Many people who contact us use Seagate drives and as such, Seagates are one of the most frequently recovered drives. While either an internal Barracuda (that now clicks) or external Backup Plus (that refuses to be mounted) may seem like a total loss of data, the likelihood is very high the data is still present.
Most Seagate failures fall into two categories: mechanical failure or a faulty enclosure board, not lost data. Simply power-down your drive and receive a complimentary diagnosis prior to running the drive any further.
In addition to being one of the two largest manufacturers of hard drives, Seagate has produced many of the popular desktop and portable drives including the Barracuda line. As a result of this popularity, we recover a large number of Seagate drives. While there are no real issues with most Seagate models, a few different model families are very well represented in our company's recovery logs due to well-documented failures. Knowing what type of drive you have will help guide the recovery process. Fortunately, regardless of whether a failure occurred mechanically or was caused by firmware issues, your data almost always remains intact on the platters until accessed.
There are several common types of failures which account for most Seagate cases. These include both mechanical and firmware-related failures and identifying these types is typically the first step in recovering any Seagate drive.
Several of the Barracuda families (the 3TB ST3000DM001 especially) have been documented to exhibit faulty heads resulting in clicks and grinding noises. Turn off your system immediately when you hear the first click.
Many older versions of the Barracuda 7200.11 family of drives have exhibited an issue with the drive locking into a “Busy” mode after cycling power a number of times; this occurs because of a firmware logging issue. Once locked into this “Busy” mode the drive disappears from the BIOS or displays 0GB available space, but the contents of the drive remain intact.
Seagate stores calibration data and defect tables in a hidden portion of the drive platter. When either of these areas becomes corrupted a normally functioning drive may spin up but report incorrect capacities or fail to properly identify itself.
A power surge can damage the circuit board, however the disk platter itself is usually okay. You need to get the drive serviced, moving the original ROM over so you don't lose the identity of the drive.
As time goes by older hard-drives will experience sectors which cannot be read. They appear as a slow read (or no read), freezes and display SMART warnings. This indicates you should make a backup of the contents and have the drive inspected.
There is one issue with Seagate drives that is well-known enough to have given it an individual name. The Barracuda 7200.11 along with several other drives in this family had a firmware bug. After a certain amount of power cycling the firmware would become locked in a “Busy” state. To an outsider it may look like disaster; the drive either does not show up in the BIOS at all, or if it does it appears as though there is no storage space available (0GB). In actuality, nothing has happened to your files: the problem is only a firmware lock. To fix the problem you have to access the service area on the drive, remove the flag indicating the error and then correct the problematic module. This represents a great example of a quirky characteristic of a Seagate drive that appears disastrous, but is easily repaired in capable hands.
What course of action to pursue first depends upon whether or not your drive is making noise when attempting to start-up or if it doesn't show up at all. Regardless of which case you find yourself in, follow these guidelines.
Look for the ST number on the label. It will give us the correct method for the family of drives. Check if it's clicking, reading as 0GB (or some other value), or if the system doesn't detect it at all.
A click from a Barracuda indicates a mechanical failure, possibly a head crash. Every additional spin could be putting your platters at risk.
Send it in via drop-off service or send it through an insured postal service. We will then let you know the type of problem with the drive and what data is recoverable prior to your spending any money.
All Seagate recovery is specific to each product line, and handled in-house. Getting the correct "family" of your product is step #1; incorrect firmware profiles will fail.
We can determine the exact family using your model number, then determine whether the problem is mechanical, firmware or electronic, and give you both a definitive answer and a fixed price written quote before doing anything else.
In the case of a 7200.11-style lock or corrupted service area, we reset the flag and rebuild the damaged modules, thus preserving your original heads, and avoiding a head donor swap.
If there has been a head failure in your hard drive, a matching donor head stack will be fitted and used to image your failed hard drive prior to the donor heads wearing out.
We repair the faulty PCB from the original hard drive and carry over the ROM of the original hard drive. All sectors are imaged read-only for protection, and prior to you committing, we generate an itemised list for verification.
The most common types of questions regarding Seagate products that our customers ask us.
Often not. This pattern usually indicates either the 7200.11-type firmware lock or the service area was corrupted; both are considered firmware issues as opposed to mechanical failures. The data is intact, and recovery can occur through correction of the firmware in the non-accessible areas of the drive without physically accessing the drive itself.
Stop using it. Clicks are generally indicative of physical problems such as the head hitting the platter or other internal mechanisms, a known issue on some Barracuda families. It is possible that running the drive may cause further damage to the platters. If caught early, these clicks can typically be resolved by replacing the failing heads. However if left unchecked, additional physical failures could potentially result.
There are serial-cable fixes available for the problem, however they require a level of technical knowledge & dexterity to perform correctly. Don't take risks with a device containing valuable data that you cannot afford to lose: a failed fix may be more costly than just sending it to us for repair.
It will greatly help as the ST number (or equivalent) identifies the drive model, version of the firmware and possible donor parts needed to complete the repair. This information is NOT required as we will simply read this information directly from the drive label if it is sent to us.
Initial single drive price starts at £300 + VAT, plus a complimentary diagnostic. In most cases, you will only pay if we recover your data. For all physical repair work, a 50% deposit is required for both parts and bench time. And you will only need to pay the remaining 50% if we recover your data.
Your Barracuda has stopped working after clicking, your drive was displaying a 0 GB firmware error or your drive has disappeared altogether? Send it to us for a FREE diagnosis. We will clearly outline the exact failure(s), identify what may be recovered and provide an honest assessment as to whether there is a viable option for recovering your data.