data back!

You need a professional data recovery to get your data. Do not switch it ON anymore if you want your data.

It is not a power problem but the spindle motor is seized up. DIY is not possible.

Bent and stuck spindle axis, maybe some headcrash occurred . Solutions : Live without data or pay a pro.

Dropped = spindle seized only (best scenario) + heads damaged (worse scenario) + surface scratch (worst scenario)

All three of them = Nightmare on Seagate Street

Agree with TerraNova, this is not PCB problem. Do not power on the drive anymore, surface scratch may make the drive unrecoverable

PS : oh I also forgot about misalignment and platters co-eccentricity problem

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Agree, your problem is 99.9999% certain NOT to be the PCB, no matter how much you hope it is.

NOT fixable by DIY, you need a pro for sure.

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Thank you all for your advise - it was very welcome.
Good to know - l wont waste my time trying to fix it.