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

[doob]

Yeh ,the films Im not bothered about,but unfortunately they are on there..

Like you say best to just rent,
The music though I would like back.
I don't think there would be much of a problem copyright wise as a lot of it was old vinyl thats been deleted.

I was a bit peaved at first but I am feeling a lot better lol,Just glad that I did have the family photos backed up after all they cannot be replaced.
I don't think I'd invest in the same external drive again though.

 

[Merlin]

Yeh ,the films Im not bothered about,but unfortunately they are on there..

Like you say best to just rent,
The music though I would like back.
I don't think there would be much of a problem copyright wise as a lot of it was old vinyl thats been deleted.

I was a bit peaved at first but I am feeling a lot better lol,Just glad that I did have the family photos backed up after all they cannot be replaced.
I don't think I'd invest in the same external drive again though.

Actually, that can happen to any drive,,,,you just never know
I have two different makes of external drive, Maxtor and Western Digital........ lost my files

So, burn some disks

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:

 

[nibbler]

I have a similar problem with my 750 pro. When I turn it on it lights up and buzzes several times repeatedly. Sounds like there are bees inside the case. bzz, bzz, bzz... After about 12 buzzes, all noises and motion stops.

I have to unplug the power to get it to power down.

I'm going to try to open the case like the other users and see if the drive still works.

Does anyone else get the buzzing sound?

If I return this drive to costco, how do I protect my personal data? There is sensitive information on this drive.

 

[Merlin]

I have a similar problem with my 750 pro. When I turn it on it lights up and buzzes several times repeatedly. Sounds like there are bees inside the case. bzz, bzz, bzz... After about 12 buzzes, all noises and motion stops.

I have to unplug the power to get it to power down.

I'm going to try to open the case like the other users and see if the drive still works.

Does anyone else get the buzzing sound?

If I return this drive to costco, how do I protect my personal data? There is sensitive information on this drive.

If you can....take the drive out and install in your computer, take your personal info out, reinstall the drive into the external enclosure and take back to Costco.
I shop at Costco also, they are great at taking merchandise back.


:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:

 

[nibbler]

In the event that I cannot access the drive, how do I maintain my security? I don't want the next guy to get it with my data on it.

 

[Merlin]

In the event that I cannot access the drive, how do I maintain my security? I don't want the next guy to get it with my data on it.

Most of what I have seen is, it's the circuit board inside controlling the hard drive...and then other have a grinding noise, which is not good at all.
Just see if you can get the files that you need and delete them, reinstall into the external case and return


Results 1 - 10 of about 3,270,000 for Seagate FreeAgent problems.

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:

 

[lazerradial2003]

Hey, had the exact same problem with my flatmates Seagate, was full as well and needed all the data, managed to get it all off although wouldn't risk using the disk again.

Have put images and how up here if it's useful to anyone:

http://www.moneywhatmoney.co.uk/index.php/Bens-Articles/Seagate-from-the-Ashes.html

Hope that helps, what is it with every ones reluctance to put fans in electronics devices these days?!? this is third thing which isn't a PC/ laptop I've had temperature related hard drive failure in!

Disclaimer (thanks for the reminder DarkSynergy): This is by no means certain or fool proof, try it at your own risk. If it's really important data then pay for a professional data recovery service. Just put this up because it worked for me and saved a whole lot of hassle!

 

[Greg King]

Thank you for sharing that with us lazerradial2003 (that was painful to type out). I should note that this method isn't guaranteed to work but I am happy that it did in your case.

 

[lazerradial2003]

True, not for the faint hearted

Yeah you're right, I do mention in the article that it's not normally advisable to mix kitchen appliances and computers! Worth a try when you run out of options and can't afford the £1000 to have a professional data recovery company look at it.

Something to try before you chuck it anyway!

 

[Merlin]

Hey, had the exact same problem with my flatmates Seagate, was full as well and needed all the data, managed to get it all off although wouldn't risk using the disk again.

Have put images and how up here if it's useful to anyone:

http://www.moneywhatmoney.co.uk/index.php/Bens-Articles/Seagate-from-the-Ashes.html

Hope that helps, what is it with every ones reluctance to put fans in electronics devices these days?!? this is third thing which isn't a PC/ laptop I've had temperature related hard drive failure in!

Disclaimer (thanks for the reminder DarkSynergy): This is by no means certain or fool proof, try it at your own risk. If it's really important data then pay for a professional data recovery service. Just put this up because it worked for me and saved a whole lot of hassle!

Neat little trick.....I guess it may work with ANY hard drive, not just a freeagent

Mental note # 2,037,429,175

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:

 

[lazerradial2003]

Yeah should work with any hard drive, is an old trick but haven't seen anyone adapting to work for large amounts of data before.

