Expansion · Backup Plus · One Touch · Game Drive · FreeAgent
A failed Seagate external is recovered here for £300 + VAT, fixed in writing before any work. Most Seagate portables up to 2TB contain the same thin 2.5-inch drive family, and it has a habit, when dropped or tired, of parking its heads on the platter instead of beside it: you hear a beep or a buzz. Every attempt to spin it drags the heads across the surface, so the most useful thing you can do tonight is leave it unplugged. Many Seagate drives also came with a Rescue plan, which is worth checking before anything else; if it is valid and you can wait, it is already paid for. 3–4 days at the bench.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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| Family | Models | Drive inside, and how it connects |
|---|---|---|
| Backup Plus Slim, Expansion Portable, One Touch 1–2TB | STHN…, STEA…, STKM…, STGX…, STKY… prefixes | Seagate 7mm Rosewood (ST1000LM035, ST2000LM007), separate USB board |
| 4TB and 5TB portables | Backup Plus Portable, Expansion Portable, One Touch 4/5TB | Seagate 15mm 2.5-inch (ST4000LM024, ST5000LM000 family), separate USB board |
| Desktops | Expansion Desktop (STEB…, STKP…), Backup Plus Desktop and Hub (STEL…), One Touch Hub | Seagate 3.5-inch Barracuda-class, separate USB board, 12V mains |
| Game Drives | Game Drive for Xbox, for PlayStation, Game Drive Hub, FireCuda Gaming Hub | 2.5-inch Rosewood or 3.5-inch Seagate, console-formatted |
| Legacy | FreeAgent Go, FreeAgent Desk, GoFlex, GoFlex Desk | 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch Seagate, some Desk units with Barracuda 7200.11 drives |
| What you see | The usual reason | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| Shows 0 bytes or no size in Disk Management | The drive has locked and is not loading its firmware | Firmware from the terminal; usually a good outcome |
| A FreeAgent Desk from 2008 that vanished overnight | Possibly the 7200.11 firmware fault | Repaired from the terminal; data intact |
| Beeping, no spin | Heads stuck to the platter, common on the thin 2.5-inch drives | Heads lifted and replaced; read once |
| Shown at 0 bytes, or a tiny capacity | The drive has locked and is not loading its firmware | Firmware work from the terminal; usually a good outcome |
| USB device not recognised | The bridge, or a drive that is not starting | Board work, or the drive itself |
| SeaTools says the drive is not responding | Stop testing | Send it |
A case number goes on it the day the parcel is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually failed before anything else happens. A drive that clicks or beeps is not powered again; one that spins is read on our own imaging equipment, never in a computer that will retry and time out and retry. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.
Every external drive is two things: the drive, and the USB board that talks to it. The board is checked first, because a failed bridge, a snapped socket or a dead regulator is the whole fault on a good share of jobs, and because on WD's encrypted drives the board holds the key. Where the drive itself has stopped, it comes out of its case onto the bench.
Stuck or failed heads are replaced with a matched set from a donor, seized spindles freed, and firmware faults corrected in the drive's service area from the terminal. The drive is not repaired to be used again; it is made to read once, in a single careful pass, and that pass is planned before it begins.
Nothing is worked on live. The whole drive is imaged once, head by head and weak areas last, with reads timed to what the platters can stand, and the file system is put back together on the image. Encrypted volumes are unlocked there too, with the original board's key or the password you supply, and never on the original.
What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
Heads stuck to the platter, and, having read this page, the owner did not tap it. On the clean bench the heads were freed and replaced with a matched set, the terminal unlocked, and the drive imaged head by head over three nights. Every file in the wedding folder came back, and the ones around it.
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine caseIt is cheaper if you have it, because you have already paid. It is slower, up to thirty business days, and you do not get the original drive back unless you ask. We are faster, at £300 + VAT, and you keep the drive.
Its terms may exclude cover after unauthorised attempts. Check with Seagate before the drive goes anywhere, and decide once.
It is firmware, and it is usually one of the better outcomes: the drive is unlocked from the terminal and the data is intact.
Heads stuck to the platter, common on the thin 2.5-inch drives inside the Backup Plus Slim and Expansion Portable. Unplug it and do not tap it.
If the data matters, yes. The price is the same £300 + VAT, and the free look tells you what is there before any charge.
The heads are lifted on the bench, not by a knock on a desk. The first look is free, and the figure is in writing before any chargeable work.