Hopefully I can fully describe my situation. Recently my HDD stop working correctly, one night I left the power plugged in but not connected to the usb. after that complete headache

Symptoms

-Drive will show with name of HDD and drive letter, when I "can access" the disk management it says it's Healthy, partioned, fat32, drive letter E:

-There have been times when I can dive deep enough into my HDD to see my files, so when I click on a video file windows explorer will stop responding, or it will say this video cannot be played you might need a codec etc. or it will say Location is not accessible, drive not ready.

I tried xcopy no help, I tried data recovery software the "good ones" no help. any program that tries to access my HDD gets BLOCKED! it will freeze up.

I'm at the point where my only option will be to pay a recovery company, which I don't want to shell the money out. I have some work files I want to get back, and I'm not going to lie their is a personal video or two from the Mrs. which is another reason I won't let a data recovery company touch it. I would consider my computer savvy, but I'm stuck any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!

From the description it's either a logical problem or a firmware problem but also heads or surface problem can mimic this kind of behaviour. Easy to solve for us with proper KH / gear, maybe for you it can be either a nightmare or the drive will be "killed" during attempts or in the process. Your data your choice.

Sounds like media issues to me.

Should be straighforward and relatively inexpensive from a decent pro with the right tools and skills.

Or if the data isn't important, clone the drive with a non-windows cloner (e.g. Dd_rescue or Media Tools Pro) then run recovery software ON THE CLONE.

Like BlackST says "your data your choice"

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If it is the firmware, can I buy the exact HDD down to the firmware and swap boards?

Sorry, no.

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I did a cmd chkdsk and it said the drive is RAW. could that lead to those symptoms?

The more you fiddle with the drive without a strategy and precise diagnose, the more you damage even if you don't see it... Good luck.

I suggest that you don't run CHKDSK in repair mode. CHKDSK will only exacerbate any serious media problem.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Check if DMDE can see the file system structure of your disk

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Sometimes you can see a damaged file system by booting from a Ubuntu Live CD.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... -computer/

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I have this same drive, and have seen similar symptoms others describe (drive goes BSY after a while). I am fairly sure now it is heat related - i.e. there is a faulty design on the PCB (seeing as how common it appears to be from searching the internet). Putting the disk in a bag in a freezer, or blowing it with a cold fan keeps it up for a longer period - enough to take a few gigs at a time off it. I don't think a firmware fix is going to help - seagate should replace this dog.