 

[Greg King]

Of course. I had never heard of this working until you kindly posted your experience in the forums. I have read other places that this works and I have read that it doesn't. I suppose your posting here confirms that it does in fact work. I doubt there is a 100% success rate for those that attempt it but it certainly gives a glimmer of hope to those that are distraught at the thought of losing an entire HDD worth of data.

Again, thank you for sharing this with us all.

 

[lazerradial2003]

Yeah will be nothing like 100% success, idea behind it is that cooling the drive causes all the components to contract slightly and so anything that's slightly jammed/ warped will be moved enough to make the drive usable. Only useful for mechanical failures, if the USB interface board or the HD controller board is gone then will be nothing doing and if the mechanical damage has led to the platters surface being scratched then there's not much you can do other than send it to a recovery specialist.

Always satisfying when a simple DIY trick works though, as tech gets more complicated there's less and less stuff you can sort out yourself!

 

[UBfusion]

FreeAgent heating issues

(It's my first post here, you are doing a great job!) I found your forum by searching how to open my brand new FreeAgent Essential and I saw you having many problems. I wanted to open it to fit in a fan (you can read my story here)

I think the main cause of your problems is overheating. As I describe in the link above, my brand new unit's temperature can easily rise to 58 °C (136.5 °F). After fitting a fan (even in a quick and dirty way) the temperature fell to 39 °C (102 °F) and did not exceed it even after 30 minutes of intense file copying.

The FreeAgent's cooling relies on passive airflow from the base grid (which seems adequate) to a very small exhaust on the top. This design, together with the very small dimensions of the box, does not ensure enough airflow to cool the disk.

After my experiences, I think the following advisory is mandatory:

1. Do not trust external hard drives not having a fan if they are designed to work 27/7

2. Do not ever buy a USB drive that does not have a fan or its enclosure does not have room for adequate intake and exhaust of airflow

3. Avoid as much as possible spinning down the drive, unless it doesn't have a fan (in which case it is designed to shut down after 5-10 minutes of inactivity

It's mainly heat that kills hard drives. Unfortunately not all of them are supported by SMART monitoring tools, so the average user does not know if the temperature he feels is OK or how hot the drive actually is. In the case of FreeAgents (which are supported) I strongly advise you to experiment a bit with a SMART monitoring tool (like Hard Disk Sentinel, which provides on their site very good information about SMART) and watch your temparature rise to 58 °C (136.5 °F) as did my brand new one...

Finally, I believe that everybody using a computer:

1. Should urge Microsoft to develop free AND built-in AND installed by default SMART monitoring tools for its operatings systems. Most modern motherboards natively support SMART and probably you have noticed the reported temperatures when setting up your BIOS. Unfortunately, in Windows you need special tools to access the information, which has the disastrous implication to dumb down the users: a) they don't get the habit of monitoring their hard disks' health; b) they think of the hard disk as a black box, when instead it is a VERY sophisticated piece of technology INCLUDING predictive failure early warnings; c) when their disk fails, they blame the manufacturer of the disk, instead of the operating system which did not warn them.

2. We should urge Seagate and Maxtor to either design better cases, or to include a fan at the expense of price and/or noise. Don't they realize that heat destroys their reputation and their sales? Unfortunately users prefer to buy the fanciest or the cheapest drives and they do not sit back to think about the security of their data. It's true that including a 10 cents fan might increase the final retail price by $10 and make the product less competitive, but for god's sake, confidence on the storage device is #1 priority on my book (and not performance, geek factor or cool looks).

Long post, but I hope useful.

 

[johndenver]

Power Adapter Issue / Clicking

My power adapter broke on my FreeAgent 500 gig. I hooked up a universal adapter and now I only get clicking on my hard drive. I went to Best Buy and they told me to buy one of their adapters and I tried it as well. The drive powers up but there is a constant clicking (2 per second) on the drive itself and drive is not recognized. Am I screwed? Any suggestions on recovery? I of course thought that maybe opening up the drive I might see a problem with the circuit board, but there wasn't one. Of course this voided the warranty so there is no chance of sending it to Seagate now.

Any thoughts?

 

[Rory Buszka]

I think whatever power adapter you were sold is not providing the correct input voltage. The specification on the FreeAgent power adapter is 12V DC, 2 A. (that second number identifies how much current the adapter can supply.) If you bought an adapter with the wrong voltage (9V or below, 13.5 V or above) then you might have very well done permanent damage to your drive.

 

[tog5632]

I've had my Seagate FreeAgent 250GB external hard drive for about 6 months now. I actually use it frequently and have it set up to be used as a backup drive.

It has always worked perfectly, until today. I woke up at 3 or 4 this morning to see the demon spawn alive and kicking. My computer was off, but the Seagate had brought itself out of sleep mode and its little orange LED bar was flashing. I thought nothing of it and disconnected it.

