Other External products

[JonasSkold]

Hello!

I recently purchased a Seagate Expansion 3TB USB 3.0 and connected it into my newly installed computer with Win 7
Everything worked fine for a week, until today.

When I woke up today, I saw some movies and played games from the disk and it worked fine, around noon I shut the computer down and went off to work.
When I got home an hour ago (at 9 pm) I started the computer and the disk didn't work anymore.

It said that a file was broken and couldn't be read. I was asked if I wanted to format the drive. I could not access files or view them.

I can't see what the problem might be. I left the apartment right after I turned off the computer (when the disk worked). So I have not moved the disk a millimeter.

I have tested other USB inputs and tried to unplug the power cord and replace. I have the newest USB drivers, otherwise the disk wouldn't have worked in the first place. Nothing I've tried have worked.

Thanks in advance / Jonas

[AskTheLeaf · Accepted solution]

Whenever you're being prompted to format the drive it's generally an indication that the files have become corrupted. It's unfortunately not always clear what has caused this, but most times in my experience it's been due to drives not being safely removed from the computer.

If you don't have a backup of your data and need to retrieve the information, you can try data recovery software with the drive. There are some free versions available on the internet, or you are welcome to use Seagate's software:

http://www.seagate.com/services-software/data-recovery-services/consumers/file-recovery-software/

Once ready to format, you can also test the drive with our SeaTools for Windows utility to see if it's still in good working order:

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

Let me know if you have any questions.
 

[JonasSkold]

All right. Yeah I don't think it'll be a problem to get back the files.

But just to make things clear.. Am I supposed to use the "safe remove" every single time I shut down my computer?

Seems strange since I've left lots of regular USBs in the computer and shutting down/restarting the computer hundreds of times. Never had any problem doing so. But if that's the solution that's fine.

Other than that, I really enjoy the disc

[AskTheLeaf]

If you are shutting down your computer fully, you don't need to safely remove the drive prior to. Here's a knowledge base article with some additional information about the process:

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/199611en?language=en_US

[music4al]

I can certainly feel your frustration with your purchase but since according to the rules on this forum, I supposed to remain unemotional about the problems regarding my 3TB Expansion drive and can't rant and rave, it is hard to do so but I'll try to only state the following facts.

I purchased a 3Tb USB3 Expansion Drive less than a year ago, and within 2 weeks the drive ultimately failed, it wouldn't be recogized by Seatools and Win7, causing me to lose 800 gb of data, I was distraught about the loss of data but felt that given time it could be replaced, I sent the drive into Seagate with the requirement that I didn't need data recovery and it was ultimately replaced by what I believe is a new expansion drive and not a refurbished drive,

The drive I have received has been in use for a while with me only transferring data to it that could be easily replaced to and it has seemed to be working, however recently I needed to transfer about 1200 GB to the drive in order for me to do a specific project. Later in the day I came back home to find the drive again has failed but at least this time it said that I have to reformat the drive, unfortunately that doesn't seem possible under Win7 since it's having problems recognizing the drive. The data on this drive can not be easily replaced and some cannot be replaced whatsoever.

I again have contacted Seagate regarding the improbability that 2 drives that I have recieved from them in a year have failed.

The response I received from them is that the drive must have been accidently formatted...unfortunately I don't think the drive can do that spontaneously when no one is around so I have to look to other possibilities  I have gone on the internet to see if any more people have had similar problems and any solutions regarding this product line (3TB expansion drive) and was surprised at the number.

Seagate has offered they're Data Recovery Services at a cost but at this time have still not addressed the problems yet regarding the fact that this being a replacement drive for the original and it to has failed as well in less than a year.

Since Seagate made some design changes in the way the drive behaves (no power on switch, software control)  I'm wondering if the new design is at the root of the problem.

Please note: I have used Seagate drives all the way back to the ST-251-1 (40mb drive) and continue to use there desktop drives which in all these years have proved extremely reliable, it's just when I have purchased their external drive that all this have happened.

I'm currently awaiting Seagate's response to see what they can do for me.