Question Seagate HDD on Win 10 write protected

[DesperateinTexas]

Can anyone please help me resolve a troubling issue with my Seagate HDD, which had been running with Windows 10 on board?

One day the PC booted up just fine. The next day it wouldn't boot up the system at all.

I've made the ultimate arse of myself by not having the backup I should have been keeping or by some other know-nothing's know-it-all thinking (see below for this one). With that said, I'm desperate to restore the drive to working condition if possible or to at least recover data from the drive if this is possible. I really need the drive to be working and files thereon to be accessible.

I've tried but was unsuccessful at accessing the drive's contents by connecting it to two different working computers using a SATA to USB HDD adapter.

I've also tried to access data on the drive by plugging the HDD directly into the motherboard via SATA connectors, but that failed.

Attempts to run both chkdsk and diskpart recommended procedures (attributes, clear readonly, etc. ) all failed even using command line and administrator privileges, either because the drive isn't recognized by the working system or even if the drive shows up on the working system but that system reports that it is either write protected or it shows as uninitialized and unallocated. (Incidentally, a working system cannot and will not initialize the disk due to its write protection.)

Recovery of data has been attempted but was unsuccessful every time, and my efforts tried a variety of leading recovery and restoration applications they've failed each time because the drive is reporting it is write protected. The drive shows as uninitialized, RAW and/or unallocated and partition recovery software fails to find or recover any partitions on it.

Prior to the drive issue occurring, I could have accidentally enabled the bitlocker service while the HDD was running its OS, from within the task manager. It's been a month, but I've considered how being the arse I can often be means I could have accidentally somehow enabled the drive's bitlocker service while changing some other settings for other services--by clicking start on the wrong service, for example-- before I powered off the system when it was working last. I don't remember.

Please tell me how to fix this if there is ANY means. (I'll do any kind of penance just to get my data back. I swear!!! Desperation has never looked like such an arse: Then, I came along.)

 

[Ralston18]

We cannot help with bypassing any write protections, security measures, etc..

Seagate offers two free diagnostic tools: SeaTools Bootable and SeaTools for Windows/Linux.

Give the tools a try.

Be sure to download the tools directly from Seagate. No third party sources or download utilities.

https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

 

[DesperateinTexas]

If I inadvertently managed to encrypt it, I didn't realize I had, I'm not certain I even did, and if I did it could only have been cause by my accidentally starting the bitlocker service instead of the nearby listed other service which had been my intention. if this is how whatever has happened to the drive to make it be in this state is what happened... I only recall having looked at the task manager's service list for some unrelated reason and having I thought started a service, for which I cannot think of the reason I did so now.

Nonetheless, if that happened, and caused an encrypted hard drive, if this one got that way as described,shouldnt it still be able to boot up the OS on it, right? I mean what's the use of encryption if you can't boot up the device and decrypt it's own hard drive to use it? That is, even when it is in the same computer it was in at the time of any possible unintended encryption by way of starting a service manually or otherwise?

Am I mistaken to presume it was not encrypted by my accidental service startup if I managed to do that, or could something else have suddenly caused the drive to fail to boot up the OS, and then for it to show up as not initialized, for it to show up as unallocated and/ or RAW?

How the heck can I know the cause of the fix if there is any? What fixes are there if there are any?

 

[DSzymborski]

That just sounds like a run-of-the-mill dying hard drive. If it won't read at all and if none of the usual software packages are able to either, the only solutions are paying for a lab to analyze the drive, which can easily go into four figures, or nothing. You're past the good options stage (and as you note, the failure to keep backups here is the primary problem).

 

[RandomDudeFromSpace]

If your hard drive makes a small beeping sound, don't do anything else. Just call a trusted recovery centre and tell them that your hdd is almost dead. They'll recover the data for you. MAKE SURE YOU CAN TRUST THEM.

 

[DesperateinTexas]

It isn't making any beeping noises or unusual clicking sounds. And, it's just 2 years old or so.

While backups are (or were) in order, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet, in part because I actually used this computer much less frequently than any of my former ones and even fewer times than any regular daily use of the old ones by far.

I had only just recently added the images from all my working old phones to the drive, you know, and, of course, right before resetting those to factory software states. So, now I've not only lost three years of teaching materials I've developed, 20+ years of documents and music and much more, but all those pictures and programs, too.

Makes me want to eradicate every bit of technology from my existence--what may remain of it anyway.

 

[RandomDudeFromSpace]

Bruv have you tried just simply changing the power and data cables?