Dropped portable hard drive

N

N1sh

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My Seagate Free Agent Go 320 gig just slipped out from the case and fell about a meter, hitting the edge of a desk while falling to the carpeted floor.

There was a considerible amount of shock involved so just want to find out if there are any tests/scans to see wheter or not it has been damaged.

It starts up and can access files as normal. Just bit paranoid about putting any essential data on it.

Thanx in advance
 
If you've got spinrite I'd set that on it and see what it says.
 
I'd back it up in any case, the chances are good that its life span have been shortened. it will work for a while and then somewhere along the way dies.
 
Will try spinrite and see what happens. I did the seagate test that came with the drive, although it gave no errors im still not convinced.
 
Backup all the data if you can, then do a full scandisk using SeaTools, then delete the partition, create a new one (do a full format) then do another full can using SeaTools, then copy as much data onto the drive as possible (what you should aim to do here is put the drive under pressure!)

Then once that is complete, delete everything and copy everything onto it again and then once that is done, leave it on for a few days.

After that... if it hasn't died or something, it should be ok.

If you want to be sly'er... take the drive back to Storgate or Ingram Micro and say the drive is faulty, it has data errors etc and just turns off sometimes.

Make up whatever story you want, say you want the drive swopped out - try not to mention anything about being dropped and if they say something about dropped, just act completely aloof :)

:D

PS: What I mentioned above (about the testing, copying, etc) is what I'd do if I were you.
 
gdiza said:
Backup all the data if you can, then do a full scandisk using SeaTools, then delete the partition, create a new one (do a full format) then do another full can using SeaTools, then copy as much data onto the drive as possible (what you should aim to do here is put the drive under pressure!)

Then once that is complete, delete everything and copy everything onto it again and then once that is done, leave it on for a few days.

After that... if it hasn't died or something, it should be ok.

If you want to be sly'er... take the drive back to Storgate or Ingram Micro and say the drive is faulty, it has data errors etc and just turns off sometimes.

Make up whatever story you want, say you want the drive swopped out - try not to mention anything about being dropped and if they say something about dropped, just act completely aloof :)

:D

PS: What I mentioned above (about the testing, copying, etc) is what I'd do if I were you.
Click to expand...

Wouldnt mind doing that but got it as a gift from Australia :sick:
 
If you want to be sly'er... take the drive back to Storgate or Ingram Micro and say the drive is faulty, it has data errors etc and just turns off sometimes.
Click to expand...

Don't lie.. They tend to bite you in the ass in some way or another.
 
All the seatools tests went fine, Just gonna fill it up and see if there are any problems with the data.
 
Should be ok. The casing & carpet would have cushioned some of the shock. If the drive was exposed to shock will operating it's a different story. I have dropped 3.5" drives before and they survived.
 
Moral of the story?

Put your external HDD flat down and in the middle of the table where it won't be pushed to the edge easily. ;)

Or just put it in a drawer :D
 
Seems to be fine filled it up a few times and ran a few tests. Quite convinced its fine. Funny thing is that it slipped through its protective cover.
 
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