I recently bought a Seagate 1TB BackUp Plus External HD. I dropped it about 6" to the ground and it stopped working. Disk Manager does not recognize the drive when connected, neither does the disk spin. When I connect the hard drive I can hear a sound similar to an alarm (definitely not clicking) but fast beeping about 3 beeps per second and it stops after approx. 5-6 seconds. It seems to be coming from the center of the HDD around where the spindle is located, where the round warranty sticker is but it does not sound like it is a mechanical issue. Seagate sent me a healthy HD of the same model. I swapped the PCB boards but when I do neither of them work, nor get recognized by the computer, nor make any sounds. Any ideas/suggestions as to the reason/component that is failing. Can I swap the failing part from my current healthy drive? I had someone say that the motor might be stuck. Thanks a million in advance. I attached high quality pictures both drives and PCB boards.
Problem Drive:
S/N: S2ZPJ9CD372253
Model: ST1000LM024
HDD P/N: HN-M101MBB/AV1
REV. A
F/W: 2AR20002
DOM: 03/2013
Site: DGT
PCB:
WC REV 6
20130223
U3B 2J2K
Healthy Drive:
S/N: S2ZPJ9BD510762
Model: ST1000LM024
HDD P/N: HN-M101MBB/AV1
REV. A
F/W: 2AR20003
DOM: 05/2013
Site: DGT
PCB:
WC REV 6
20130407
M7A 4508
Al
P.S. I have high quality pictures of the PCB boards etc. Any way I can post them here?
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Seagate Troubleshooting Question! Motor Problem? Help!!!
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If the drive was spinning when you dropped it, it probably has irreparable damage. There are places that will take the drive apart and retrieve as much data as possible, but these are VERY expensive. I'm not sure why you replaced that circuit board, but in any event it sure doesn't sound good. Sorry.
But I have yet to find any tech to try to help those that don't do board level repair in a forum. Are you sure that you didn't have a backup copy or did you try to use another board?
I'll stop here and not post a search for said boards.
Bob
Hi R, Proffitt,
Thank you for your interest. I swapped the PBC board with that of a healthy drive (the specs which I listed in my original post). But that did not work, I am not sure if it could be the firmware? I am new to all of this but I am in a desperate situation where I can't loose the files I have and I do not have the money to send it to a professional I have two hard drives of the same model, I am just not sure of what component specifically is failing with my problem hard drive so I can swap it with the healthy one. Thank you again.
Al
After looking online (donordrives) I guess in order for me to test if its really the PCB board I'd have to keep the original 8-legged chip containing firmware. Would you be able to from the description of the symptoms of my hard drive be able to guess if it is likely to be PCB problem or more like to be another component not contained in PCB?
are specific to the drive it is installed in. Variations in PCB board depend on the time of manufacture, specification changes made to firmware by vendor, etc,.
For this PCB board change-out to work, you need the same PCB board type as the defective drive.
PCB:
WC REV 6
20130223 (Date of manufacture)
U3B 2J2K (Vendor internal lot and specification)
PCB:
WC REV 6
20130407
M7A 4508
Notice the difference? A little known fact about HDD's is one way to destroy drive access to a drive you do not want to have others get access with data still on it without wiping the drive first, is to remove and throw away the PCB board. Now, if the drive is found by another, then they must find the exact same replacement PCB board and install that to bring it back to life. PCB boards are not interchangeable as one might otherwise think.
Right I see the difference now... they are over a month apart... would you happen to know if swapping the PCB boards but keeping the 8-pin chit with firmware info work the same as getting another PCB of the same time period or as you say same board type? Thank you for the information very helpful I wasn't sure what those numbers meant before...
If you did swap the pcb's between the good and bad drives and either works, then that's pretty much tells the story. Your original bad drive is basically kaput, a hard h/w problem, just broken. Placing a good pcb on to it may have also burnt it out as it tried to correct the problem or it can't get far. Return the pcb back to their original drives and decide if you want some data retrieval service to have a go at it, but costly.
