Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Help needed with external hard drive

Oct 6, 2015 3:48AM PDT

Hi folks, I'm hoping you can give me some advice on a faulty Seagate 9SF2A4 -500. I have had it a few years.

When plugged in to a power source I can hear the fan but no light comes on. When plugged in to a USB port, the green light flashes, and I can hear the disk jerking around but not spinning. An External drive (F) icon appears where there would usually be an icon and name I gave the drive. The green bar progresses very slowly across the Computer window, but never gets to the end. The drive does not appear with the others in Disk Management. Opening the F drive icon causes windows explorer to freeze with an endless hourglass/ wheel. From this point there's nothing to do but shut down and disconnect.

I'm using Windows 8 but the same result comes when I use my other laptop on Windows 7.

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give. I would be open to throwing it away as long as I can recover the data somehow.

George

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Re: exernal disk
Oct 6, 2015 5:07AM PDT

Looks like it has gone south. Now find a data recovery company to get your data off. Might be expensive. Having a backup certainly would have been cheaper.

Kees

- Collapse -
Answer
Seagate didn't fare well in the news.
Oct 6, 2015 8:26AM PDT