4tb Seagate Expansion Drive (SRD00F2) not spinning up any longer.

[Easyjet]

Hey guys, first time poster here. I've been building computers since I was six, and consider myself rather tech savvy, but I'm looking for a second or third opinion on what I should do here. My 4tb external hard drive listed above seems to have possibly died on me while unplugging it from it's power source yesterday. I unplugged it via USB first while ejecting it through Windows, then unplugged the power source to bring it upstairs to help my roommate transfer some storage, however it just doesn't seem to want to spin up now, I'm not sure why. The adapter has a high-frequency sound when I plug it into an outlet, which I'm not sure is a sign of it working or not. It's no longer under warranty, and I'm wondering what you guys think I should do. Should I wait until I get paid next week, order a new AC outlet and troubleshoot that way? Or should I take it out of it's enclosure and try popping it into my PC?

 

[popatim]

You should wait until you get paid.
The drive probably wont work right in your pc due to the special formatting thats often done to get these to work/compatible on older systems.

In the mean time, hit up a cheap tools place, like harbor frieght, and grab a $5 digital voltmeter and you can test your ac adapter yourself.

 

[Easyjet]

You should wait until you get paid.
The drive probably wont work right in your pc due to the special formatting thats often done to get these to work/compatible on older systems.

In the mean time, hit up a cheap tools place, like harbor frieght, and grab a $5 digital voltmeter and you can test your ac adapter yourself.

I appreciate the reply! If indeed the drive is no longer capable of getting power, which is my fear, what should my next steps be to recover my data? I've got a fair amount of stuff on here - 10 year's worth of stuff in fact - that I really don't want to lose.

 

[popatim]

No offense, but if the data is that important then why isn't it already backed up? For 10yrs you have been just 1 accident away from losing it all... You are very lucky or take good care of your stuff

I would think the ac adapter is the culprit, squealing usually isn't a good sign, but the voltmeter is a good investment regardless.

If its the drive thats squealing then thats a bad sign, a very bad sign. It usually means the head crashed onto the platters and is destroyed and yo will need to send the drive out to a recovery center where they can rebuild the drive enough to recover the data. You can assume some data will be lost in that case because where ever the head is dragging (causing the squeal) is where the platter is now damaged.

Whats the exact model# of the drive? From that we can see if its one of those specially formatted drives and what type of drive it is (pure usb or if its really a sata drive inside)

 

[Easyjet]

No offense, but if the data is that important then why isn't it already backed up? For 10yrs you have been just 1 accident away from losing it all... You are very lucky or take good care of your stuff

I would think the ac adapter is the culprit, squealing usually isn't a good sign, but the voltmeter is a good investment regardless.

If its the drive thats squealing then thats a bad sign, a very bad sign. It usually means the head crashed onto the platters and is destroyed and yo will need to send the drive out to a recovery center where they can rebuild the drive enough to recover the data. You can assume some data will be lost in that case because where ever the head is dragging (causing the squeal) is where the platter is now damaged.

Whats the exact model# of the drive? From that we can see if its one of those specially formatted drives and what type of drive it is (pure usb or if its really a sata drive inside)

It's an SRD00F2 external USB 3.0, I picked it up a little more than a year ago. From what I've been able to find online, it definitely is just a regular SATA drive inside, and there are guides to disassembling it online. I've had drives that've squealed before like my old Hitcahi Deskstar, but the drive itself doesn't make any noise whatsoever when it's plugged in now; it just doesn't appear to be getting any power. I know it would've been better to have a backup for my backup, but unfortunately I didn't have the funds and rather depended on this drive. I didn't have any issues with it before now.

 

[popatim]

Did you get it installed?