FYI- Use some Velcro strips or rubberized mats to place ext. drives on to reduce droppage. It's a good tip that can prevent simple falls.
tada -----Willy 
well when I swapped the PCB's actually neither HD worked... I read that Id have to keep the 8-pin chip which I did not do...
I did have the same problem with the same model and firmware disc.
I dropped it just 10 cms and it stopr working too.
But, we did further more to recover and had a lot of experience, even opened the hd case itself.
The problem of your disk is almost the same with mine.
Now, I should try to explain you the things about hd working in casual.
- In 2.5" hds, when hd is not working, the head stays in the parking area which is beside the disk.
- When you plug hd, the disks start spinning and heads move onto the disk like a turntable does.
- Everytime you unplug the disk, the head directly goes back to the parking area.
When you drop your hd spinning, the heads could not return back to the parking area (because of vibration I think) and they stay over the disks. As a result, they stop the disks to turn; disks are squeezed.
When we open the hd case (not sugessted!!!, it really needs clean room!!!), the scenery is the same and more, one of the heads was damaged too. It was even very difficult for us to move the heads back to the parking area.
So your PCB tries to start the motor, three-times, and stops triying for it understands unsuccessfullness.
There is nothing wrong with your PCB, your hd heads probably be damaged (needs to be replaced) and/or head must be move back to the parking area. This is really professional work. I spent three new hds as a donor, prepared special tools (head comb) for head replacement, mechanically we did the best. But have not succeeded yet. I found exactly the same donor, only differennce original FW:2AR20002 and donor FW:2AR20003. But, it can not find the tracks. The last thing to do is to clone the org. fw to donor or find exactly the same hd. Take its' head and use its' PCB.
Anyway, I wrote too much for this case because there were my PhD thesis in hd which had not been backed up for 6 month ago. The things are very new for me; searched, read, watch and tried a lot. I trusted Segate brand, I bought its product, but when I opened inside, there is almost nothing to absorb vibration. I understood Segate external hds are very good looking but un-safe. I wrote to Segate DataRecovery service, they ofered me 1400-2300 eurs for the recovery. Instead, I advise you to buy SiliconPower Armor A30 or A80. They also use Segate disks inside but they did very good job to protect the disks against vibration (drop), water, etc.
Segate external hds are very good looking ones but actuallyw
Hi,
In my experience this problem was very easy to fix. (Same disc with the same problem.)
I took the disc and opened it, I put the head in the parking area manually, then I closed the disc (all the movements carefully done).
With a lot of confidence I plugged the disc to the computer....and it worked! the first thing I did was to back up the most important files.
For me, to dismantle this disc was "all or nothing".
(Sorry my bad english but is not my native language) I hope you can fix your HDD
I had a Seagate Backup Plus Portable 1TB fail with these exact same symptoms, except it was never dropped or surged or anything. It would no longer be recognized by any computers, the little white power light kept blinking, and it made a faint fast beeping sound exactly like this: https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=B7C03201F06C88EC&id=B7C03201F06C88EC!3267&authkey=!AB6dI7xs4ee30uI&v=3
This is on a Seagate external SRDOSPO or SRDOSP0/SRDOSP1 STBU1000105. Once I got the case open I saw that it is just a Samsung laptop HD in there with barely ANY shock absorption and no thermal management. The drive inside is ST1000LM024. Same problem continued regardless of hooking it up to a better powered USB power source, or hooking it up directly into a laptop as a 2nd drive.
I found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNJqTPutrJ4 and it was on a very similar drive with very similar symptoms. Carefully opened up the case (in non-cleanroom conditions) (be sure you find the one screw that is hidden under the label) and found that indeed the scan head was not in the parked position. Followed the exact procedure shown in the video and SNAP it went right back to parked position. Closed it back up carefully and plugged it in... and it worked!
Got the data off quickly. Won't be using that drive any more.
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