Seagate BackupPlus 5TB - Windows 10 says invalid USB device

[Justric]

My Seagate 5TB external drive is no longer being recognized on my Windows 10 PC as a valid usb device. Prior to that it was working fine and I was accessing files on it with no problem. I removed the connection to the PC while moving it (the PC) to a different location, and after that my Windows 10 system says it is not a valid usb device. Apparently it sees it as a USB device, but it can't do anything with it.

I have tried connecting it to various different USB ports on my PC, using a different cable, as well as restarting the PC(with it connected,with it not connected) with no success. What's worse is that I have connected it to two other Windows 10/11 computers and neither of them can recognize it either. They both display the same error message about the last usb device I connected is not valid.

So it seems like it died for some unknown reason. I guess that can happen, but it seems suspicious to me, meaning it is not that old and has not been abused and has been working fine for well over a year. And then there is the fact that I have another Seagate 4TB (external) drive that is older that the 5TB, but has also been used almost daily since I got it, that is having the same issue - it is no longer recognized as a valid USB device on my PC as well as the other two. So both have failed within a day of each other.

So my question is - does anyone know of a way to get these external drives recognized again as valid USB drives? I cannot run any diagnostics on my PCs since none of them recognize them as drives. They both are spinning when I plug them in, and like I said, Windows seems to detect they are usb devices, just not valid ones. I tried to look into reinstalling/updating the USB drivers, but i just get the message the latest drivers are already installed. I can't figure out any more options to try.

I would really like to get the data from those drives, so I will look at a data recovery option if necessary, but I want to make sure there is no other way to revive these drives before I go that route.

Any advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

JustRic

[sn0wstorm]

Is the drive clicking or making any kind of noise?

Does it stay spinning when plugged in or eventually spin down?

You could try downloading something like DMDE or R-Studio to see if the drive can be seen and is addressable.

[Justric]

Thanks for info sn0wstorm, I will look up those utilities for future use. Since I could not gain access to that drive no matter what I tried, I eventually contacted Seagate and had them recover all the files.

[LoboX]

Thanks for info sn0wstorm, I will look up those utilities for future use. Since I could not gain access to that drive no matter what I tried, I eventually contacted Seagate and had them recover all the files.

Interesting so Seagate recover all your files. huh they usually never do.

[Justric]

Yep, got all my files restored. Turns out the drive was under warranty, so they sent me a new drive and restored all my files - at no charge. I was surprised as well, but very grateful. Never dealt with them prior to that, so in my book they are world class.