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  3. External Hard Drive Recovery

External Hard Drive Recovery

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  • K Offline
    K Offline
    Kevin Marois
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

    If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

    H P S L J 15 Replies Last reply
    0
    • K Kevin Marois

      I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

      If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

      H Offline
      H Offline
      honey the codewitch
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      I don't buy Seagates because that happens. Their drive controller circuitry just up and quits. Mine have come back periodically. Randomly. But no recovery tools will work on a drive with a dead controller.

      To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.

      K J 2 Replies Last reply
      0
      • H honey the codewitch

        I don't buy Seagates because that happens. Their drive controller circuitry just up and quits. Mine have come back periodically. Randomly. But no recovery tools will work on a drive with a dead controller.

        To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.

        K Offline
        K Offline
        Kevin Marois
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        Is there nothing I can do?

        If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

        H 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • K Kevin Marois

          I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

          If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

          P Offline
          P Offline
          Peter_in_2780
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Can you hear/feel it spin up and load when you power it on? If so you might have some luck pulling the drive itself out and putting it in a USB/SATA dock. I have a two-bay one and use it a lot flipping drives and their contents around.

          Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012

          K 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • K Kevin Marois

            Is there nothing I can do?

            If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

            H Offline
            H Offline
            honey the codewitch
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            You could send it to a data recovery outfit, but it won't be cheap. They'll take the drive apart in a clean environment and pull stuff right off the platters, or even simply replace the drive controller. I don't think there's anything *reliable* you can do yourself. I've had two do exactly what yours is doing. The only thing you might be able to do on your own is what I did. Leave it in your machine and pray. One day, when you boot, the little hamster in the thing will come back to life and the drive will enumerate. At that point copy everything you have. PSA: Seagate's commercial stuff is supposedly good. Their consumer gear is a dumpster fire in my experience. Multiple bad drives with your issue.

            To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.

            J 1 Reply Last reply
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            • P Peter_in_2780

              Can you hear/feel it spin up and load when you power it on? If so you might have some luck pulling the drive itself out and putting it in a USB/SATA dock. I have a two-bay one and use it a lot flipping drives and their contents around.

              Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012

              K Offline
              K Offline
              Kevin Marois
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              Yes, I think it's spinning up. It's already in an external case

              If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

              J 1 Reply Last reply
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              • K Kevin Marois

                I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

                If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                S Offline
                S Offline
                Southmountain
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                look at these tools, one of them may help you to back up the file from the hard drive...

                diligent hands rule....

                1 Reply Last reply
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                • K Kevin Marois

                  I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

                  If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                  L Offline
                  L Offline
                  Lost User
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  not that it matters too much , but it could help

                  my PC's are not longer seeing

                  1. Is it "PC" (single ? ) or "PC's" (multiple ?) 2. Linux or Windoze? 3. OK , it spins and does not smoke what does ANY software tool say ?

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • K Kevin Marois

                    I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

                    If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                    J Offline
                    J Offline
                    jhaga
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    Kevin Marois wrote:

                    drive that my PC's are not longer seeing

                    Try different USB ports, try with all USB cables you have, different computers and operating systems. Go to windows Disk Management and see if maybe you only need to assign a Drive Letter to the drive.

                    jhaga

                    1 Reply Last reply
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                    • K Kevin Marois

                      I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

                      If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                      T Offline
                      T Offline
                      theoldfool
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      Won't help if it is the controller, but I have managed to recover data by putting the drive in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.

                      >64 Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.

                      1 Reply Last reply
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                      • K Kevin Marois

                        I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

                        If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                        C Offline
                        C Offline
                        Cp Coder
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        Try running Diskpart from the Powershell. At the Diskpart prompt type list disk. Diskpart will see the disk and list it even if it has never been formatted or partitions created. If the disk is not shown in the list of disks recognized by Diskpart, I am afraid I don't believe you can recover it. Good luck!

