Hard Drive has gone BUST! HELP????

Joebits

I have a Seagate 250GB portable drive.

Yesterday I put about 3500 songs on it(along with the 10-15GBs on it already) and it went BUST for no reason! P

Now Windows(im on win 7) says i have to format it before i can use it again but THEN it wont let me format it.

I've downloaded EASEUS Partition master, tried formatting with that, defragging...etc but nothing. It says Successful but still i can't access it without windows telling me I need to format it.

Any help appreciated!

Solitaire

Moved to Computers & Technology

Bust hard drive is bust. Sounds like either the controller or HDD is kaput. The HDD inside might be intact, and you could try pulling the case apart and hooking up the naked HDD if you were desperate to retrieve irreplaceable data on it, but it could also be a working controller and a defective HDD, in which case lost data is lost

You can also try it on another PC before taking any irrevocable action, but most likely its time for RMA if its still in warranty methinks.

CreepingDeath

If you formatted the drive, then your chance of retrieving any data has dropped considerably.

If you used a recovery tool it might've repaired any bad sectors.
But formatting basically writes a blank pattern over the entire disk, overwriting everything.

What is your priority, retrieving the data or simply getting the disk to work again but with no data ?

rorymcgrory

Try Opening it up and cleaning the read/write head with warm water.

I

Joebits

CreepingDeath wrote: »

If you formatted the drive, then your chance of retrieving any data has dropped considerably.

If you used a recovery tool it might've repaired any bad sectors.
But formatting basically writes a blank pattern over the entire disk, overwriting everything.

What is your priority, retrieving the data or simply getting the disk to work again but with no data ?

Getting it to work again! The data is not a loss, just a backup of my main laptop hard drive, so lets hope my laptop doesnt give in..

tman

rorymcgrory wrote: »

Try Opening it up and cleaning the read/write head with warm water.

I

Are you actually serious????!?!?

Just try Solitaire's suggestion, or RMA it straight away seeing as you've already formatted it...

I'm not sure what Seagate are like with external drives, but they offer an absolutely fantastic RMA service for internal drives (I had my replacement the day after I posted a defective drive!)
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/warranty_%26_returns_assistance

Joebits

tman wrote: »

Are you actually serious????!?!?

Just try Solitaire's suggestion, or RMA it straight away seeing as you've already formatted it...

I'm not sure what Seagate are like with external drives, but they offer an absolutely fantastic RMA service for internal drives (I had my replacement the day after I posted a defective drive!)
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/warranty_%26_returns_assistance

what is RMA?
and how do i go about doing so..?

tmcw

Joebits wrote: »

what is RMA?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_merchandise_authorization

Joebits wrote: »

and how do i go about doing so..?

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=202271

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-GB&name=ecommerce-login&vgnextoid=aa35957e5ee16210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD

Joebits

tmcw wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_merchandise_authorization



http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=202271

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-GB&name=ecommerce-login&vgnextoid=aa35957e5ee16210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD

You're a star!

Do RMA's usually look after your postage costs too? Cuz this is going to be at least 5 euro to post to the UK.
:rolleyes:

P.S. Where the hell do I get an ESD Bag?

cookie1977

No in most cases the postage is on the sender and they dont refund. Ive never returned anything in a ESD bag. Pop it in a box with some good packing so it cant bounce around and it should be fine. If you've still got the original packaging use that. I'd advise you to register the package so you can track it.

Joebits

cookie1977 wrote: »

No in most cases the postage is on the sender and they dont refund. Ive never returned anything in a ESD bag. Pop it in a box with some good packing so it cant bounce around and it should be fine. If you've still got the original packaging use that. I'd advise you to register the package so you can track it.

Alrite Thanks!

Do I just ask them in An Post to register it or is that a 'Track My Order' option with Seagate?
Also how much is it?

cookie1977

Yes. The post office will sort you out. It may cost up to 10 euro for everything depending on the weight

Joebits

cookie1977 wrote: »

Yes. The post office will sort you out. It may cost up to 10 euro for everything depending on the weight

10 quid, dang. They(Seagate) better refund that to me after selling me a hard drive that crashes after little use in under a year.