Author Topic: External Seagate Freeagent HD recovery (Read 7870 times)

jimr · « **on:** May 23, 2011, 12:32:04 am »

My Freeagent Desktop (P/N 9nk2ae-500) is no longer recognized by Windows. The light goes on and pulses when both the power and USB are plugged in. (I tried different USB ports and cords as well). I took it and the power supply cord to Best Buy; the Geek Squad guy says the power supply is fine, and he couldn't even get the drive to light up. Data recovery would cost $250-$1600; I would like the files back but not quite that much.

Silver Stripes wrote "If all else fails take the drive out of its enclosure and connect it directly to the computer as a regular internal drive and start from there getting your data back....".

First thing: There's no obvious way of opening it, unless it involves prying a seam with a screwdriver.

White Stripes · « **Reply #1 on:** May 23, 2011, 02:42:08 am »

late reply... had to use google images but it looks exactly like mine just black case instead of white.... 250gb could also be ide too instead of sata but i kinda doubt it....

if this drive is really kaput... and prying the thing open doesnt bother you.. then yes... thats what you need to do .... remove the rubber feat first to see if there are any screws under them incase things are different in that sense but if the feet were removable to begin with (came seperate in the box in a little bag) then there arent any screws holding this case together....

keep the screwdriver near the edge tho... if the drive itself stilll does work you dont want to accidentally stab it to death.... and tbh once i got one of the edges of the case on mine open, the rest of the case could just be pulled apart by hand... (attack the 'front' corners... dont aim for the back... too close to the drive)

after that the drive complete with its usb bridge circuitry and some odd square 'feet' attached can be lifted out of the bottom half with no tools... its basically just sitting in that cheapie case so make sure not to send it flying when you pull it open!

jimr · « **Reply #2 on:** May 25, 2011, 02:13:02 am »

Ok, I forced it open and pulled the drive out. Can I just open up my computer and try to follow these instructions http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-us&name=install-troubleshoot-sata-non-mac&vgnextoid=2b089d2c3c90e010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

White Stripes · « **Reply #3 on:** May 25, 2011, 02:49:42 am »

if you already removed that usb bridge of course... at that point its a standard sata drive... just connect it like any other sata drive

jimr · « **Reply #4 on:** May 29, 2011, 05:27:26 pm »

The connections don't seem to match - my b/u computer (inherited from my father) has IDE/PATA Cable. Can I use an adapter? And my main PC, which I was avoiding messing with, has SCSI

White Stripes · « **Reply #5 on:** May 29, 2011, 08:05:58 pm »

there are IDE to SATA adaptors (they usually only allow one drive per channel tho so no master/slave function is possible) .... and i have -no- idea if there are any SCSI to SATA adaptors... logic would say such a thing could technically exsist but i dont know of such...

there is always this route; http://www.satacard.com/ but ive not tried it...

in any case you will most likely need to get a power connector adaptor as well...

jimr · « **Reply #6 on:** June 08, 2011, 04:36:53 pm »

Hey, it worked like a charm. First I brought the drive and a new drive to a guy with an external SATA reader and copied most of the files to the new one (Western Digital Passport that I got on sale). After 3 hours (thanks Winmx for all the videos I've collected) I had to leave, and the next day spent an hour at another guy's house to finish up.