what likely the cause of these symptoms on a Seagate Extern?

[srj19]

Hi,

Wondering if someone can offer their expert advice on what the likely issue is with a 500GB Seagate Freeagent Go drive that's no longer being recognized. When first plugged in, the lights on top light up for a moment then go off, it spins for a while but no real loud clicking or anything like I've heard watching video of other problem drives. After spining about 30 seconds it stops and no longer spins.

Right before this, the drive did fall a short distance, probably a foot or less. I don't believe it was writing or anything at the time just pluged in and when I picked up the laptop it came with me and then fell back to the table.

Any hope that this is recoverable for a begininer or for a reasonable price for a repair house?

Thanks for all help,
Scott

[HDD Spaz]

If it's spining down you probably have serious mechanical problem. Don't power it again and seek pro help.

[hddguy]

the drive did fall a short distance, probably a foot or less.

This is all it takes.

[Alexii]

In this sittuation i would take advantage of the free diagnostic most DR shops do. Ur drive needs to be opened. And yes, dont power it up anymore. It would be unfortunte if ur heads are stuck on the surface of the platters in the parking zone and gradualy shave em...

[msurgeon]

Any hope that this is recoverable for a begininer or for a reasonable price for a repair house?

Scott

I can guarantee you will not be happy with price quotes on this one. Beginner shouldn't even dare to begin to think about repairing this.

[mattbrad2]

Most of the external drive problems I've received are the fault of the USB controller. I'd eliminate that as a problem first if you feel comfortable enough to disassemble that housing to get to the drive itself. Don't go breaking apart plastic or anything. Those things can be very tricky to get into.

[srj19]

Well a USB connection issue sounds better than the other possibilities. Could be plausible since the drive was connected to the machine and jerked by the cord when I'd forgoten and picked up the laptop.

Any recomendations on learning about this to reduce the chances of damaging something out of ignorance?

Also, what are the thought on the most dependable externals out there to survive these kinds of usage accidents?

Scott

[fzabkar]

Well a USB connection issue sounds better than the other possibilities. Could be plausible since the drive was connected to the machine and jerked by the cord when I'd forgoten and picked up the laptop.

Any recomendations on learning about this to reduce the chances of damaging something out of ignorance?

Also, what are the thought on the most dependable externals out there to survive these kinds of usage accidents?

Scott

FYI, many people are complaining of poor USB connections on WD externals.

I would suggest that you spend a little extra money and buy a separate enclosure, preferably with heatsinking and fan, with as many interfaces as possible, inclusing USB, Firewire, and eSATA. Then you can choose any retail drive. These will have a 3 or 5 year warranty, as opposed to the 1 or 2 year warranty of the external package. Furthermore, if you ever need to remove the drive from the enclosure, you will not risk voiding your warranty.

I would avoid port powered drives, such as your Freeagent Go.

[srj19]

Thanks for the tips and help.

Can anyone recommend a company or individual around Minnesota who does data recovery or a national company?

Scott

[Alexii]

Minesota has a strong Ontrack presence i belive. They are the big boys of the industry. And i do belive they provide ppl with free diagnostics.

[srj19]

Ok now for the possibly foolish question, for the people on this forum who are able to recover data themselves: How did you get to that level? Did you attend a seminar/bootcamp, trial and error or is this your employment?

I'm basically seeing if I should invest my time in learning this skill, and if I invest some time could I recover this myself. It would seem that part of it is special tools and enviornment (though I've seen video of people using all manner of homeade tools and home made clean boxes) and the other part is skill and experience (and maybe tolerance and patience)

Scott