Hello,

I have a reasonably new ST3500320AS drive that is currently, well, dead.

Here's what happened.

At first, I'd be using windows Vista, and the drive would be present and correct and usable. Then it would randomly "disappear" from My Computer. This could be fixed by powering down the machine, unplugging the drive, plugging it back in, and rebooting.

The other day this happened and the drive would not come back.

I was directed to MHDD and told to scan the drive. Here's where the odd things are showing.

If I power the HDD up, it is recognised for a few seconds. After a few seconds, it shows as "busy" and "Drive not ready". However, in those few seconds, if I am quick and start a scan, the scan runs for an hour and a half no problem.

Anyway, I managed to start the scan and found there were 23 X's listed as bad blocks. I tried doing the remap and left it running overnight but after the second X it had stopped doing anything. I switched to the destructive mode instead and it completed ok. Now a scan shows no bad blocks.

BUT I still have the problem where the drive goes into a "busy" state after a few seconds of being powered on. Prior to this it shows in the BIOS, after this it causes the BIOS or Windows boot to hang (depending on where it gets up to I guess). Eventually it will time out and just not be visible.

So, any ideas what I can do from here? I need to get the files from this drive if at all possible. If it just managed to boot up once and stay active for an hour, I could get them off the drive.

Yes but it doesn't. If you're lucky enough, it's just a matter of luck. Most probably is a translator problem and there's no soultion at present except Seagate Recovery Services. Prepare to spend thousand $ on it. If the problem is head related, again, prepare to spend. THERE'S NO SOFTWARE SOLUTION SO DON'T ASK FOR IT. In any case if the drive is under warranty, it will be replaced. The drive, not the data.
You have some probability it is the enclosure or the USB adapter. Try the drive ALONE on another PC. IF this is the problem, you'll get your data. Otherwise....

P.S. they say to do regular backups. Drives are replaced for free under warranty. Drives, not data.