Hello , I'm new in this forum but I have a terrible problem. I bought Seagate Free agent Pro 320 Gb /7200 rps 16 Mb Cache - external removable HDD, before 10 months,I think its still under warranty. Two days ago I had an accident,I pulled the power cord by mistake and the hard disk fell from the table on the ground while working - downloading and uploading some data and + I was watching a movie on the laptop. I picked it up and it still worked ,the movie went on ,and the downloading also. I immediately clicked My computer to see whats going on, the disk was there ,but only one folder was shown in the root directory and the others were just gone. I want to mention that the HDD had only about 20Gb free ,and the others were gbytes of hours of my work (I work in the video department) Clips ,photos, scenarios, movies and data that I have little or no backup. When I clicked on properties ,it showed that 20 gb are still free,so I suppose,the data is still there.I notice that inside of the hdd box there was a strange muffled sound like , not like scratching or clicking more like the disk is spining,the vibrations are felt, but not correctly, something omits the process. I turned the PC of, i disconnected everything, I left the disk to rest and to cool , I reconnected everything - the led flash of the HDD went on - it was working but the windows didn't recognize the disk (its working on usb port) like no disk is present.There was still that strange sound coming from inside. I repeated the process with no success. Please tell me is there a chance for the hdd to be repaired or at least somehow the data inside to be recovered, I'm desperate about it - there were 2 years of my work inside , although I know that the chances of saving a hdd that went through a smash while working are very low. Please help.

I'm sure there's a chance. It's best to turn it off, and leave it off. Messing with a drive rarely makes it better. An image should have been made while the drive somewhat worked.

Can you describe the sound further?

Contrary to your belief, chances are higher than you think.

So far, it still sounds like a logical corruption, but it may be succumbing to physical corruption.

Unfortunately, if the strange sound is what I think it is "beep beep...silence...beep beep...silence", then you got a really expensive problem involving platter transfer due to a seized motor. Your data is probably fine, but the platters may not be spinning up. In my lab, this would cost you about $900, including the cost of one donor drive and a suitable new drive.

If the drive suffered a head crash causing a scratch on the platter and the platters still spin, you are risking more damage by continuing to power on the drive. If there is no destructive physical damage, then logical recovery is appropriate. Logical recovery usually costs a lot less than the physical one does. I don't know if the drive inside your enclosure is one of the dreaded Seagate drives with plastic inserts, in which case your list of options is significantly reduced to outfits like Seagate Recovery Services.

As far as warranty is concerned, you can work with warranty-accredited labs. The problem is that their quote will be much higher. Just accept that the disk is lost for warranty purposes. Besides, it wouldn't be covered under Seagate's warranty as it fell. 320GB costs less than $100 these days anyway.

MHDD is one of the tools that can tell you what's really happening, but you need to extract the drive from its external enclosure. You'll probably need some Torx screwdrivers for this, but I don't remember how the Black/orange enclosure is secured. Do not attempt to open the actual drive, please.

My lab based in USA charges $200 for disk imaging, including any logical recovery, and extra fees of $150/hr for any physical recovery work. Others may be more competitive.

What value you place on 2 years of work is up to you...

when you find there is something wrong with your hard drive, i suggest that don't do anything to your hard drive

because you can not make sure what's the problem. so if the data are very important to you, it's better to send it to special data recovery company.

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For Wise Leo

Unfortunately, if the strange sound is what I think it is "beep beep...silence...beep beep...silence", then you got a really expensive problem involving platter transfer due to a seized motor. Your data is probably fine, but the platters may not be spinning up. In my lab, this would cost you about $900, including the cost of one donor drive and a suitable new drive.


I think that thats like beeping sounds coming from inside ,you're right, but they are muffled ,I suppose because of the sealing. I found a data recovery lab in the city I live, i already sent them a mail and I 'm going to take the disk there to be checked out for sure diagnose. I have never had problems like this with a hdd ,but obviously I it is necessary sometimes to visit a recovery service. Thanks for the advice and keep up the good work. Any other suggestions do you have is of a great help and thanx in advance. Greetings.