Seagate Freeagent External HD Dead?

[leocanuck]

I have a Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500 GB - USB only. I managed to knock it on the floor pretty hard, fairly thick carpet. The USB connector was bent about 20 degrees where it joins the HD. I bent it back and hooked it up. It seems that the drive is dead. The yellow light comes on. However, the laptop won't recognize that it's there. I tried a different USB cable and same result. I can't remember what the drive sounded like when it worked, but now I hear a very faint pop every few seconds. I'm in a bush camp, so I can't do much more testing.

Does anyone know how to open up the enclosure? I just want to make sure it's not something else loose inside. I suppose that would void the warranty, but I'm more concerned about the data.

 

[IlllI]

are there any visible screws that you can see?

 

[leocanuck]

None whatsoever. It's a plastic shell with a base.

See http://www.seagate.com/www/en-...t_desktop_data_movers/

 

[leocanuck]

Was able to open it up by prying off the bottom piece of the base and unscrewing from there. The drive is a 500 GB 7200.10 Seagate Barracuda, and still didn't work after I hooked up the relevant bits - same popping sound. I'll try to install it on my PC at home, but fear it is done for.

 

[Azimuth40]

I have the same unit and there is no poping sound it is pretty much dead silent just the sci-fi effect like pulsating yellow light strip to let you know it is working. I also have dual internal SATA 7200.10 500G drives no popping sound there either.

Normally a popping sound is an attempt to seek to track 0 followed by repeated recalibration across the disk to the stop and then back to where track 0 should be. The seek of death is more often a western digital "feature" but all drives eventually do it.

If you dropped it with power on more than likely you had a head crash in a data area and a RMA is your only solution. I doubt if Seagate when they designed the freeagent considered high G shock an issue. Unfortunately your data is probably gone. A drive will not post unless track 0 is perfect. 2.5 inch drives handle drop shock a lot better than the 3.5 inch ones. I carry a 1.8 inch soyo 40 gig in my pocket all the time that constantly gets banged around with power on and off. There are the ipods which also seem to handle dropping better. However if you need 500Gigs for a field database there are not many options. WD sells a nice 2.5 160 gig with a padded case that probably stands shock better.