0

A little under 4 years ago I bought a Seagate Backup Plus Portable 5 TB external hard drive. It's worked fine for years, but recently it started having problems - it would disconnect and then immediately reconnect randomly. It would vanish from Windows and then a second later Windows would discover it again and present it as a newly connected drive. Being the colossal moron that I am, I didn't do anything about it, like backing up my data. I was busy and I didn't have the disk space.

Now I found out the disk is basically dead. I have tried 3 different cables, 2 computers, at least 5 different USB ports total. The disk doesn't show up in Windows Explorer, it doesn't show up in Disk Management, it doesn't show up in Device Manager. The little light on the side of the disk doesn't light up. The only indication that there might be something alive in there is that I can hear the disk humming when I put it against my ear as well as a slight vibration when I put my hand on it.

Now I know there are companies that specialize in recovering data from dead hard drives. However I really want to avoid doing that, as there's some pretty sensitive data on that disk. I may have to in the end, but before that I would like to ask, is there anything else I can do?

Improve this question
3
  • 4
    It looks like a standard (possibly thick) 2.5" disk inside, so pull it out, connect it to a computer, and possibly use ddrescue to make an image if you have concerns about the disk's integrity. From what you've said, I'd wager (hope) that the SATA to USB adapter is the issue here.
    – Attie
    Commented Jan 24 at 23:00
  • yeah, I figured that might be the case. There doesn't seem to be any apparent way to dismantle the casing, no screws and such. I watched a YouTube video on the topic, looks like I'll have to jam something thin in the seams and pry it open. If the problem really is in the SATA/USB adapter like you suggested I'll be thanking all the stars in the night sky.
    – Shaggydog
    Commented Jan 24 at 23:13
  • It may not be the USB adapter circuitry, but having it directly connected to SATA may make mounting it more stable, so you can back it up. never trust that drive again. when companies design external disks they put the cheapest HDDs they can find in it. you are probably lucky it lasted 5 years.
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Jan 24 at 23:39

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .