HDD Fell and not Reading

C

craigdoepie

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As my title states, my Seagate Freeagent GO fell and now it does not want to read at all. It picks up a USB device, but then gives a pop up on Windows that USB device not recognized. Broke open the cover and took out the HDD and try read the data via SATA cables, but still nothing. Does anybody have a way or mean to try and recover the data without paying for it. Terabyte worth of data, so don't want to start my collection over again. Any Ideas will help, because the HDD is already broken. Just want the data
 
Well you have just voided the warranty by opening it up.

Those units normally came with a 2 or 3 year warranty
 
it's forked! bang it some more until it works.
Had one like that and was the only way to get the data off of it :)
 
If the hdd is still picked up by the bios of the pc, you might have a change recovering something.
Use GetDataBack for NT.
 
You can send the HDD for data recovery, but there is no guarantee that they will recovery everything and it will cost you a few grand.
 
Buy the same model HDD and replace the board, (that's probably stukkend) with the working one.
If the data is worth more than a new hdd?
my 2c
 
FrancTheTank said:
Buy the same model HDD and replace the board, (that's probably stukkend) with the working one.
If the data is worth more than a new hdd?
my 2c
Click to expand...
If it fell, then the board is most likely in tact, but not the heads / mechanical parts.

Also, you might not even be able to swap out the same model HDD's board either. << I can't verify that, because I've just heard something in that line on this forum a few months ago.
 
1. Mount the drive in Linux and try and read it. If it works fine copy your data across.
2. If the above gives errors image the drive with GNU ddrescue to another drive or file.
3. Start recovering from new drive or image.
 
HTC_guy said:
HDD fell = 90% head crash
Click to expand...

+1

If lucky there might be no physical damage or only a small part is fooked. Sometimes (like what happened to me once) I just had data corruption when my WD fell over on the desk.

Either way it's hard to tell from here.
 
Shame
I took my laptop through the xray at the airport in Bloemfontein, while in sleepmode. It did'nt boot after that, again.
Managed to get someone to image copy cluster by cluster to just another hdd, and then restore to a new hdd, and there picked up the critical data. Yes, I did lose about 6 months work out of the 10 years. Since then I have learnt to keep a backup of the laptop data at home on a stationary external drive.

PS Oh yes, it took days and several re-read attempts as the data was, well, ... important...
I think the company was DDS in Bloemfontein and cost about R2000 all in all for a 40gb drive. Was given this by contact by GAME/HP
 
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DO NOT USE IT ANYMORE!!!!!! I strongly suspect that you have ****ed it up more, did you drop it while it was reading/writing? If you have anything critical on it, i strongly recommend that you leave it well alone and call for data recovery services, warranty dont cover dropped drives (user negligence). Considering that you have plugged it in, did the drive manage to spin up, make any dodgy sounds, etc, etc? If you have forgotten, dont plug it in again. Do you remember if your pc picked it up as a Seagate specific device or a generic drive?
 
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it is most likely gone for good.

I say that... because I have done the same thing, several times.

The days and days I spent in trying to recover the data was not worth it cos in the end I only recovered a few percent.

Try to rebuild the data from other sources. That is the only way.
 
What about a HDD that just went dead and it never fell? How do I recovery the data when the PC doesn't see the HDD or their is no sound coming from the HDD?
 
Odracir said:
What about a HDD that just went dead and it never fell? How do I recovery the data when the PC doesn't see the HDD or their is no sound coming from the HDD?
Click to expand...

You don't. You throw it in the trash or tear it open and pull the magnets out to use as very expensive fridge decorations.

Seriously, unless you want to fork out 6 grand to have CSSI repair and recover it for you... there is not much else to do.
 
Odracir said:
What about a HDD that just went dead and it never fell? How do I recovery the data when the PC doesn't see the HDD or their is no sound coming from the HDD?
Click to expand...

You can remove the TVS diodes on the logic board but it's better to replace them incase you get a spike. This is just something you can try but it might not be a fix.
 
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