Question Seagate 4 TB external HD beeping, r/w arm acting erratically and not recognized by laptop after using older USB 17 port hub

[richardhdimpr2376]

Hello. Thank you for your time. As the title says I have a 4 TB external hard drive that I have used as a primary hard drive for a few years. Lazily I did not make a backup copy as frequently as I should have. Usually weekly, but this time 7 weeks elapsed and now it is not working properly.

I had it attached to an older 17 port USB hub and I think it got insufficient power, as this began once I connected it to that hub.

Tried typical fixes: dust, cables, different computer.

I can get my info back by reconstructing but it will take 10-20 hours probably so I would like to get this working if possible. Opened it up after hearing it beep and stop. So when plugged in it starts up, makes a series of beeps, the read/write head moves over the top platter several times as the platters spin. It was consistently making 5 beeps, then head moved twice, then a beep. Now probably due to opening it the head is moving more times over the platter before the drive stops.

Video link I made of 45 seconds of the drive being attached twice.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54VyR4Msc9Y


I have read about some issues I am thinking it is a shorted PCB.

Everywhere it says never open it but I am not going to pay $1500 for data recovery. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Richard

 

[fzabkar]

It's most probably not a PCB fault. The heads are trying to read the reserved firmware area on the platters (System Area, SA). It looks like there is a head or media fault, or perhaps a damaged firmware module.

It may have been possible for a DR shop to recover your data within a budget of US$500, but it will now cost more after what you have done. :-(

The hard drive -- a computer-within-a-computer:
https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2600

 

[ex_bubblehead]

You opened it. If it wasn't dead before you did that it very likely is now. And, as above, recovery (if possible) will cost at least double and likely triple what it would have. Hard drives are not user serviceable.

 

[USAFRet]

I can get my info back by reconstructing but it will take 10-20 hours probably so I would like to get this working if possible.

You've gone down the wrong road to any 'data recovery'.

The physical drive is irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was the data.

You've now made things worse, potentially impossible.