Seagate Expansion 1TB External Hard Disk issue, please help me!

[Arun Kashyap]

My Seagate Expansion 1TB External Hard Disk is having problems. It fell from 1.5 ft. height and from that onwards, the computer is not detecting it and it also auto disconnects itself less than a minute after connecting it. Its a USB 3.0 External HDD. It was once detected and I tried to recover it but it got disconnected. Any solutions please? :(

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Get a Linux Live-CD (Ubuntu) and burn and boot off it with a cd/usb flash. See if Linux sees it.

Also, can you try it on a new computer?

[Arun Kashyap]

Well, I cannot try it on a new computer. I cannot try the Linux method now. I think it's some hardware problem. What do you say?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Why can't you use Linux?

[Arun Kashyap]

Well, difficult to get it here. I'll definitely try anyway. Any other solution?

[Kami-]

Well, difficult to get it here. I'll definitely try anyway. Any other solution?

Unless you fancy a lot of fancy trickery in attempting to fix it, I'd try extract your data and replace the drive.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Kami, he can't even access the drive.

Is it under warranty? If not, I would suggest opening up the external casing and take the drive out, use it as a slave drive and see if the data is still there. Most likely, it is a problem with the PVC board.

[Arun Kashyap]

What's a PVC board? Please explain. :)

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I meant PCB, sorry, it is the expressway between your hard drive and USB connectivity. Look up any external enclosure, they all have PCB boards, as hard drives Are SATA, not USB 2/3

[Arun Kashyap]

Thank you! :) Is it easy to fix the PCB without losing data?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Data is on your drive, not your PCB. I opened up my WD MyBook Essentials, took the drive out, and put it on my computer because the fan was too loud. It has a normal hard drive inside.

[Arun Kashyap]

I am thinking of sending my external HDD to Seagate. Will they fix it?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

If it is under warranty, yes. Call them up if so.

[Arun Kashyap]

Yes, it's under warranty. Is it safe to send them?

[Innuendo]

Keep in mind if you send your drive to Seagate they will send you back a refurbished blank drive. They will not recover your data and send it back to you.

[Arun Kashyap]

I just want them to fix the PCB. Will they erase my current data?

[Auditor]

Dude it's not worth in sending it to Seagate. First of all, I don't think physical damage might be covered under warranty. So I doubt it if they will replace it. I don't know if you have any sensitive or important data on your drive. If you do have then I it depends which is more important for you whether to recover your data or don't care about data but need your hard drive back. In any case, I think best bet would be to take hard drive out and if you got desktop then trying hooking up inside your computer enclosure.

[ozgeek]

If you want to recover data from a damaged drive, what you want is to send it to a data recovery company. Unfornately they are very expensive which stress the importance of regular backups.

Accidential damage is not covered in warrenty. You can try to send it to Seagate but remember they will just send you another one and without the data.

You can try to pull it apart. I have 5 of those seagate expansion drives you are describing and 2 of them were extracted from the black drive case and put into inside the computer tower as a normal hard drive.

[Arun Kashyap]

if I cannot send it to Seagate, how can I fix the PCB manually?

[YounGMessiah]

You cant fix the PCB manually

[Arun Kashyap]

I forgot to add this - After connecting the external HDD to the computer (the computer doesn't detect it), It spins, and within a minute, it stops spinning and is disconnected automatically from the computer. But I can see my device in the 'Hardware and Devices' section (when I connect it) of the Control Panel, not in "My Computer" and the device disappears from there when it auto disconnects. Is it related to PCB? Any idea?

[YounGMessiah]

Is your external hard drive physically damaged? If so where, possibly a pic.

You havent mentioned if you dropped it or something, or did this start mysteriously?

If you can while in your operating system, run a S.M.A.R.T. check on that drive.

I use the program Defraggler which has a SMART tab which shows nice information.

[Arun Kashyap]

Is your external hard drive physically damaged? If so where, possibly a pic.

You havent mentioned if you dropped it or something, or did this start mysteriously?

If you can while in your operating system, run a S.M.A.R.T. check on that drive.

I use the program Defraggler which has a SMART tab which shows nice information.

No, the HDD has not been damaged physically but yes, the problems started when it fell. The other method is okay, but the problem is that my HDD auto disconnects itself in less than a minute, which is very less time.

[YounGMessiah]

Should be enough time to open that program and take a screen shot of the SMART info

[Arun Kashyap]

The external HDD was not detected in Defraggler...