Hi there. I bought a Barracuda 7200.11 1TB over a year ago, and it's not being picked up by the bios anymore. Being my main drive it's rendered the PC useless. Using other people's machines and looking online I see that the problem struck everyone else over a year ago - about when I bought mine. Typical. But what to do about it? Searching around, there seem to be a number of solutions with no guarantee of success. One place says build a connecting doobery with bits from ******'s, others say do a firmware upgrade with potential risk of disaster. Obviously I never backed anything up (IDIOT!), not that it'd do me much good unless I buy another HD. So if anybody could help me in the direction of a fairly simple (alright, devastatingly simple) and safe remedy to get this drive of mine alive again, I'd be most damnably grateful. Thanks!
Seagate Barracuda dead?
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certainly did - so I reckon it's from the batch that seems to conk out when it gets a certain percent full. Or that was my understanding of it at any rate. I just got a bit worried when reading the seagate archives which said all data would remain intact, and other sources reckoning total carnage if you don't do it right. makes you wonder who to believe!
Erm, I had this problem and it's something I never bothered fixing - I went to china two days after it failed!!
I was quoted £280 to have the drive recovered by several large companies(three times the drives value!!) and luckily I managed to find most the old back-up's. So I was partially saved.
As for the solution, IMHO it's not worth the hassle. The firmware update IIRC was only before a drive was dead. I think it was the drive locking up becuase it found a certain string of info appear.
The best method is supposedly the one that a cuban guy found out. My friends drive was sorted this way after BOTH his drives failed at the same time. But it took him two go's and one week preparing stuff and the weekend to complete his attempts.
I mean to attempt it at some point but it's a lot of hassle.
Or seagate have a dedicated centre for drive recovery (I forget the name). Try them.
Summarising - IMO don't bother unless you need the data and had NO back-ups. Otherwise then your gonna have to pay-up or fix-it.
I was quoted £280 to have the drive recovered by several large companies(three times the drives value!!) and luckily I managed to find most the old back-up's. So I was partially saved.
As for the solution, IMHO it's not worth the hassle. The firmware update IIRC was only before a drive was dead. I think it was the drive locking up becuase it found a certain string of info appear.
The best method is supposedly the one that a cuban guy found out. My friends drive was sorted this way after BOTH his drives failed at the same time. But it took him two go's and one week preparing stuff and the weekend to complete his attempts.
I mean to attempt it at some point but it's a lot of hassle.
Or seagate have a dedicated centre for drive recovery (I forget the name). Try them.
Summarising - IMO don't bother unless you need the data and had NO back-ups. Otherwise then your gonna have to pay-up or fix-it.
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280'd be a bargain given the gravity of what I've lost - I was thinking (or fearing) something like a couple of thousand if not more! Are you allowed to give any names/addresses?
It seems quite ludicrous that a known error wasn't made more apparent to stockists, especially a year or so after it surfaced. One wonders why Overclockers didn't withdraw it from sale, or at the least issue a caveat about the string issue for any purchasers thereafter....bloody drive's *still* getting best buy awards in certain publications too! Clutching at straws, are you *certain* the firmware only worked before the string thing?
Sod that - I'll ruin it even more going on my technical prowess...
Is that Britain or the US? I don't fancy having to courier it over to the States to be honest. Not over security issues, but the cost will be more crippling than the rescue I reckon!
The die is cast, I fear. Thanks very, very much - you've (kind of) put my mind at rest that, although the excrement has hit indeed the fan, nobody's switched it on just yet!
Send it back to seagate - they will send you via their data recovery company and they should recover it for free.
I had one with a firmware error about a year ago too, got it RMA'd OK, but didn't realise they were doing free data recovery too. I had everything important backed up though.
I had one with a firmware error about a year ago too, got it RMA'd OK, but didn't realise they were doing free data recovery too. I had everything important backed up though.