Hi.... I just joined the forum and I need your help in fixing my HDD problem.
I have one Seagate HDD: Barracuda 7200.8 300 GB (ST3300831A), which I use as my back-up external drive with an encloser. Suddenly, it failed and failed in a time when I was recovering my windows.... you can guess.... in what a situation 'm in!!

The HDD spins, but not recognized by the PC (USB drive). Or not even by the bios, when connected to a PC as a slave. I did the intial test to make sure that there is no power supply issues, no caple issues, no clicking noise. When I power it, the PCB gets quite how in a minute. Contacted Seagate and they can do the recovery but with a minimum of $700!!!!!! .... I can't spend that much!!
After reading few discussions about it, I think the issue is with PCB or firmware 3.0.1. There is no visual damage to the PCB.

Please suggest how to go from this point.

Thanks for any helpful suggestion.

First, you can't make it an easy problem with wishful thinking....

Second, when you power the drive, do you feel it spin up? I suspect you won't.

You have to do precise diagnostics of the problem.
After that you can proceed fixing that problem

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www.datarecoveryne.com

If the drive is detected in BIOS and recognized properly, it doesn't have to be expensive.

If it's not detected in BIOS, rest assured that Seagate's quote will be MUCH higher than $700 after diagnostics.

I doubt you'll find someone to do it for less than $1000, but good luck. You are welcome to contact us for a quote but it will be higher than what you mentioned already.

Be honest : how much can you spend? A number. P.S. The best we can do is helping you in DIAGNOSING THE PROBLEM more precisely, and maybe find someone near you who can help. It should not intended as hard discount for people that can't - or more often DON'T WANT TO- spend. BTW, a backup is always free and saves a lot of money.

already mentioned, not recognized by bios.
Is it spinning? Is there any tick tack or unusual sound? how much time does it take not to be recognized by bios-usual or extra time? depending on those answers.

_________________
__________
There is no substitute for education and experience
THANK YOU
SHAHI
shahi.mahbub@gmail.com

Hi,

Similar problem with my two month old seagate 7200.11 1Tb disk connected to Mac pro Bay 2 (data disk). It just suddenly stopped working and fails to be recognized by disk utility. Transferred drive to external enclosure with USB and still no luck - does not get recognized.

Is there any other diagnostics anyone can recommend. I could try buying a similar drive and swapping the PCB but would like to know if its the PCB in the first place. Note that the drive prowers up and spins fine with NO abnormal noises.

Not a DIY chanaws & babu2001c if you guys still love your data.
Send it to Pro, if no money then keep it till you have money.

It's not the pcb.

Unfortunately, this requires professional tools to solve.

Fortunately, pro r near u to solve the issue

_________________
__________
There is no substitute for education and experience
THANK YOU
SHAHI
shahi.mahbub@gmail.com

Thanks, unfortunately am unable to afford the £500+ they are asking for the restore. Thought I maybe able to use my Electronics Degree to some use Its just so frustrating, a brand new drive that has 5* reviews just suddenly vanishes. Its not that its an external drive that gets knocked about in transit. It was an internal drive in a stable well cooled mac pro enclosure .... If any have come up with such issue and feel there could be variety of issues - please do let me know.

If you can't afford the £500+, I think you do need to put your Electronics degree to use I'm surprised one with an Electronics degree would rely on a drive without a backup. All stuff fails, especially mechanical devices. Also, having a degree isn't going to give you nearly as much help as you may think. From your statements, I suspect you aren't even aware of what problems could occur, or which are most likely. Recovering the data with a no-rom-swap PCB exchange would just be wonderful. However, you can't change the laws of physics, or warp the space-time continuum and make the PCB be the actual problem just because that is within your abilities. If you really want to do it yourself, you can spend the cash on the tools, spend a lot of time learning (That means 90% READING, 8% experimenting, and 2% asking questions), and in only a few years you'll be able to answer most of your questions, and possibly even recover it yourself. You can even save some money on tools by reverse-engineering the drive. ATA commands are documented, and the rest can be figured out by a clever hacker.

Next time you need a Doctor, why not try asking him/her for advice on how you can fix the problem yourself?

I have a bit of a feeling as to what you may say next. I know you won't spend the money to have it done right. The data isn't THAT important. You can do two things. You can mess with it yourself, and not recover a single file, or you can read. Read a lot. That way, you at least will have a chance, or understand how far you're in over your head.

For diagnostics, MHDD is a good start.

Please check your firmware-code. If it's SD15 or SD25, forget it, you'll need a (good/up-to-dat) PC-3000, else try and find a compatible PCB, replace the ROM-chips and try that.

It's a 7200.8 and the post is a bit old...