Gaming Seagate makes me wanna cry :(

[Hellow]

hey guys so a few months ago january-ish i bought a 500gb expansion portable drive made by seagate and a few weeks ago the port on the hdd was wobbly but was still working fine. then it would the hdd started going on and off while connected to my pc and i compensated by putting something big under the usb cord to keep it from wobbling. sorry if this is really confusing i dont really know how to explain my problem any better :S . but yeh starting today its been undetected by all of my computers and if it does the driver install fails. sometimes but very rarely the light on the hdd will turn on and when it does the computer wont recognize it. ive put in a report to seagate and theyve told me that all they will do is replace it, and if i wont my data recovered from my hdd i will have to pay alot of money which i refuse to pay because if ive bought a faulty item they should fix what theyve broken. i havnt done anything strenuous with my hdd it just sits on my desk. can someone please help me on fixing the hdd?

 

[purplesludge]

Maybe this can help.
http://www.wikihow.com/Recover-a-Dead-Hard-Disk

 

[Perseid]

The drive itself is probably fine. If you need the data more than the drive you can open up the enclosure, take the drive out and put it in a PC and you should be able to copy the data. This will void your warranty, though.

No HDD manufacturer will recover your data for you.

 

[Hellow]

The drive itself is probably fine. If you need the data more than the drive you can open up the enclosure, take the drive out and put it in a PC and you should be able to copy the data. This will void your warranty, though.

No HDD manufacturer will recover your data for you.

what do u mean by this? No HDD manufacturer will recover your data for you.? seagate will but at a price :S seagate is really bad with returns and stuff definatly my last seagate product im buying

even their website has issues like theres heaps of spelling mistakes thats not quite engRISH, its like a chinese person whos 80% fluent in english has written it like theyve left out words in sentences.

 

[Deleted User]

I'm sorry that you're having a problem, I myself am waiting on a service call for my laptop at the minute. It refused to boot up...That being said, I think you should just forget about recovering your data unless it's extremely important since the methods shown here would void any chance you have at getting a replacement under warranty. As far as describing your problem, I think you described it adequately, but something to remember is that a picture is worth a 1,000 words, especially if you don't know what to say. I agree that Seagate should take responsibility for your faulty drive, let's hope that your replacement is satisfactory.

 

[Originality]

To recover data, they need to use a specialized machine to open up the HDD and read the data off each platter, sector by sector. The machine and its running costs are very, very high - that is what Peseid means by "No HDD manufacturer will recover your data for you". It's just not economically viable for them to include that in any warranty.

If the enclosure really is dead (i.e. no way to access the drive), you can try opening it up and putting it in a computer directly to see if the drive and its data is still intact. If not, then there's little you can do aside from get a replacement. Unfortunately this is the fate that befell my external SeaGate 1TB drive, except that it's outside the warranty period so I can't claim.

In future, be very wary about getting external drives. Look for build quality and for how securely the cables plug in. 80% of all enclosures in the market are very shoddy and (based on what I've seen over the years) I predict will fail within 15 months. Also, if you can, avoid SeaGate. They used to be great but now WD and Samsung Spinpoint drives are much better (not to mention cheaper).

 

[Elritha]

The drive itself is probably fine. If you need the data more than the drive you can open up the enclosure, take the drive out and put it in a PC and you should be able to copy the data.

This. You should easily be able to open up the enclosure of your portable drive. Inside will be just a normal 2.5/3.5" hard drive when you can hook up internally to your pc.

QUOTE(Originality @ Aug 8 2010, 10:02 AM) Also, if you can, avoid SeaGate. They used to be great but now WD and Samsung Spinpoint drives are much better (not to mention cheaper).

I agree. Seagate used to make decent drives. Back in 2005 they purchased Maxtor, who in my opinion make sub-standard drives. From there they went downhill.

 

[Urza]

This is what happens when you don't backup your data.

Hopefully you learned your lesson.

 

[Am0s]

and to to it off seagate bought out maxtor too

I personally dont like seagate

 

[HBK]

Seagate is crap, you want something like Western Digital or Toshiba. I have a Toshiba 640 GB hard drive for my Wii and movies and it has never failed me.

 

[jalaneme]

They used to be great but now WD and Samsung Spinpoint drives are much better (not to mention cheaper).

in my personal experience i like freecom external hard drives, they are made out of solid metal so there is no chance of bits coming loose on that, also i have a freecom external 160gb that i brought in 2008 and it still works!

 

[Urza]

They used to be great but now WD and Samsung Spinpoint drives are much better (not to mention cheaper).

in my personal experience i like freecom external hard drives, they are made out of solid metal so there is no chance of bits coming loose on that, also i have a freecom external 160gb that i brought in 2008 and it still works!

The best solution is to simply purchase an internal drive, and pick your own enclosure. That way you know you're getting a quality piece of hardware (in addition to active cooling if you're so inclined, which the el-cheapo pre-built external drives rarely have).

 

[Perseid]

All HDD manufacturers have horror stories. I have had about 4-5 Seagate/Maxtor drives over the past 4 years and they all work perfectly. Every WD I seem to buy(also about 4-5), on the other hand, dies.