LP ST32000542AS 2TB - gone!

[traycerb]

Have a 2TB Seagate LP (low-power) ST32000542AS drive as my storage drive on a Win7 machine (Kingston SSD was primary), when Windows began reporting the HDD was missing. Didn't show up in list of drives in Explorer. Rebooted, drive was back for a few hours then it happened again, and this time was permanent. Never heard any cicking or other noises.

Tried in another computer and it sees the drive but says it needs a re-format (which I didn't do, of course). The original computer also now sees it as needing a re-format. It does show up in BIOS. I (stupidly, in retrospect) ran Seagate's diagnostic utility on it, and it passed the S.M.A.R.T. diagnostic and another quick check.

Any ideas how I should proceed? Is this mechanical? What are my odds using recovery with software, or should I move to professional?

If it's worth trying myself, are there any recommendations re: software and how to proceed? From my reading of the forums, I should try to use the HDD Raw Copy Tool, then perform recovery on the copied image using recovery software. Software I saw come up most commony was: R-studio, GetDataBack, Piriform Recuva. Any thoughts on these?

Final thoughts: I always planned on making a NAS/backup server, but kept putting it off since I wanted to do it right. As always, "done is better than perfect", and also, paraphrasing Aldous Huxley, man needs many a swift kick in the pants before learning a lesson. Thanks for any help.

[traycerb]

Need a little guidance. Went to try HDD Raw Copy to clone (seemed like the most conservative thing to do, short of shipping off to a professional) and at the first screen ("PLEASE SELECT SOURCE") it under-reports the disk capacity. It says LBA 1,953,569,134 for a reported capacity of 1000.22 GB. The drive is, of course, 2TB. Should I proceed? Does this provide any insights as to what the problem is?

[labtech]

No recovery software will work. Firmware seems to be the culprit.
Careful, these are tricky and bricking is easy.

[traycerb]

labtech, thanks for the reply. did some research and as you suggested, there is indeed a firmware issue with these drives, in which the CC34 firmware needs to updated to CC35 (mentioned by many on the review page at Newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148413, with procedure detailed here: http://niallbest.com/seagate-2tb-st32000542as-cc35-firmware-upgrade/, and the actual firmware on seagate's site http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/213915en?language=en_US).

Too bad I found about this just now, as RawCopy shows I'm running CC34. Is it too late to upgrade the firmware at this point?

I assume so, so can someone recommend a reputable data recovery company in los angeles/southern california area (or one in the US worth shipping a drive to) which would be well and capable of handling this problem? What are my odds of recovery? Thanks again.

[labtech]

Do not update the firmware in that manner ever, on any drive.

Firmware update from manufacturers are made available to consumers to prevent failures. So, the fw update can ONLY be applied while the drive is in working condition. Once the drive fails, this is NOT a repair solution.

Use the search function for "recommendations" is one way... very common request

[traycerb]

thanks for your (stern) counsel. I'm going to try PM'ing a member (thatdellguy), but will need 10 posts. So please ignore the following posts as I pad my post count (with some penance thrown in).

[traycerb]

I. WILL.

[traycerb]

ALWAYS.

[traycerb]

PERFORM.

[traycerb]

DAILY. BACKUPS.

[traycerb]

OF. MY.

[traycerb]

DATA!!!

[laptokowiec]

1. Run DMDE
2. Select Drive
3. Disk Parameters

Whats in BPS ?
512 ?