hard drive recovery

[hodge555]

I have a 2TB Seagate media drive that, after a power cut, is no longer reporting to the OS.
It powers up OK and doesn't make any bad noises so I'm wondering if it's just the board that's gone.
Any thoughts on the chance that if I buy another drive the same and swap the boards over then I could recover the data that's still on the old drive?

 

[daveybrat]

I have a 2TB Seagate media drive that, after a power cut, is no longer reporting to the OS.
It powers up OK and doesn't make any bad noises so I'm wondering if it's just the board that's gone.
Any thoughts on the chance that if I buy another drive the same and swap the boards over then I could recover the data that's still on the old drive?

Slim to none. You'll most likely need to ship it to a data recovery company.

 

[hodge555]

ah heck

 

[Elixer]

If it is seen by BIOS, you could use ddrescue and clone it to another HD. Then run testdisk on the cloned HD.
If it is not seen by BIOS, you could get lucky and find the exact same PCB (down to the week code it was made)... or send it to the pros.

 

[NeoPTLD]

How important is your data?

 

[hodge555]

It would be good to get it back but it's not the end of the world if I can't, hence I don't want to pay for a recovery service.
I would be up for buying another drive and swapping the PCB though if it had a chance of working.

 

[chaseadam1]

don't worry, try to eject it once. it will definitely work if there is no internal damage.

 

[seagate_surfer]

We definitely don't recommend switching the circuit board on the hard drive or opening up the drive. When hard drives have potential issues, it is best that they be opened by professionals in extremely sterilized environments known as Clean Rooms, because any level of dust coming into contact can harm the drive and the data stored on it

The first steps would be to try the drive in a different slot/port if available, try the drive with a different cable, and try the drive in a different computer if possible. If you can get the drive to recognize in any way, you can try either running SeaTools to check on the drive's health, look into Seagate Recovery Services including but not limited to Lab Recovery Services, or run 3rd party do-it-yourself recovery software (as long as the drive isn't making clicking noises). You'd just have to research online which ones other users have found to work the best in similar situations. If you feel like your drive may be under warranty, you can look into this further by using our Warranty Validation Tool, or getting in touch directly with Seagate Customer Support.

 

[hodge555]

The drive is not reporting to the BIOS, I've tried it on 2 different computers and via 2 different SATA/USB adapters.
It does however power up fine hence why I think this is a PCB fault.
A warranty would only swap the drive for a replacement, no data recovery.
I have no intention of opening the drive but I may try swapping the PCB.

 

[Elixer]

The drive is not reporting to the BIOS, I've tried it on 2 different computers and via 2 different SATA/USB adapters.
It does however power up fine hence why I think this is a PCB fault.
A warranty would only swap the drive for a replacement, no data recovery.
I have no intention of opening the drive but I may try swapping the PCB.

If you have another computer that has internal SATA that you can use, that is how you test to see if BIOS sees it.
The USB adapters are usually too finicky.
Look at the date code on your HD, and revision. It really does need to be the exact same, with only a digit off, it will not work.

 

[hodge555]

As mentioned, the drive is not reporting to the BIOS.
I've tried it on 2 different computers, as direct SATA connections, AND via 2 different SATA/USB adapters.