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Seagate messed up Please help!!!

Oct 4, 2011 3:02AM PDT

Hello,

I have a seagate 500 gb external harddrive and the other day it was on top of an entertainment center and it happened to fall. I have a lot of money invested on the harddrive and i was wondering if anyone knows how to fix it or can provide some assistance on the matter. Here is what is happening: When i plug it into a computer or an xbox it cannot be recognized; When i do plug it in it sounds like its trying to read but its a starting and stopping humming noise. It came unhooked from the xbox while i was playing and now i cant use it. Someone please help....

Discussion is locked

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If you check prior discussions
Oct 4, 2011 3:34AM PDT

We try the drive in a new enclosure first. It that fails you have the advice at the top of this forum.

I saw this model on sale for $39.99 last week so don't expect much support at these prices.
Bob

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????
Oct 4, 2011 4:51AM PDT

I'm not trying to recover anything i just want to get my drive to work again so i can use everything that is on it...

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The options are ...
Oct 4, 2011 10:18AM PDT

try the drive connected as an internal hard drive or get another external enclosure and try the drive there.

Is the data backed up somewhere ?

VAPCMD

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...
Oct 4, 2011 10:22AM PDT

the data is not backed up as this was my backup.... and how would i get it as an xternal enclosure

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It's in an external enclosure now.
Oct 4, 2011 10:34AM PDT
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No money,,,
Oct 4, 2011 10:50AM PDT

It sucks but i have no money to get an enclosure with... i was hoping for someone to tell me i could try to take it apart or try to use a program....

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WELP!!!!
Oct 4, 2011 1:22PM PDT

Soooo yah.. i got the bold idea to rip it apart so now just sits the internal harddrive just about taken apart to where the problem is but i dont have the torx to unscrew the rest of it... IF i get it fixed i will need a new enclosure.....

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Sorry to hear all the above.
Oct 4, 2011 1:30PM PDT

Enclosures are pretty cheap and if you are lucky that's what is broken. Given what you wrote so far I think you misunderstood that hardware issues are almost never resolved with software.
Bob

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....
Oct 4, 2011 1:57PM PDT

No i understand what is wrong.....It is not software.... it is the hardware inside the drive the enclosure wasnt broken but now it is.... it wasnt the problem to begin with.... its probably the spinning thing inside of the actual drive... so im will hopefully have it fixed by tomorrow. and if not i will have lost 3000 dollars worth of stuff Sad

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How could that be?
Oct 6, 2011 2:05AM PDT

No one I know would lose 3000 bucks of software due to this. All the purchases would have receipts of some sort, downloadable again and more.

And then you've gone and said that backup of 3,000 bucks was not worth protecting with a second 50 buck drive.

Something's not right about this.
Bob

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If you're looking at torx screws
Oct 4, 2011 6:43PM PDT

then you're looking at opening the drive itself. Don't go any further than removing it from the enclosure. You could be at a point where professional services would be required and the cost would be in the hundreds. If you take the hard drive apart to where you see the heads and bright shiny platters, you may have decreased the chance of success with or without professional help.

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Again...
Oct 5, 2011 3:24AM PDT

I don't have the MONEY to seek professional help. That's the reason i opened the enclosure. Now I'm trying to find the torx screwdriver so i can open the actual hard drive and see whats wrong myself.

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Then do it out of curiosity if you wish
Oct 5, 2011 4:21AM PDT

But you won't find the cause or be able to repair it. At this point, you'd be doing an autopsy with crude tools and without diagnostic equipment. These hard drives are assembled in clean rooms and are very sensitive to even the smallest foreign particles. There's a picture of a hard drive's read/write head at the following link.

http://www.acsdata.com/hard-drive-read-write-heads.htm

BTW, I've no idea who these people are and this is not an advertisement.

The business portion of this head is what might have become damaged when the device hit the ground. It may not be easy to see the damage even under magnification. If you already consider the drive to be a total loss, you can drill out the screws. Have fun.

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Ummmm
Oct 5, 2011 5:08AM PDT

I sorta have no other choice i mean unless i can bring it to best buy or radio shack or something but they can probably only do the same things im trying... and i don't have the money to put out for a full repair... soooo i screwed if this fails.

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(NT) If you open the drive, you are sealing that data's fate.
Oct 6, 2011 2:06AM PDT