My seagate freeagent can´t be found by the computer.

Ante

Obliviot
Hello.
I bought this external hard drive about two mounths ago. Have all the pictures of my newborn son and movies of him stored and secured in this hard drive. Yesterday my girlfriend was making an photo book with some of those pictures and everything was fine. Suddenly she heard a silent beep from the hard drive and a "burring" (like some electrical transformators can sound). Since this happend the hard drive haven`t been found by the computer or another one.
Our hole world fall apart......panic......sweat.......

What can we do about this.
The store where i bought this hard drive says that they need only the hard drive inside the "shell" to make a back up.

Now to another tricky question.
How can i go in to the hard drive without breaking the "surrounding shell".

Is it maybee assembled like a tv remote controll? The plastic cover halfs "snapped" together?

Please. Is there anyone who can help.

Regards Ante from sweden :eek:
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Hi Ante,

I do not envy you right now... this is another reason why important data (especially baby pictures) should -always- be backed up to DVD in addition. Backing up to a single external hard-drive is great, but it sounds like you didn't have a backup at all... that was your primary copy.

Hopefully it's just the FreeAgent malfunctioning and not the hard-drive inside. I am not sure how to break into the FreeAgent, and I assume doing so will void the warranty. You might just want to void the warranty anyway and slowly open it up, or e-mail Seagate and explain the situation. If you describe to them what you described to us, they might have a solution just based on those facts.

Good luck man, I hope your pictures are going to be fine.
 

Ante

Obliviot
Seagate free agent harddriv

I havn`t had any succes with the store where i bought the drive about getting out the info i want.

So now there is not so much i can do other then try getting into the drive without damadge the shell that surrounds the hard drive.

And so far as you can see in the picture there are three different cables. Those are connected to a circuit board in the foot of the harddrive. The power and the usb cable are also connected to this circuit board. I think that maybee this circuit is brooken.

Is it possible to connect those cables to another device and backup the info on the harddrive.

If there are anyone out there that have any info about how this harddrive is built i´ll bee more then greatfull.

Ante from sweden.
 

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Greg King

I just kinda show up...
Staff member
Honestly, I would contact Seagate about this. The hard drive itself can be connected to any PC with SATA support... if you can get it out of it's casing and thats the tricky part. If you can get the drive out, you -might- be able to get the files that you need off of the drive. You might also be able to look around the drive itself and see if there has been any burning.

I know it's a terrible situation but without removing the drive from the casing, there isn't much that I can help you with. If you do get the drive free, let us know and we will do all that we can to assist you further.

Good luck.
 

Ante

Obliviot
About the seagate freeagent harddrive

Hello again.

Guess what.......i got inside the casing without any damage to the casing. I have checked it for any burnt electronics or other strange failures. I could not see anything wrong. And i didn´t even smell any burned electonic.
So....today i took my hd to a computer store (another then the one where i bought the drive). And they will test the drive......no, as they said " we will do everything we can to save all the data on the drive to another drive". And if they manage to do that then everything will be fine in the end. I can after this put the hard drive back together and return it to the store where i bought it and get a new one.....hopefully.

Another thing......

I here have a foto of the circuitboard where al the cables are connected. And as you can see it dosen`t look god. The copper on the board is starting to turn green and there are grey fields around the soldering. In my oppinion this circuit board has been in touch with damp or something that makes the solder react and short circuit the electronics.

And now after this breaking into the hd........what`s the meaning of contacting seagate. I have broken the warraty by breaking into the casing and have no use of the warranty. All i think i can do is to tell you all out there is that it is possible to get inside of the casing without any damage. Just be patient and very carefull. This may give some hope to those who sits in the same position as i am.

Why build a casing without any openings, if the hd stop working you need to take it out and try fix it.:mad:

Ante from sweden
 

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Rory Buszka

Partition Master
That's the only beef I have with all the FreeAgent hard drives - they don't open up well. I'm interested to know how you disassembled yours. The hard drive itself should be perfectly fine - I'd say the chances for recovering your data are good. Really, if you had sent the drive to Seagate for repair, you would have likely got all your data back, and another perfectly working drive.
 

tj911t

Obliviot
Trouble Opening Free Agent Case

I need help.... I need someone to post pictures of the free agent drive opened up so I can see where the tabs are or at least a detailed description of how to get the case off non-destructively. I have searched everywhere I can think of, but have found no pictures or detailed instructions? I don't want to break it in case I need to use the warranty in the future. I am having trouble getting the eSATA to work with my older SATA 150 motherboard. I believe the drive has a jumper to force it to work with SATA 150 and think that is worth a shot. If I can't get the eSATA to work, I think I will have return it since my benchmark times for the USB are not very good. THANKS!!!
 

Ante

Obliviot
tj911t......

I can take pictures of everything if it`s not to late. I have opened up my free agent without damage it.

Ante.
 
