HELP. Data Recovery from a dead external hard drive: Looks like I got a dead Seagate external hard drive on my hands. With no back up. (ugh) I plugged it into the USB port on my Mac...

BJW

Looks like I got a dead Seagate external hard drive on my hands. With no back up. (ugh) I plugged it into the USB port on my Mac but it does not mount (although it did yesterday). Other external hard drives have no trouble mounting, so it must be the drive itself.

Seagate charges about $600 to recover the data.

Can anyone make a recommendation for a data recovery service that can do it for less?

Thank you. BJ

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

BJW wrote:

Looks like I got a dead Seagate external hard drive on my hands. With no back up. (ugh) I plugged it into the USB port on my Mac but it does not mount (although it did yesterday). Other external hard drives have no trouble mounting, so it must be the drive itself.

Seagate charges about $600 to recover the data.

Can anyone make a recommendation for a data recovery service that can do it for less?

Thank you. BJ

That is actually very cheap, but there is no guarantee that they will be able to recover anything, depending on the mode of failure.

cdayton

Find a good local computer repair shop (avoid the Geeks, in my experience) and they should be able to recover for a lot less than $600.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

If what you have on that drive is worth $600, I'd let Seagate recover the data, provided it can be recovered. If what you have one drive isn't worth the $600, you have a nice paperweight.

The reason I suggest going to the manufacturer is that they know their drives. Others may claim to know them. Perhaps they do. Perhaps they don't and just apply the same across the board recovery tricks. Either way, it's your choice to make.

Oh, and now you know the value of having multiple backups of every important file.
--Bob

BJW wrote:

Looks like I got a dead Seagate external hard drive on my hands. With no back up. (ugh) I plugged it into the USB port on my Mac but it does not mount (although it did yesterday). Other external hard drives have no trouble mounting, so it must be the drive itself.

Seagate charges about $600 to recover the data.

Can anyone make a recommendation for a data recovery service that can do it for less?

Thank you. BJ

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

Just a thought. Put the drive in your freezer for an hour or two. THen plug it in. If the problem was/is misalignment,, the cold will adjust and you might be able to boot it up. If it is the motor, you're done.

Sarge69

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

cdayton wrote:

Find a good local computer repair shop (avoid the Geeks, in my experience) and they should be able to recover for a lot less than $600.

I agree. When my old laptop died it had a lot of files that I didn't back up (and it wasn't worth the time to reconstruct them); I took the old laptop into the computer store (locally owned and operated) where I bought the new one; they charged a fee to see if any on the files could be recovered and if I went forward with the recovery they would deduct the fee from the final charge. They recovered all the files and it cost a lot less than $600 (otherwise I would have recreated all of the files).

BJW

Sarge:
I'm a great believer in improvising. But the freezer seems a bit risky. Have you ever tried it?
It was working fine thismorning.
The irony is I bought carbon Copy Cloner an hour ago, I plugged a new drive in to the my Mac which would serve as the back up drive. then I plugged the drive with the photos in to run a full backup. Boom, no photos. Go figure.

The "no back up gremlin" caught me-- for the first time in about 40 years of using computers and backing up religiously.

Like they say in the old country, "oy vay".

Thanks all.

BJ

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

If you are willing to do some technician work - it is possible the controller card is bad but the drive and data is still OK -
Here is a video that shows how to recover the data - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cTZBMi-XwQ

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

BJW wrote:

Sarge: br I'm a great believer in improvising. But... (show quote)

Try plugging the 'defective' drive in first to see if it will mount. Then, plug in your other drive that you want to move the images to.

BJW

Tried that. Even had Mac tech support on the phone to see if it may be the Mac. The youtube video that Shellback recommended is very informative. Thanks much. Hopefully its only the SATA card which they can replace and all the data is still in tact. Keeping my fingers crossed.
BJ

wmontgomery Loc: Louisiana

If you have a windows or linux machine that you can run the recovery software on, get SpinRite at GRC.com for $89 with 30 day guarantee. I have used if for years for drive maintenance and recovery. Also drives that SpinRite could not 'see' I have placed in freezer for 2 hours and they started spinning again.

canon Lee

BJW wrote:

Looks like I got a dead Seagate external hard drive on my hands. With no back up. (ugh) I plugged it into the USB port on my Mac but it does not mount (although it did yesterday). Other external hard drives have no trouble mounting, so it must be the drive itself.

Seagate charges about $600 to recover the data.

Can anyone make a recommendation for a data recovery service that can do it for less?

Thank you. BJ

I know its a bit late for this suggestion but I have a backup for my backup x-drives. I also keep very few on my computers HD, just the ones that I like.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Question number one is the drive spinning up? (You can feel it if it is)

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

BJW wrote:

Sarge: br I'm a great believer in improvising. But... (show quote)

You mentioned that you plugged in a new drive and then the original drive. Are they both USB attached and did you have them plugged in simultaneously? Just wondering if you exceeded the current limit on the USB port(s) or have a USB bus contention issue. I would at least try rebooting with both of the drives unplugged and then plugging in the original only and see if (a) it spins up, and (b) can you see it as a drive letter?

BJW

TriX wrote:

Question number one is the drive spinning up? (You can feel it if it is)

Yes. I can feel it spinning. so it must be the connector between the drive and the USB port. I changed the cable. So I suspect it is the SATA bridge that I watched on the you tube video.
Before sending it off to Seagate, I'm going to put it in the freezer for 2 hours. I'm not gonna knock home remedies...