FreeAgent Products

[Cantbecanit]

Powerdatarecovery if the drive shows up in Windows.

If not, try a new cable

If not break it open and slave it as an internal, should read ok then, if recognised but not visible use PDR to scan

[opie99]

Liliane,

I've had several Seagate external drives "fail".  In every case, the drive inside is still in great shape and the data is still safe. Something goes wrong with the housing or circuitry in the unit itself. So as painful as this might sound, the best thing you can do is to extract the internal hard drive from the unit.  They are not designed to allow you to access the drive easily, so you have topry the cover off as best you can with a screwdriver or other flat tool. Take your time, but it is well worth it if you can save your data. Once the drive is removed, you can attach it internally if you have a desktop with a free SATA connection. You can also get an external housing and put the drive in. These housings are pretty easy to work with. Best Buy or online sites have them (newegg.com) Make sure you get a 3.5" SATA version.  Since your data is very valuable, you will find this well worth your time. 

[AskTheLeaf]

---

liliane wrote:

Hi,

I have the same problem with my Seagate Free Agent Go FW 320GB and I am concerned about all the data stored in it during the past 4 years I've had it. Can you please help me? all my work is there and dont even care if I need to buy another HD or how much money I may need to spend as long as I recover all my Data.

Hope you guys have any suggestions, hope seagate can give an answer to what happened with my HD since today.

Thanks a lot,

Liliane.

---

Liliane,

The advice given here to open the hard drive is valid.

However, if warranty coverage is a concern I'd recommend first contacting our warranty department to see if they can work with you on this:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/contact_us/

Before attempting to open the enclosure, please take a look at our external drive troubleshooter:

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=Troubleshooting_Assistance&vgnextoid=15c04a3...

[Joe Bfsplk]

Hello all,

Using a 20 month old Seagate FreeAgent 1TB external drive, PN: 9ZC2AG-500 with only 4 backups on it.

Found this thread after having the same “No external drives were found. Make sure your external drive is connected and turned on” error message. Looks like this problem has been eluding a solution for quite some time.

Situation:

Made a successful .tib backup from computer A, then disconnected and tried to make a backup of another hard drive on computer B. The Seagate Manager software seemed to install OK on B (with the addition of the “Carbonate Online Backup” shortcut on the desktop), and the installer stated at the end that the installation had been successful, but there was an “Unable to write installation information-General error” message behind that window. Evidently, not all the files are being downloaded to the hard drive. That’s when I first saw the “No external drives…” message in the manager.

Since then, I now get the “No external…” message on computer A when opening the manager. I can see and read all my previous backups while on comps A & B by going to “My Computer / Free Agent Drive & “opening” the drive. I just can’t use the manager to start another backup, or anything else. The Seagate shows up as healthy in Device Manager. I’ve plugged and unplugged the cables several times with no change. I’ve tried every USB port with the same results. Have uninstalled Seagate Manager & reinstalled on Comp. B several times with no joy. Since I now get the same error on both computers, I’d guess there’s corruption on the Seagate hard drive.

So, from working on Comp. A, it stopped working literally within a few minutes.

Hopefully, some Guru at Seagate will see these additional clues & come up with an answer, if not solution.

Cheers.

[Cantbecanit]

This is generally the lead or the bridge board, the reason it says it can't find it is because the data transfer method has like a plug in the wall that has come loose isn't talking anymore, try another lead before you open it up.

Also, is the drive clicking and flashing?

[Joe Bfsplk]

Cantbecanit, Thanks for looking at my post.

Specs: Comp A: 2 year old Emachines EL1333G, Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit.

Comp B: 5 year old Compaq Presario laptop, XP Home, 32 bit.

What else might you need to know?

Afraid I don't have another USB lead like the Seagate lead to try, and it will be a while til I can get somewhere that may have them. (I live 30 miles from anywhere)

If there was some sort of break in the USB lead or bridge board, how could I still see the information that's in the backups on the Segate when connected to either computer?

The Freeagent is not clicking or flashing, the light is steady.

Thanx for your time,

Cheers

[Cantbecanit]

If the drive lights are steady illuminated it should be ok, normally when this happens it's an O/S thing and it happens quite a lot when people switch between machines especially different O/S and PC to Laptop.

Download a freebie called Hot Swap, run that and use it to scan for new hardware, it may well pop it back up and it's much better than the Windows tools anyway.

[Joe Bfsplk]

Hi Cantbecanit,

I installed Hotswap, which identified the Freeagent and allows safe removal, but still got the “No external drives were found…” message in the Seagate manager. Went through connecting the Freeagent & safely removing several times with no joy.

However, I then did what I should have tried at first; disconnecting the Freeagent, removing Seagate Manager software from my computer via add/remove programs, to include residual folders left in Programs 86X and then connected Freeagent and reinstalled.

That fixed the problem!

Evidently, there was a corrupted file on the HD. I can only think the corruption was caused by an improper ejection of the Seagate on my part.

Hopefully, this will help someone in the future.

FYI, I went through all the options in Segate manager to look over things but when I checked for updates to Segate manager got the following:

FILE NOT FOUND

HTTP://WWW.segate.com/support/software/AUSegateManager.xml

It all worked for the best as the laptop I wanted to backup was an old one from my Grandkids that I have since discovered is riddled with spyware & trojans. Think I’ll just give it back to them .

At any rate, many thanks for your time and putting up with a noob who should have tried the obvious from the start.

Cheers and all the best for the New Year

[Cantbecanit]

Glad you got it sorted, I have to admit I didn't spot it was the manager not finding it, I thought the drive wasn't showing in Windows, as I read the first line of your last post I thought uninstall manager and re-load, you may have a bad sector right where the manger was installed, this will mean any program caught in a bad sector won't work, it's a real female dog when it's an O/S file that finds itself resident in a dead part of the hdd.

[tt24]

---

"Cantbecanit wrote:

If the drive lights are steady illuminated it should be ok, normally when this happens it's an O/S thing and it happens quite a lot when people switch between machines especially different O/S and PC to Laptop.."

I think i am facing this problem as of now with my freeagent 320 GB go drive. I used it over different OS and pc's and laptops within a short span. Now i am having troble accessing it. How do i correct it?