Ante,

Please post some pictures or instructions on how to open the case. I was in the process of backing up my entire hard drive to what I believed to be a reliable external when the drive crapped out on me. I'm sure, especially after reading everyone else's horror stories, the data (95% of which is gone from my PC now) is safe on the drive. I just have to open the case to save it.

Please, please, please, please, please help. (Is that enough pleases? If not, here's a few more: please, please, please, please, please, please!)

Thanks in advance!
 

Nick1696

Obliviot
Same Problem!

My freeagent drive, that I've had about 3 months craped out on me right after I finely filed it up {500gb}:mad: when i tried to compress it, it also beeps when i power it up but i can not access it at all. so some pics on how to open it would be great!!! & dose any one know if it would be possible to simply plug the hard drive i self in to a desktop with a free hard drive slot!

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem!!!:confused:

Thanks!!!

Nick
 

danny800

Obliviot
i have a freeagent drive too.

my first one died after two months and i just got a replacement today and its the same problem you're having. with the buzzing and the beeps, although it sounds more like clicks on mine.

it usually stops after a while, i guess thats the drive going to sleep. but the light just stays steady on.

its really doing my head in. im hoping i can get a refund so that i can go buy a different brand. :(
 

Nick1696

Obliviot
danny800 Did you lose your data or did they recover it for you? And i really need to know how to open it up!!!! Here is a pic so were all on the same page!
204110102.jpg
 

AudioHound

Obliviot
I have the same Freeagent drive that crashed in the same way with just a vibration and some beeps. The drive won't spin. How does the case open?

This was my backup storage while creating a raid. Now the raid is ready to go and I am going insane with this stupid 4 month old Seagate Freeaget!
 

danny800

Obliviot
I'd lost a few videos that were on it, but my 3000+ pictures are still on my computers hard drive, and the second one... well it never worked from the beginning so it doesnt matter.

I have the Seagate FreeAgent Desktop Drive 320GB
 

Nick1696

Obliviot
Well that sucks! & AudioHound What did you mean by The drive won't spin? I'm pritty sure that the vibration is cosed by the drive spinning. any way i lost over 15,000 pics and 80 hours over home vids and if i don't get it back my family is going to kill me!!!! so if any one knows a way to get the drive working or get the data back I would be truly greatful!!!
 
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AudioHound

Obliviot
Nick,
I think the drive won't spin because there is no gyroscopic resistance when you pick up the drive and twist its axis.
Normally when you pick up an external drive that is spinning you feel the resistance when you twist your wrist against the spin axis.
 
Class action lawsuit?

This drive is a piece of crap. I always thought Seagate was a reputable brand. But, this seems to be an epidemic of a crappy product. I will never, EVER, buy a Seagate product again.

I'm still waiting on the suggestions on how to successfully open the case. Please post what you know as soon as possible.

Thanks.
 

Ante

Obliviot
Hello everyone.

I feel sad, reading al this stories from you al. But don`t worry "yet". As i posted earlier, i`ve taken the drive to a service store and they have found that the circuit bord on the harddrive have a burnt component. They have ordered a exact copy of the drive and when it arrives they will test to start the drive. Hopefully this will work.

Then you realise that it may not work just getting the drive out and connect it internaly just because of the burned circuit board component. But test it before any other solution.

I will take pictures on the case so you al can see the inside.

And we should send this thread to seagate so they could take action and help resolving the problem.

So the data you have on the disc is probably safe.......so safe that not even you self can reach it.......thats to safe......

Good luck to you al.

Ante from sweden.
 

Ante

Obliviot
Hello again.

A short and disastrous uppdate.

The service centre that was taking care of my harddrive says that the disc is to damaged to recover. It wasn`t the burned circuit board.

This is for me and my family a disaster.

I have to look around for another solution to this matter.

I will still post some pictures here. With hope that it may help you get the data back and a new disc from the warranty.


Ante
 

Nick1696

Obliviot
How To remove The Drive... Not suggested!!!

Well Guys I got it apart and it was the biggest pain in the ass!!! the drive is most likely dead Just like AudioHound said the hard drive itself is crap!!! Not the circuit bord!! I think that It spins then the read arm hits the disks thats what the beep is!!! but If you don't hear the beep you my still be able to get your data back!

Heres how to open the drive i will upload pics of the proses! This will most likely void your warranty!!! Remember to remove every screw you see!!! I used a butter knife to open the bottom then after taking out the screws I used a very small screw driver to pry open the case from the bottom. Once you get the metal jacket out pull off the rubber bumpers there are screws underneath then you can take out the drive note that the case is constructed like a tv remote you have to force the two half's apart!!! I have not tried to put it back together yet!!!

Here's the pics... 01
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as you can see there are a lot of pieces and even more screws!

Hope this helps some!!!:rolleyes:

I will still try to recover my data once i get the wires to connect it directly to my computer it dose not use standed wirering But the odds are that the drive is dead!

I also Like the idea of a Class action lawsuit cause I got the Seagate drive for is reliability & I most likely lost everything! Plus there customer service has been giving me the runaround:mad:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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