Seagate Backup Plus 3TB - USB Controller Dead

Nitsy

Reputable
Jan 18, 2016
1
0
4,510
Hoping you guys can help

As per my title the USB controller of my external drive has mysteriously died. I have propped open the unit and have found Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB drive within.

Popped it out and whacked it into the PC and the drive itself is fine, no crazy sounds spins as expected. Though shows up as 3 separate partitions which I believe is something to do with it being an MBR disk. I believe the Seagate controller does the conversion work. From my research all I can figure out is that it is formatted in exFAT by Seagate and there is every chance I may not be able to recover the data without paying for Seagate's Recovery Software. Unacceptable in my opinion as their controller/bridge has died, unfortunately it is out of warranty.

I have ordered - http://www.amazon.co.uk/CiT-inch-U3PD-SATA-Enclosure/dp/B00BHARA6O - to see if it helps. But by the sounds of it, it may not solve the issue.

Can anyone help? I really don't want to lose almost 2GBs worth of data. Anyway I can covert the drive within the PC without loosing anything?

I will be buying a another drive as a mirrored backup of my data for the future.

Any help greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
Hey there, Nitsy.

I really doubt it would be any different with the external enclosure. If the drive's data has no hardware encryption, usually you should be able to get to your files without too much of a hassle, even if it's out of its original enclosure.
You could try accessing it via Ubuntu Live USB, to see if it's properly recognized and if you can get to your files.
Another option would be to try out data recovery software: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html and http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm.
And last, but not least - you could try out a data recover company, as this is the most reliable option there is.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it...
Hey there, Nitsy.

I really doubt it would be any different with the external enclosure. If the drive's data has no hardware encryption, usually you should be able to get to your files without too much of a hassle, even if it's out of its original enclosure.
You could try accessing it via Ubuntu Live USB, to see if it's properly recognized and if you can get to your files.
Another option would be to try out data recovery software: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html and http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm.
And last, but not least - you could try out a data recover company, as this is the most reliable option there is.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes.
Boogieman_WD
 
Solution