My Seagate 1TB External Hard Disk not responding.

[MathewThomas]

I have a SeaGate 1 TB External Hard Disk. When I plug it in, it takes some time to be seen in My Computer. When it does, I cant access it. When I try to access Disk Management or Device Manager, Windows doesn't respond. I have some important files in it. I cant format it either, because when I right click the Drive, it doesn't respond.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey Mathew. First of all, you shouldn't format it if you want to recover your files. I'd recommend that you try the basics first - try the drive with a different USB cable (not longer than 12"), a different computer and different USB ports (2.0 and 3.0). Do you hear any unusual sounds/noises when you connect the drive?
You could try accessing the HDD via Linux Live CD/USB to see if you're able to get to your data. You could also try some of the data recovery solutions offered in this thread here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html

Hope that helps. Please keep me posted.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Arihant03]

what if its working on other pc except mine ?????????

can anything be done other than formatting...because we cant say it will work after format also.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hi Arihant03. If it works well on other computers, first you should backup your data, just in case. Then you should download the manufacturer's diagnostic tool to see if any errors or bad sectors pop-up, so that you know what's the condition of the drive itself. If everything turns out to be fine, then there's probably a problem with your system. You could try uninstalling the drive from device manager and reconnect it again so that Windows can install its drivers again, to see if it's recognized this way. You could also try updating or reinstalling the USB drivers. I'd also recommend that you try the drive with different USB ports if you have that option on your computer - 2.0 and 3.0. Also, what are the operating systems of the computers, you've tried the HDD with and what is yours?

Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[fzabkar]

It appears that the drive may have problems with bad sectors. I would start by assessing its physical state with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo.

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

Look for reallocated, pending, or uncorrectable sectors.

If the drive has serious media issues, then I would clone it with a tool such as ddrescue. To improve your chances of a successful clone, visit http://www.hddoracle.com. Obtain a TTL adapter and obtain a serial terminal log from your drive. You can then disable retries and reallocation.

 

[kedwa30]

If the drive works well with another computer but is having problems with your current computer then I would suspect that the current computer is defective. Have you tried other drives? Can you burn a CD or DVD with that computer? Often older computers and even new computers will have defective capacitors which lead to unreliable communications, glitches in sound, freezing, etc. There are a variety of symptoms that may express depending on which capacitors are defective and how bad they are. So it would not be unusual for your computer to work fine in many areas yet be defective in USB communications due to a faulty capacitor or other components.
Try different USB ports. Open your computer. You may have an unused set of USB ports you can try simply by switching the wires from one set of pins to another. Make sure you look them up in your computer's manual so you know what you are doing. Do not plug USB to Firewire, for example.

 

[Nasima]

If the partition is seen and appears to be intact, try to recover the files with a file recovery application such as Recuva.

If the partition is not seen and appears to be gone or damaged, try to recover the partition first using a tool such as Partition Wizard. If that is successful, the files may then be visible and not need recovery.

I'm no expert on either application.

In any case, don't write anything new to the drive.

Hook the drive up in the normal manner and determine if you can see the partition. If no, try Partition Wizard. If yes, try Recuva.

The links are,
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html
http://www.piriform.com/recuva