Running Windows 10 pro, went to access my HDD and it was not there, it worked perfectly yesterday, so I checked the computer management and it was recognised as Disk 6, not initialised, and unallocated. Attempting to initialise brought up a data error (cyclic redundancy check). So it appears to be toast. I can hear it winding up when I turn it on, but that is it. This drive has a load of data on it, and I would really be in a fix if I lose it. The drive is a 2TB Seagate Expansion Desktop drive.
Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

Your drive is failing - if the data is important take it to a DR professional, if you proceed with DIY you are risking further damage.

IF that is a risk you are happy to take before doing anything more you will need to clone the drive onto a good drive or into an image file. You can use something like hddsuperclone once you have a clone you can then move to logical recovery of your data from the clone.

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The question is how do you clone a drive that is not showing up?

One thing I forgot to add, the Drive is a 2TB, but is showing up as 3.9TB in computer management. This is very strange.

That looks like 3.86GB not 3.86TB.

Which could be the default values if the drive can not read the SA. What does the computers bios say about the drive? I assume you have it connected directly to the motherboard for testing - if not start there.

Has the drive been making any odd noises, clicking or did this happen after a power event. What's the model number of the drive?

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The drive has been very quiet, totally normal. Yes you are correct GB not TB, from memory that was the amount of space left on it prior to its demise.
Not sure what you mean by connected to the motherboard, it is not via a hub, but straight into the computer USB 3 port. Today I thought what the hell so I removed the drive from the case and unplugged the interface card and re inserted a sata adapter, plugged back into the computer and still not recognised, but computer management found the drive as disk 7 removable M drive with no media on it..as per capture.

Just another shot showing in Windows explorer it is now recognised as M drive but nothing can be done with it as windows cannot access the drive. If I remove the sata cable and reconnect the original interface I get a totally different result from within Computer management and it does not show up at all in Windows Explorer. It takes forever to come up in Management.

You need to connect the drive to motherboard not via USB, USB can interfere with things. Once connected to the motherboard via sata check your computer bios - does it see the drive and does it report the correct size.

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That 3.86gb is the default “fake” capacity shown by a failed Seagate F3 drive, just picked up from the PCB.

The drive cannot read from the SA (Service Area) where the firmware is situated, so there’s most likely some physical issues.

There’s absolutely nothing you can do DIY on this, requires a pro. Sorry,

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Off the top of your head what's the current draw of a 3.5" spinning up - ok on just USB 3 with no external psu?

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Sometimes connector corrosion making this issue. Try clean PCB to HSA connector. (Rarely bad PCB)
İf nothing change then mostly this is head issue or firmware corruption.
I guess this is Head issue

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Drive firmware is buggered, the drive will not work in its current state. I had a drive like that, I had to rebuild something, translator or bad sector list. But this wiped the drive clean. I suggest you get a data recovery company to take a look (Not a computer repair shop). I don't think your heads are damaged. More people might help.

A 3.5" HDD requires 12V and 5V power. USB is 5V only.

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Anything in a USB to IDE adapter to make the 12v ? (Looking at the OP's picture). Would the 5v Power the board enough to give the defaults from the ROM without reading from the SA? As you know my magic smoke knowledge isn't to good

As per my second post I do agree with Sean's diagnosis ,but I'd prefer a check directly on the motherboard, just in case.

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There is no voltage booster. It wouldn't make any sense anyway, as the power output of a USB 3.0 port is only 900mA at 5V. That's 4.5W.

I don't believe the firmware will come alive if the 12V rail is missing, but that's something for others to test.

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(SATA not IDE, not that it matters - I've got IDE on the brain at the moment as I'm processing some old drives. )

Thanks for the clarification, google tells me ~8.4w for a 3.5".

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A 3.5" HDD typically draws 1.5A from 12V at spin up. That's 18W.

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WD10EZEX
0.68A @ 5v / 0.56A @ 12v ~10.12

Average vs Peak ?

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https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/product/internal-drives/wd-blue-hdd/data-sheet-wd-blue-pc-hard-drives-2879-771436.pdf


That's 30W peak power at spin-up from the 12V rail alone.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.