                        Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • K Kevin Marois

                          I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

                          If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                          R Offline
                          R Offline
                          Ron Anders
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          If drive is a spinner: If its clicking, it's over If you can feel it spinning, there is hope Crack open the case to extract laptop sized drive and hook it up to sata cables somehow on another pc or sata to usb adapter to then see if you can see it. I drive is an SSD: Silly Wabbit, it's over.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • K Kevin Marois

                            I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

                            If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                            J Offline
                            J Offline
                            Jeremy Falcon
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            Is it a HDD with a mechanical failure? As in, do you hear the head attempt to move at all on the platter? If that's the cause, you'll need to _carefully_ transfer the plates to another drive first. If that's not the case and it's just a corrupted table maybe with a few bad sectors, most file recovery software can help with that. More importantly, I haven't used HDDs in years, but even back then Seagate is what you used when you don't care about reliability. If it's important, remote backups or a RAID. If it's not important, move on with life. :)

                            Jeremy Falcon

                            H 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • K Kevin Marois

                              I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

                              If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                              J Offline
                              J Offline
                              Jeremy Falcon
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              Oh, you probably know this, but if you do have to transfer the platters to another drive... keep them far, far, far away from magnets during the process. And don't let the oil on your fingers get on them.

                              Jeremy Falcon

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • K Kevin Marois

                                Yes, I think it's spinning up. It's already in an external case

                                If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                                J Offline
                                J Offline
                                Jeremy Falcon
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                Can you hear the head moving or is it just the platters spinning?

                                Jeremy Falcon

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • K Kevin Marois

                                  I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

                                  If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                                  L Offline
                                  L Offline
                                  Lost User
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  There should have been a backup. "Hope" isn't a viable long term strategy.

                                  Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

                                  T J 2 Replies Last reply
                                  0
                                  • L Lost User

                                    There should have been a backup. "Hope" isn't a viable long term strategy.

                                    Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

                                    T Offline
                                    T Offline
                                    theoldfool
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    "Hope" isn't a viable long term strategy.

                                    Rats!

                                    >64 Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • K Kevin Marois

                                      I have a Seagate 5gb drive that my PC's are not longer seeing. I'm hoping it's not lost. Is there any good tools out there for diagnosing & recovering drives?

                                      If it's not broken, fix it until it is. Everything makes sense in someone's mind. Ya can't fix stupid.

                                      D Offline
                                      D Offline
                                      dandy72
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      As others have said, if the drive isn't being seen at all by the host PC, it's unlikely any software will be able to offer much of a solution. A data recovery service might move its platters to a drive with an identical board. How valuable is that data to you? I'm not even going to mention backups at this time. I know the feeling, and it's not a good one.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • J Jeremy Falcon

                                        Is it a HDD with a mechanical failure? As in, do you hear the head attempt to move at all on the platter? If that's the cause, you'll need to _carefully_ transfer the plates to another drive first. If that's not the case and it's just a corrupted table maybe with a few bad sectors, most file recovery software can help with that. More importantly, I haven't used HDDs in years, but even back then Seagate is what you used when you don't care about reliability. If it's important, remote backups or a RAID. If it's not important, move on with life. :)

                                        Jeremy Falcon

                                        H Offline
                                        H Offline
                                        honey the codewitch
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        I almost guarantee it's a drive controller problem. Seagate drives do this to me too.

                                        To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.

                                        J 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • H honey the codewitch

                                          I don't buy Seagates because that happens. Their drive controller circuitry just up and quits. Mine have come back periodically. Randomly. But no recovery tools will work on a drive with a dead controller.

                                          To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.

                                          J Offline
                                          J Offline
                                          jmaida
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          When my Seagate recently failed to be seen by my PC, I pulled it out of computer attached to a SATA to USB cable, put on it top of a freeze pack from fridge and fired it up. It was heat problem with controller. I was able to pull all the data off to another external drive. Replaced it (grrr with a spare seagate drive copied data back and done. Yes, I hope I have better luck with my spare seagate (Barricuda). This is second time I have saved a drive using a freeze pack.

                                          "A little time, a little trouble, your better day" Badfinger

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