Frustrated doesn't even begin to explain how I'm feeling right now. I have a 500gb external Seagate hard drive that I purchased about 6 months ago. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-250gb of information on the drive including all of my weddings from this year, all my business related files, and more.

Obviously after each wedding I back up, so most of the information is already backed up. The problem began about 2 weeks ago. I would be viewing my images with ACDSee (I'm a pc user) and then the hard drive would seem to lose connection with the computer. I would unplug it, let it cool down, and try again and it would be fine. I didn't think too much of it at the time (duh).

After my last wedding I downloaded my images to the drive, and went to burn a dvd and it would burn about 1/4 way through then freeze. At this point I can access the drive for a few minutes before it freezes. I'm slowly trying to transfer files to my desktop, but the drive continually freezes making it very difficult. For example, yesterday I tried to move files over to my dektop - on first attempt it transfered 1600 files then froze, second time around about 500 files then froze, and wasn't accessible at all after that. I think it is overheating.

I've called seagate (this drive has a 5 year warranty), and they basically are just like "yeah sounds like your drive is failing, transfer as much info off of it as possible" - great so helpful. Then the transfer me to the recovery department who informs me that it will be between $700-$2400 to get all my information off of it. Is it just me or does it seem ridiculous that I should have to pay that much money to get my information off of their faulty drive?

Anyway, I'm not ready to part with the drive to technical support until I feel I have done everything I can to get my stuff off the drive. Can anyone offer an advice? If i keep trying to transfer stuff will I make it worse?

Any insight or advice would be highly appreciated.

All of my weddings are baked up to dvd/pictage, etc but much of my personal/other stuff isn't and I'm just soooo beyond frustrated. Please help. Thanks in advance!!

I'm no expert but I would think that the more you continue to use it, the more likely it is you'll have a complete failure. Of course, how are you supposed to get your data off if you shouldn't be using it, right?

If this was my drive, I would probably try copying 10 files at a time, instead of 1,000. Maybe the drive will be happier with little nibbles instead of big bites. Of course, you'll have to babysit it and not walk away, but it might work.

It is certainly rare for a drive to die after just six months, so I think you simply got a lemon.

Seagate's fee is in line with other reputable recovery companies, although someone posted a less expensive option recently. It's really your call to decide how important those personal images are to you. I would probably spend the money and learn the hard lesson about backup. It's great that your professional work is not in jeopardy, but it's too bad that the personal stuff could be.

Hope that helps! Keep us posted so we all can learn from it.

Put the drive in a freezer for an hour or two, then try it. If possible, keep it in the freezer while connected.

I successfully got my data from a drive this way. I know it sounds odd, but worth a try.

Scott

That actually makes a lot of sense to me, since it seems as though it's shutting down from overheating... wish me luck

Before you put it in the freezer, just turn down the a/c and put a fan blowing directly on it.

If you can't get the info off, the next step is to put the drive in a new enclosure. That's very easy. You can do it yourself.

Heat is the biggest enemy of electronics, so make sure they are kept cool.

You could also get one of these IDE>USB adapters, instead of trying a new enclosure as John suggested.

Either way would work though.

Yes - the same thing without the enclosure - and easy to keep it cool. I still want to get one of those.

Ditto.
Sounds like an overheating problem.
Perhaps you can even try adding this drive internally as a 2nd drive if either you or a techie friend know how to do this.

HA! You sound EXACTLY like my hubby when he called Seagate for help getting the data off our 500gig drive that failed a few months ago. In ours, the motor died out of the blue with no warning. They said "Sorry about that. We'll send you a new one." They then charged us $2600 to get the data off the drive (and it took a month and a half to get it back from them even though they promised it would be back in 5 days).

So anyway, I'm not much help to ya, but I empathize. Good luck!

quick update:

I tried cooling down the hard drive in the freezer, but when I tried to plug it back in it the computer didn't even recognize it. I tried not to freak out at this point and headed to Fry's to get a new enclosure. I decided on one that was supposed to be particularly efficient in cooling.

It took me forever to get the hard drive from the old enclosure to the new, since I really had no idea what I was doing and really didn't want to cause damage. But I did my best and it seems to be working. I was able to transfer many of the files I was most worried about to my desktop, and it hasn't had an trouble staying plugged in for the best hour or so. The only problem at this point is that a few files seem to have been corrupted, but no major damage. I'm still going to transfer all the files to a new hard drive and get rid of this one because it is making me too nervous.

Thanks everyone for your help! SOO much appreciated.

On a side note, apparently my brother would have been able to recover my files if needed (I didn't know he did that! I just knew he worked for the Navy), but good to know for future problems

I am so glad for you.

Ironicly, the same thing happened to me tonite after returning home from work. Some mysterious force seems to have knocked my external drive onto the floor (I have 2 other people sharing my computer besides myself, who seem to know nothing about this. ;-) ), where it must have overheated as the fan was no longer working. Now, the drive just does not spin at all. Even after connecting directly to the MB and into another enclosure. It acts as if there is no power at all.
Anyway, I went through the same steps as previously prescribed, but no luck, the disk is dead with ALL of my photos on it!!!!!!!
This is also a Seagate hard drive. Is this a pattern? I am not sure. I have another older Seagate drive that works fine.
I am just sick over this. Do to a combination of just plain procrastination and depression due to a death in my family, I have not backed-up for the past 2 months (and two weddings!!!)
I am looking into what I can do among my techie friends tomorrow, but any input here is welcome.

The next step is to replace the actual drive electronics - which would mean buying an identical drive to swap with. I don't know how practical that is to do yourself.

I always have my current working files on an internal drive, recent backups on an external, and various DVD backups as well.

I stick failing drives in the freezer all the time.. It's a cheap "can't make it worse" solution most of the time.

Just make sure to stick the drive in an antistatic bag and then put that into a sealed ziploc bag to keep any moisture out.

I tried the freezer, thanks - no luck.
I agree that it's the drives 'lectronics.
Actually, I hope this is true as this is the most affordable fix available.
This will take some time to resolve, but I'll update this thread with the resolution.

That link I posted above for the adapter cable is no longer valid. They just changed their site today! What timing.

So, here's a fresh link:

http://www.granitedigital.com/index.asp?Pa...D&ProdID=15