Expansion Portable Drive 320GB, read problem.

[Christian_Maestro]

My Seagate Expansion Portable Drive 320 GB when plugged into my Win 10, always works, but just yesterday, something went wrong (I think) and every time I plug my Drive into the 3.0 USB,
1.Computer cant find it, even though it worked before (Green light on the drive is blinking).
2.Computer runs very very slowly, I have an i7 with 8 GB and it works fine when I disconnect the drive.
3.There's a weird clicking sound inside the drive which is after or during the time it stopped working.
I have tried multiple USB to drive thing cables.( What is it called? Slightly bigger than the USB for charging the phone.)
Quick reply would be appreciated but I know you guys are busy, so
Thanks Guys,
C.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there Christian and welcome to the community.

Unfortunately all those signs are an indication that the drive might be failing. As for the "USB to drive thing cables.( What is it called? Slightly bigger than the USB for charging the phone.)" I'm not really sure, I guess you mean a USB 3.0 cable?

Do you need to recover data from that drive, or you just want to try and make it work again?
Basically trying the drive with a different USB cable is the first troubleshooting step, so you did well by doing that. Unfortunately as I understand it, there wasn't any positive result. I'd recommend that you try the HDD with a different computer, to see if it's recognized. If it is - go ahead and backup any important data which you might have on it. After that, download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics tool and test the drive for errors and bad sectors, to see if there's anything out of the ordinary.
It really sounds like either the HDD's enclosure is failing or the drive itself.

Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Christian_Maestro]

Hey Booger Man, 😛

It has a USB part on one side and on the other it has a part to connect to the drive, (just my personal curiosity. )
Recover data *and* make it work, but recovering the data is the top most priority...
I have tried it with a different computer, it showed an error screen, I'll screenshot the picture later today, as the laptop is not with me as of right now.
Thanks for the speedy reply,
C.
EDIT:
http://imgur.com/65OtgFP
It says not to continue if Windows cant find the drive, so should I continue or..?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hehe, no problem

It really looks like the drive is having issues. As the error message states, the best and most reliable option for data recovery would be a professional solution, such as a data recovery company. However, there are a few more things you could try before you go there, at your own risk. I'm talking about data recovery software - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html or http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm. Another option would be to try and access the drive via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD (this is a freeware, bootable, portable version of Linux), to see if the drive is properly recognized and if you can get to your files.
Note that the error message is right on the spot with the warning. Usually when there's a physical fault with an HDD, the more it's being used, the greater is the chance of further damaging it. That's why it's never recommended to scan the drive for errors or test it in any way and should only be used when you're trying to recover data.
There's one more thing you could try, but this is not really recommended as it voids the warranty of the HDD. It also wouldn't work if the issue is not connected to the HDD's external enclosure and furthermore, if the drive has hardware encryption, you won't be able to recover your data. As I've warned you about the possible cons of that method, I can share with you, that I'm talking about taking the drive out of its original enclosure and connecting it to a computer directly to the motherboard via a standard SATA connection and hope that it's properly recognized so that you can recover your files. So you can try that out at your own discretion.

Hope that helps. Keep me posted on your progress.

 

[Christian_Maestro]

True, I'm getting a feeling it is a physical failure and the warning message says that if it IS a physical failure you should give it to a professional, will these 2 new threads, harm or retard the files which COULD be extracted if I give it to the Seagate Recover center?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well, it's up to you. Basically the most reliable data recovery solution would be a data recovery company. So I guess it's more likely to get your data back without damaging it, if you trust a professional to do that for you, instead of going for data recovery software. But as usual (which I think you'd be reminded of) there are never any guarantees about how much of your data (if any) would be recovered. So keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best. I hope you're able to get your files back.

 

[Christian_Maestro]

I think I'll try the data recovery company, thanks for the help though I appreciate it very much.