Windows 10 No Longer Sees our Seagate FreeAgent Hard Drive...

[alanattom]

We've been using the external FreeAgent on our desktop/W10 for several years. In the past 2 weeks, W10 no longer sees the drive (it no longer appears in Device Mgr), and the Seagate software also no longer sees it.

We've tried a brand new USB cable, and we've also tried both USB ports (which work fine for other devices).

The Drive powers up and lights up just fine, as usual, and we can feel the normal spinning vibrations.

We tried Seagate support, but none of their boilerplate pages helped. We've also searched Google, but we haven't seen this issue mentioned in the way we have it (i.e. - drive works but isn't seen).

We're retired and do not have access to another laptop or desktop so we can't try that.

My ---guess--- is that the issue is software, not hardware (perhaps due to the recent W10 Developer's Update???), but Google doesn't show anything on that.

Does anyone have any suggestions before we give up on retrieving our files?

Thanks much for any help!

Alan

 

[gdmaclew]

If you have a computer store near you take it there and ask them to check it for you.

 

[Cole_9]

go to device manager, look under portable devices and see if the drive shows up there

 

[alanattom]

Thanks.

Our daughter may visit this weekend, and I will ask her to bring her laptop.

Alan

If you have a computer store near you take it there and ask them to check it for you.

 

[alanattom]

Hi Cole,

Thanks.

Sometimes DM does see it, other times it does not. Very strange. I've noticed that I can make DM see it by unplugging the Seagate power cord and then plugging it back in and reconnecting to a USB port.

I hope our daughter brings her laptop so I can try it there... will I need to Install all the Seagate software too on her laptop?Thanks again, Alan

go to device manager, look under portable devices and see if the drive shows up there

 

[Rangan Das]

Same happened with me, with the same drive. It is a failing connector. Inside, there is actually a barebone internal hard drive that uses a SATA connector. What you plug into your PC is essentially an USB adapter for the SATA drive that is inside. This USB adapter is mostly likely to be damaged. Here are a couple of things that you can do.

1. Pry open the FreeAgent drive case and take out the barebone hard drive. You can use this hard drive as an internal hard drive in your PC by connecting it to the SATA connectors in your PC. That's what I am doing.
2. Pry open the FreeAgent drive case and take out the barebone hard drive. Buy a hard drive enclosure for the internal drive and use it as an external drive.
You can also buy a hard drive dock instead of an enclosure. These are more reliable. Finding an enclosure for FreeAgent drives are harder because these drives are thicker than standard mobile internal hard drives (12.5mm vs 9mm or 7mm)

Unfortunately, in both the cases, you will have to take out the internal drive. It's relatively easy, but it may damage the external casing permanently.

 

[seagate_surfer]

Hello alanattom. Sorry to see that you run into trouble with your drive. The cause may be associated to a faulty USB port/connector on the FreeAgent drive and testing with your daughters computer will help you pinpoint the issue. As for installing the Seatools software, on your daughters unit, yes it is necessary for testing the drive. Please get back to us with the results and here is the support page in case you need to get in touch with them. Best of luck.

 

[alanattom]

Hi Rangan, Thank you for responding! Your reply makes sense to me, and I will try it after I've tried the drive on my daughter 's laptop this weekend. I will report back so perhaps this thread might help others.

Question: How do I pry off the connector? I'm guessing I should use a knife or a very thin screwdriver? And does it make a difference if I try to pry off the top versus the bottom?

Thanks again!

Alan

Same happened with me, with the same drive. It is a failing connector. Inside, there is actually a barebone internal hard drive that uses a SATA connector. What you plug into your PC is essentially an USB adapter for the SATA drive that is inside. This USB adapter is mostly likely to be damaged. Here are a couple of things that you can do.

