Help: Dropped seagate external hard drive

[BadBadBad]

I dropped my Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex hard drive and now it doesn't work. Once plugged in it starts up but does not light up, no beeping, and no hard drive is displayed on my computer. There is also no "the usb you plugged in is not recognized" pop ups. I believe it dropped straight down, hitting the bottom of the hard drive. How do I fix it?
Thanks in advance

 

[Alec Mowat]

It's a mechanical drive, so unfortunately, you broke it. Not much you can do.

You can potentially take apart the plastic shell and attach the drive directly to SATA and see if you can read the data.

 

[christinebcw]

Most externals, when dropped, break their electronics boards - the power-circuitry, the plugs, etc. The drive might be in working condition. You (or some shop) can extract it and find out.

Seagate uses real genuine plastic clips that you'll have to break to open the case. YouTube will have some videos on this. It sounds frightful, but it's basically "stick a flat-head screwdriver along the seams of the case, and twist. There will be 2 or 3 plastic clips per side that you'll hear snap-crackle-pop break. Then the case opens."

Unscrew the hard-drive's bolts and you can use a USB-to-IDE/SATA kit to plug the drive into your computer's USB port. If the drive is still functional, it should show up.

If you want to buy a $20 external case, those are fairly cheap and come in a variety of colors.