Seagate 500GB ST305004FDA1E1-RK : Enclosure Gone Bad

[AlterEgo]

Hello,

I have been running Seagate FreeAgent 500GB USB ST305004FDA1E1-RK for almost 2.5 years now and it was working fine, until recently I noticed that it is not appearing in windows with all the defined partitions. Tried plugging and un-plugging (both Power and USB) several times but it just showed up randomly on its own and continued to work fine untill computer was turned off.

In short , now the drive was making a clicking noise, and was not visible under Windows 7/XP. Reading the instructions online I was able to open the enclosure, and tested the drive in another (Sarotech) enclosure. To my relief the harddisk is perfectly fine, it was only the seagate FreeAgent enclosure gone bad. In fact it based on a small PCB supplying power and SATA interface to the harddisk. I already did try changing the power adapters for any possible power related problems, but of no use, the drive still makes clicking sound in the original box.

So is there anyplace online where I can just buy that same empty enclosure, or maybe its main circuit board as an aftermarket replacement.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[ppumkin]

Clicking is not a good sign. It cannot calibrate any more. It can be caused by PCB but most likely some internal damage to heads.

[mips]

So is there anyplace online where I can just buy that same empty enclosure, or maybe its main circuit board as an aftermarket replacement.

Why do you want the same enclosure or pcb? Why not just buy a good generic enclosure online or from a pc shop?
If you really insist on the same enclosure/pcb then look at places like ebay etc.