1. Pry open the FreeAgent drive case and take out the barebone hard drive. You can use this hard drive as an internal hard drive in your PC by connecting it to the SATA connectors in your PC. That's what I am doing.
2. Pry open the FreeAgent drive case and take out the barebone hard drive. Buy a hard drive enclosure for the internal drive and use it as an external drive.
You can also buy a hard drive dock instead of an enclosure. These are more reliable. Finding an enclosure for FreeAgent drives are harder because these drives are thicker than standard mobile internal hard drives (12.5mm vs 9mm or 7mm)

Unfortunately, in both the cases, you will have to take out the internal drive. It's relatively easy, but it may damage the external casing permanently.

 

[Rangan Das]

Hi Rangan, Thank you for responding! Your reply makes sense to me, and I will try it after I've tried the drive on my daughter 's laptop this weekend. I will report back so perhaps this thread might help others.

Question: How do I pry off the connector? I'm guessing I should use a knife or a very thin screwdriver? And does it make a difference if I try to pry off the top versus the bottom?

Thanks again!

Alan

Same happened with me, with the same drive. It is a failing connector. Inside, there is actually a barebone internal hard drive that uses a SATA connector. What you plug into your PC is essentially an USB adapter for the SATA drive that is inside. This USB adapter is mostly likely to be damaged. Here are a couple of things that you can do.

1. Pry open the FreeAgent drive case and take out the barebone hard drive. You can use this hard drive as an internal hard drive in your PC by connecting it to the SATA connectors in your PC. That's what I am doing.
2. Pry open the FreeAgent drive case and take out the barebone hard drive. Buy a hard drive enclosure for the internal drive and use it as an external drive.
You can also buy a hard drive dock instead of an enclosure. These are more reliable. Finding an enclosure for FreeAgent drives are harder because these drives are thicker than standard mobile internal hard drives (12.5mm vs 9mm or 7mm)

Unfortunately, in both the cases, you will have to take out the internal drive. It's relatively easy, but it may damage the external casing permanently.

Hey, you can check out these YouTube videos:
https://youtu.be/Lkakc7QEtFs
https://youtu.be/BSxutNOOSkM

Since I do not know which model you own, I can't really guide the disassembly. However, you can look at the Youtube videos. I think they will give you a fair idea.

 

[alanattom]

Hi Rangan,

I checked the Seagate on our daughter's laptop and it did not work there either so I followed the YouTube videos and disassembled the drive. (BTW, the Seagate is a 500G FREEAGENT.)

I will now look for a suitable enclosure on Amazon.

Thank you again!

Alan


do

Hi Rangan, Thank you for responding! Your reply makes sense to me, and I will try it after I've tried the drive on my daughter 's laptop this weekend. I will report back so perhaps this thread might help others.

Question: How do I pry off the connector? I'm guessing I should use a knife or a very thin screwdriver? And does it make a difference if I try to pry off the top versus the bottom?

Thanks again!

Alan

Same happened with me, with the same drive. It is a failing connector. Inside, there is actually a barebone internal hard drive that uses a SATA connector. What you plug into your PC is essentially an USB adapter for the SATA drive that is inside. This USB adapter is mostly likely to be damaged. Here are a couple of things that you can do.

1. Pry open the FreeAgent drive case and take out the barebone hard drive. You can use this hard drive as an internal hard drive in your PC by connecting it to the SATA connectors in your PC. That's what I am doing.
2. Pry open the FreeAgent drive case and take out the barebone hard drive. Buy a hard drive enclosure for the internal drive and use it as an external drive.
You can also buy a hard drive dock instead of an enclosure. These are more reliable. Finding an enclosure for FreeAgent drives are harder because these drives are thicker than standard mobile internal hard drives (12.5mm vs 9mm or 7mm)

Unfortunately, in both the cases, you will have to take out the internal drive. It's relatively easy, but it may damage the external casing permanently.

Hey, you can check out these YouTube videos:
https://youtu.be/Lkakc7QEtFs
https://youtu.be/BSxutNOOSkM

Since I do not know which model you own, I can't really guide the disassembly. However, you can look at the Youtube videos. I think they will give you a fair idea.