Seagate Customer service

Rhyswh

Rhyswh

Rhyswh

Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2012
Posts
806
Hi, bought a new Seagate portable HDD 4 months ago, was working fine then all of a sudden last week it just stopped! Doesn't spin up anymore and no computer recognises it. I bought it for my sister in law to back up all her data ready for a fresh install of Windows on her laptop. I asked her to move everything across but for some reason she moved over all her pictures and deleted them off the laptop so all of her photos were on the HDD. Now that it's not working she's lost all of them! I feel terrible as I bought the HDD, I know it's not my fault and it's just bad luck but still...

So I've contacted Seagate to ask about data recovery, I went through the data recovery process first and they want something like £375 to do it lol I've told them as this is a brand new HDD I won't be paying a penny as it shouldn't just die in 4 months.

But the question is has anyone dealt with Seagate customer service before? If so, are they any good? Should I expect to pay anything?

Thanks in advance
 
Pay up no other choice...

Unless you pay enterprise level costs then data is not covered by warranty. A new drive is all you can expect. The old rule of data, if you cannot afford to loose the data have it backed up multiple times!
 
As with most things, your warranty covers the device, not consequential losses. They are not going to give your sister's photos hundreds of pounds worth of free data recovery because she didn't keep copies.
 
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But surely the fact that this was the backup during a fresh install means something! 4 months, you don't expect something that new to stop working, I'm not sure why she deleted them but surely Seagate should cover this. It's their product that's faulty and has caused the backup to be lost! If they cover the device, and it's the device that's lost the data then surely they have some obligation to recover that data?

This sucks!
 
sorry to hear you have lost your data. its a shame its died only after 4 months as ive not had any drive, external or not die this quickly.

I have a Seagate 2tb external drive and never had any issues.

what happens when you try and connect it to a PC? can you hear the drive trying to do anything?
 
Unfortunately the posters above are correct.

Seagate Limited Warranty

What Does This Limited Warranty Not Cover?
This limited warranty does not cover any problem that is caused by (a) commercial use, accident, abuse, neglect, shock, electrostatic discharge, degaussing, heat or humidity beyond product specifications, improper installation, operation, maintenance or modification; or (b) any misuse contrary to the instructions in the user manual; or (c) lost passwords; or (d) malfunctions caused by other equipment. This limited warranty is void if a product is returned with removed, damaged or tampered labels or any alterations (including the unauthorized removal of any component or external cover). This limited warranty does not cover data loss – back-up the contents of your drive to a separate storage medium on a regular basis. Also, consequential damages; incidental damages; and costs related to data recovery, removal, and installation are not recoverable under this warranty.
Click to expand...
 
Any suggestions on data recovery software? The HDD was formatted though so it was wiped clean. Is it still possible that it will work?

It sucks because this is the back up drive! 20 mins, that's all I needed it to survive! lol what a joke! They can't expect people to have 2 drives for back up whilst doing this kind of stuff! That's just stupid!

She just got married in August so all of her wedding photos and honeymoon photos are on there! (I'm sure she has her wedding photos on a disc though) She was gutted when I said the drive is dead! I assumed that Seagate would deal with this so told her there shouldn't be a problem! Just dug myself a bigger hole! So annoyed, it's not my fault in any way but I feel so guilty!

Is there no way I could send the drive to be fixed and retain the data?

So far I'm not very impressed with the customer service. Opened a case, takes you through a process of choosing a department and explaining what the problem is. So I chose data recovery, got an email the next day saying that Carlos can't help and I need to contact the data recovery team! I emailed Carlos back and explained that I'd already chosen data recovery when I opened the case! He just gave me a link to the data recovery page (which is where you get the quote of £375!). I asked him to forward the message to the appropriate team. Not had reply yet.

I will never trust Seagate again unfortunately :(
 
It may be the enclosure that's knackered and not the HDD itself.

You could crack open the enclosure and if it's a standard SATA HDD inside you can connect it directly to a PC and see if it works.

Google the model and you'll probably find details of how to open the enclosure and what sort of HDD is inside.

The downside of this is that the warranty will be void and Seagate will likely no longer be interested in recovering any data off it.

You pays your money...
 
Depends how it was formatted - if a quick format the data itself won't have been overwritten (apart from anything since written to the drive), just the index cleared. Recuva or similar is good at finding deleted files.
 
Rhyswh said:
It sucks because this is the back up drive! 20 mins, that's all I needed it to survive! lol what a joke! They can't expect people to have 2 drives for back up whilst doing this kind of stuff! That's just stupid!
Click to expand...

You should have at least 3 copies of important files.

1) Original
2) Local backup
3) Offsite backup
 
I understand how important it is to back stuff up, but we're talking about someone who just uses the laptop occasionally. Not really computer savy so buying a brand new hdd to use as a form of back up and transferring for a fresh install she didn't expect it to die straight away! How many prople do you reckon that go to PCworld, buy a laptop and then 2 hdd to go with it, or set up some sort of online back up......probably none! I think it's wrong that companies such as Seagate deny any sort of responsibility for the data stored on their drives. even if it was for a few months or something! its their drive thats failed, regardless of where else that data is stored!

Appreciate all the help though guys, just venting some frustration at the moment! Gonna have to tell her this evening that they won't do anything about it :(
 
It's still worth a try with recovery software, you might find something, which is always better than nothing. That, and try the hard disk outside of the enclosure too, it could be the enclosure that's gone.
 
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