Hello,
I am in the process of trying to recover any salvageable data from an external hard drive that I kept many, many photos and videos on. I am technically savvy however this is my first attempt at trying something like this on my own. After watching countless videos on you tube and various manufacturer web sites - I have found that it might be something I can do - AND I definitely can not afford the cost that the data recovery places charge to recover. So here goes:

Laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium

BlackArmor® NAS 110
Seagate 1TB External Hard Drive
Barracuda 7200.12
Firmware: CC38
Seagate 100536501 REV A PCB

So basically, the external hard drive was hooked into a router via Ethernet cable that was hooked into our cable modem that I could access on my home network and see on multiple laptops. I would see it as the "Z: Drive" - just what letter I assigned to it a couple of years ago. One night, I could not see the Z drive anymore on my laptop. SO I proceeded to reboot the External HD - the "System Status" blue light came on in the front but the light next to it labeled "Hard Drive Activity" would never come on - not blue, not orange...just nothing at all. I have tried resetting the HD by holding down the reset button on the bottom for 30-60 seconds. This will result in the System Status light blinking blue while I am holding it down but then it just goes back to a solid blue. All the while I can hear the hard drive spinning. I purchased a USB to SATA adapter so I could try hooking the HD directly into my laptop and bypassing the metal case that the HD was mounted to - just to see if it was the circuit board that is mounted at the bottom of the metal case or not. Still same thing - I cannot see the drive on my computer but the blue system status light stays lit up on the external HD and the drive is constantly making noise/spinning. I have tried hooking an Ethernet cable from the hard drive directly into the laptop but I still cannot access the HD.

Now it is doing something completely different - when I plug it into the wall the HD will power up...the blue status light comes on...the HD spins and makes noise and then about 30 seconds after that BOTH the System Status and HD Activity will go to a solid Orange for about a second...then the HD will restart itself and do the same cycle...Start up...go to blue system status light...spin the HD for 30 secs...BOTH the System Status and HD Activity will go to a solid Orange for about a second...then the unit will restart itself...and it just keeps repeating this pattern over and over and over. I have been playing/troubleshooting the external HD for about a week now and it JUST started doing this new restart thing as I type this. According to the manual if the system status light is orange this means "Server has a system error" and if the HD Activity light goes solid orange that means "Drive has failed". But the fact that it does not stay solid orange and it still spins confuses me.

The drive/platters spin so I know it is getting power.

So basically - the drive spins...it gets power...the system status light goes solid blue to indicate "server is ready for use" but the HD Activity light will not come on AT ALL.

Here is the other interesting thing: When I hooked the USB to SATA cable up to the hard drive - the laptop recognized that some type of hardware was plugged into the USB port and it even showed up in Device Manager under the Hard Drive section...but nowhere under my computer or windows explorer could I see or access the drive.

So...I need help and suggestions please!!!! I was thinking about replacing the circuit board 100536501 REV A that is mounted to the side of the hard drive...I cannot see anything visibly burnt but I don't really know what to look for on a circuit board that has failed....since the HD still gets power but I really don't know what to so. I have also heard that you have to get the same circuit board that was made within the 2 week time frame in order for everything to work. So if I understand that right - that means that I need to know the date that my circuit board was manufactured so I can try and hunt down one that was made right around the same time and possibly from the same location?

Please help.

Thanks!

Mo

What is the hard drive model? Either way, doesn't sound like a PCB problem to me -- the drive is spinning up, so it's probably good. More likely a firmware problem. Messing with the firmware without knowing what you are doing could end up making the drive unrecoverable. If the data is important, you should stop using it now. Are you sure you can't afford data recovery?

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$300 Data Recovery - Los Angeles Data Recovery

BlackArmor® NAS 110
Seagate 1TB External Hard Drive
Barracuda 7200.12

Le me put it this way - I would like to fix it myself. So you are sating because the drive is spinning that it doesn't sound like a PCB issue? Correct me if I am wrong but there are 2 parts of the HD that I am having issues with....The system status and the HD Activity...Since the HD spins but the HD Activity light does nothing and it does not show up in MyComputer...why would it not be the PCB? And if not the PCB then what else?

Thanks.

Best thing to do is stop powering the drive on and off and come up with a solid plan for what you want to do. Prepare for a lot of work and research if you will pursue a DIY solution.

Bcometa has valid points.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Ok - I get that I need to prepare for a lot of work...but so far I have not seen any answers to my original posting...or anything that even address's my original posting...

Read it again. Seems like answers to your questions.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

The drive's cyclic recalibration attempts suggest a hardware problem like head failure. Not a DIY proposition.

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Once powered on, does the drive spin down?

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Yes it does.

ok, definitely internal hardware failure, hopefully no media damage.

Best course of action for data recovery is a complete evaluation by a professional, a real one.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts