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

[Kougar]

Once the platters on a hard drive are exposed the platters are compromised. The longer they are exposed the higher the chances nothing will be recoverable. Specs of dust and airborn particles too tiny to even see with the naked eye are enough to prevent a seeker head from being able to read bits off the platter's surface. Or after the drive spins back up, can become deposited on the seeker head itself. This is why data recovery experts use a clean room or clean space before dissembling drives.

Many times the drive inside an enclosure will still work even if the enclosure fails, so it is best to test the drive outside the enclosure by installing it into the PC rather than taking it apart. But yes, if the drive has died completely, the neodymium magnets are great keepsakes.

 

[Sunny]

I keep getting a message that wants me to format the drive! The drive had information on it. I was very careful when I took it apart so why is it not recognizing it? Uggg

 

[Kougar]

I keep getting a message that wants me to format the drive! The drive had information on it. I was very careful when I took it apart so why is it not recognizing it? Uggg

This possibly means the drive's boot sector or Master File Table was corrupted, as without any file tables the 1's and 0's on the platter are meaningless. Your best bet now is to try some data recovery software and see if anything can rebuild the MFT & partition(s) that are on the drive. Do not format the drive as your chances of recovering or rebuilding partitions will be greatly diminished.

PC Inspector is a decent free program for recovering files, but I've never used it on partitions and entire drives before Link

I haven't used it, but TestDesk looks like a powerful tool that would work for you. Just be sure to read the documentation and do no write anything to the drive unless you are sure about what you are about to do.