Question Seagate external HDD light blinks, but disk not reading, need help!

[sharath_83]

Hi all,

I have an External 2 TB Seagate HDD, and today i noticed that the blue light blinks and i cannot open the HDD, even the drives shows in windows explorer.

No sound coming out of the HDD.

When i connect the HDD via USB, it asks me to format the HDD: https://bit.ly/3orF6dR

On Device Manager and Disk Management M: shows up, which is the HDD drive name:
Device Manager: https://bit.ly/3ykr0ja
Disk Management: https://bit.ly/3fvRPIJ

I did a Chkdsk for that M: drive using command prompt, it says Errors Found, but i did not understand overall message after the scan: https://bit.ly/3hBnYRE

Is the HDD fine? Can i recover the files in it? What seems to be the issue here?

 

[lvt]

I did a Chkdsk for that M: drive using command prompt, it says Errors Found, but i did not understand overall message after the scan: https://bit.ly/3hBnYRE

Try CHKDSK again using /f instead of /m

 

[fzabkar]

I suspect that your drive has head/media problems.

Obtain a SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo. Look for reallocated, uncorrectable or pending sectors.

 

[sharath_83]

@IvT > Try CHKDSK again using /f instead of /m ---- Did not do that yet, as the HDD is taking lot of time to detect. --- pop-up on explorer after taking time: https://bit.ly/3wWsWNt

@fzabkar I will look into it now.

I got reply from Seagate website on their support chat. They provided a 'Seagate File Recovery Software' for 30 days use. I used it yesterday, had to buy a new HDD so to recover all the files, so it took time till now.

It took more time just to detect the HDD within the software, and i proceeded with the steps given by Seagate.

Here is the screenshot before scanning: https://bit.ly/3yHo0gS

It showed 3 hours 42 mins, but 8 hours went by, it showed scanning phase 2 of 4, and no files recovered seen,..... I clicked on 'view files' while scanning, which i should not have done, there were no files in it. But 8 hours and showing no files, i was confused. Technically am not sure what is 'Phase' scanning, and was worried about PC and HDD running for 8 hours straight, may be it gets lot of heating? ... but after i closed the 'view files' option, the scanning was reset i think, now it showed 1 days, 16 hours approx., to scan, so had to stop it.... so now am not sure what is the issue here.

 

[lvt]

Try using another SATA cable and SATA port.

 

[sharath_83]

Try using another SATA cable and SATA port.

I tried with another USB cable from another HDD, it's still the same issue.