Reconnected this morning, and nothing happened. It was completely unrecognized. I tried it on 3 computers. Nothing. The light kept flashing even when not connected to a USB port. I turned it on its side and it worked for about 4 minutes then disconnected itself.

I'm about to open it and attach it to the computer internally seeing as how I need the data. It is not making any weird noises so I doubt it's the HD itself. We'll see...

 

[Rataskanken]

Why is it still being marketed???

We share the same dreaded experience as others in this thread. Our 500 GB Freeagent Desktop Drive worked for some three months (enough to get filled up with data) then gradually started to show weak signs of failure and finally failed to report via the USB system when powered up. Having made use of Seagate warranty replacement before (with very good experience, I might add), I knew from their return policy that that they will not attempt any data recovery or even send you the defective drive back. (How would they otherwise resurface from their rebuild facilities as a "refurbished" drives?). As the data on the drive were far more valuable than the current price of a 500 GB external drive, the decision to void the warranty was easy. One just wonders how many users have made the same decision -- wrapping their hard drives in unopenable plastic containers might be a clever way of of Seagate to avoid warranty replacements?

A description of the symptoms of my drive prior to the "surgery" were as follows: On powering up with the supplied power adaptor, the drive would "hum" with a mains transformer type sound for some 5 seconds, whereafter it would produce a short (0.2-0.3 second) bumble-bee sort of "buzz", then remain totally silent for a couple of seconds or so. The rather disturbing audio sequence was then repeated again and again. Hope is the last thing that leaves man, so as I had a the power supply or interface card (both products of glorious Chinese "quality") suspected , I opened the plastic enclosure rather forcefully assisted by by some of the early posts in this thread. The initial observation when passing the interface region in the base, was the same corrosion on the PCB seen by others in this thread (we live in a very dry climate, so this is something that Seagate had arranged as a hidden bonus before delivering the drive). The nice part of this warranty-voiding pry-opening procedure was that a seemingly mint Barracuda 7200.10 500 GB drive came out physically undamaged (having not even approached the specified maximum G limits). With this drive, which is otherwise very reliable, liberated from the dreaded heat-insulating steel/plastic wrap, I immediately tried to hook it up to my external SATA system. I might add that this has a 3 A power supply and had shortly before successfully spun a 1 TB Seagate ES2 drive under full load (data transfer) for nearly 24 h, the time it takes to fill a 1 TB disk through USB 2.0. The reader can rest assured that I was not particularly amused by hearing exactly the same hum sequence with the drive on the bench. It definitely did not spin up, evident both from the sound and from the absence of any gyroscopic behavior. Numerous brisk rotational movements around the platter spin axis (powered in the "hum state" as well as unpowered) did nothing to help the drive spin up, which I have sometimes seen in older 5.25" hard drives with marginal motors -- a tip that I once got from Maxtor support in the early 1990's. Diagnosis: Since modern drives run on highly reliable and sturdy brushless motors that have no wearable parts except the bearings, this drive had certainly had its bearings fried. This is a failure that CAN be fixed through a third party data salvaging company, basically by rebuilding the drive with the existing platters, but it will be a VERY expensive procedure.

There is little doubt that this failure is due the utterly amateurish design flaw of enclosing a drive that dissipates on the average 13 W operating and 9.3 W idling (power dissipation values according to the Seagate PDF data sheet) inside a metal cage that is in turn housed in a totally non-ventilated, rather thick, and tight-fitting plastic enclosure. The effect is basically the same as placing a 15 W incandescent bulb inside a similar plastic box -- an undertaking that no fully sane person would do considering the obvious risk of fire. Added to this is the heat from the interface card which in placed underneath the drive.

My conclusion, which I seem to share with may others, is therefore that this is an utterly crappy product that should a) never have seen the market, b) when it did so, should have been withdrawn shortly thereafter, and c) a recall of all sold units should have been made, with data recovery offered to those who had already suffered data loss. That would have saved the reputation of Seagate.

The mystery remains: How can a company with such a vast experience and a long time hard earned reputation in the hard drive market release such a totally crappy product and not even withdrawing it more than a year after these problems have been made obvious by warranty returns through their RMA department??? This is to me really puzzling, but I can assure the readers of this thread that this is the last Seagate produce we will ever buy. Our most recent installation now runs five WD GP drives and the drive bay still stays very cool.

So, goodbye Seagate. You have given us safe data storage and good value for the money for a long time, but this product wrecked it all.

 

[randallf]

similar problem

Someone I work with asked me to copy some files to his 1tb freeagent and it died on me.. it was brand new out of the box too

 

[jamaemae]

hello well when I rolled back my chair to get out the cord for the freeagent drive was coiled to the leg somehow and fell. It fell about one to two feet from the ground onto the carpet. When i tried to open a file from there the next day I couldn't find the device on my computer. Can i never use it again or see the files I stored on this device? ):