First off, Hi there!
I've been around for a while, but never had much to say...until now. I know you are all so very helpful and I am in need of some helpful people!
My Seagate is hiccupping and I don't know what to do!
I have my 500gb Seagate Drive for a while and never had an issue, and all of a sudden my computer wont recognize it. The light on the drive comes on (and stays on), but the computer never recognizes that there is a drive connected. My external just 'hiccups", it is a chirping sound every few seconds. My smaller seagate (freeagent drive) does that when it doesn't have enough power, but I've tried the 500 gb in several outlets and on two different computers (both pc...I know, I want nothing more than to be mac...)
Is there anyone out there that has expererienced these problems? I had just been doing some backing up on it a week ago and really need a few files that are only one that hard drive! Please help if you can!

i would think it's not getting enough power, too. that's been my experience with the seagates.

hmm.... try their customer support. i seem to remember chatting with someone and they helped.

btw- if you do swtich to mac, there are still issues ~ have them on both platforms with power and formatting.

I had EXACTLY this same problem with a Maxtor (even the hicups!), which is made by seagate. I called the customer support, and they told me it was dead and I had to have it replaced. I did send it for a replacement, and recieved the new one in about two weeks. EVERYTHING on the drive was backed up in another Drive for that purpose. I never thought I would have that happen... but I did.

Hopefully you have a backup?

Thanks ladies. I just got off the phone with them and they were happy to look at it for $1700! Short answer...I don't have that.
I am emailing a friend to see if he can help me out. Luckily I have all my business work in other places, I lost my music (but I'm not worried about that), the worst part is I don't know what else was on it! I am sure I will figure it out once I can't find what I need someday, hopefully that day won't come.
Thanks for the help, and I still welcome any other advice, I just hate to give up already!

when you switch to mac, shoot me a PM or an e-mail and i'll be happy to assist you with any questions you may have.

I had a similar issue with mine, and i found removing and replacing the power cord semed to work...im looking at getting it replaced tho, not worth loosing everything

Thanks so much! I'm sure I will take you up on that!

Cassidy,
Does the HD have it's own power supply or are you using the USB power to run the drive. If you are using an external power supply it may be failing. I have heard of USB plugs that varied in output on the same machine...
I burned out an external drive because I left the external PS plugged in all the time and the drive never went to sleep...

If you know of anyone who can test the power output of the PS, that would rule out 1 point. Then move to the HD, if you can get it work...back it up immediately!

JM

Thanks for the advice! I am sending it to a friend over the weekend...he has been known to work miracles when it comes to these things, hopefully it turns out ok!

Hope it works out OK!

JM

If you have data on the drive that you need to recover I highly recommend a program called SpinRite. It has saved my hiney a few times at work recovering data off a drive on the way out. It's not 100%, but worth a shot. If your friend is unable to help you out I'd be more than happy to throw the drive in a PC for you and turn SpinRite loose. It can take a while to run but I was able to recover data from a disc that I had written off. One thing to note about external drives is they can cause the drive inside the housing to run hot which eventually can damage the drive. Also of note, running a tool like SpinRite requires connecting the raw drive directy to to a motherboard disk controller so it must be removed from any USB/Firewire housing which will typically void the warranty.

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

I had this same exact problem a few months ago. my computer just didn't recognize my (**Seagate**) drive, and then it wouldn't recognize it on any other computer I tried... I took it to all the (*unhelpful*) people at Geek Squad - absolutely no help and very unfriendly- bad customer service.. they didn't even try!*), also a took it to one of my old IT co-workers,.. he tried, bless his heart, but no help. He agreed with me that it was just not receiving power to power the drive, but after taking it all apart, still no luck. I finally sent it off to Drive Savers and they were able to recover it and move the data to another external drive. Cost me over $2K but my biz insurance paid for it.
I think Seagate is a piece of crap. I would recommend never getting one again, and sending your stuff off to Drive Savers-- awesome people!

Good luck!

All drives are terrible and will eventually fail. At least Seagate/Maxtor has a five year warranty. They won't recover your data (one should have ample backups making that moot) but they WILL replace the drive.