We’ve been seeing a lot of Barracudas (desktops) and IronWolves (NAS) and have also seen Expansion and One Touch externals along with two decades of their predecessors; Seagate is the brand we see most based simply on market-share. This is a look at how Seagates typically fail, what Rescue covers and does not cover you for, and how the actual recovery process works.
Barracuda (desktop), IronWolf (NAS), SkyHawk (surveillance), FireCuda (performance), Expansion/Backup Plus/One Touch (externals) and the Maxtor name that was acquired by Seagate. Each of these has its own firmware family, but there is one bench standard that each will be handled under: image first.
Patterns, not judgements: every manufacturer fails and the biggest-volume manufacturers fail in ways that can be observed. The typical Seagate failures we’ve seen include: firmware-area faults on the desktop product lines where the drive continues to spin, but displays incorrect capacity or hangs during detection (the drive’s own service data has become corrupt and the recovery will need to be done at the firmware level, rather than being any sort of physical repair); head degradation announced by clicking, which occurs to all manufacturers and is explained in detail in our clicking guide (shutting off power applies double when this occurs); and for the externals, a failure of the USB interface is often mistaken for a dead device. There is an architectural item of interest regarding how DIY maths is changed: several recent high-capacity models of Barracudas employ Shingled Recording (SMR). Cloning from a failing drive with SMR is far slower and more damaging than users anticipate, yet another reason why we recommend using hardware made for imaging.
A few retail Seagate drives come with Seagate Rescue, which is their own data recovery programme. If the problem occurs within the cover window of your drive and there are still terms left on your contract for Rescue, then that’s a legitimate first option. When the Bench Takes Over: most OEM drives and many external drives do not come with Rescue, contracts that are up so they cannot be used, claims that have been denied, or you simply want the job done by someone local who you can reach. The hardware warranty is completely unrelated to your files. It will replace the drive but does not include anything regarding your lost files. Our file recovery services will get your lost files back for you and the dead drive remains your property and may be claimed later based upon your warranty. Are you not sure what type of coverage a particular serial number has? There is an easy way to determine whether your drive is covered by Seagate. Simply go to the Seagate website and enter the serial number into their search engine. In less time than it takes to drink a cup of coffee, you’ll know how much coverage you have. Either way, we offer a complimentary diagnostic here at no cost to you!
All recoveries conducted here take place using platform level tools designed specifically to communicate directly with Seagate drives beneath the operating system. Firmware modules are repaired/replaced when the service area has become corrupt; when heads have failed, we perform matching donor head transplantations; once these repairs are complete, we will conduct a single detailed imaging scan of the entire disk (head by head as required) and utilise gentle retry mechanisms to ensure that each one of your files is safely extracted from the image of the original disk instead of attempting to repair the failing disk itself. This is the same approach taken by our hard drive service with each and every hard drive model regardless of manufacture (adjusted to accommodate Seagate’s various firmware family configurations), from this year’s IronWolf down through Momentus laptop drives and even those that were badged with “Maxtor” before being discontinued by Seagate. We provide a fixed price written quote after the free diagnostic. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data.
There are two different commitments, both of which should be distinguished. The warranty provided by Seagate covers only the failure of the physical drive itself, not the loss of any data contained on the drive. Only certain retail versions of Seagate drives come with Seagate’s data recovery plan called “Rescue.” Therefore, if you purchased a version of the drive containing an active subscription to Rescue, you would need to contact them for assistance. However, if you have no Rescue cover, you’ve had a Rescue claim denied, or simply wish to have your data restored by a technician that you can actually speak with, that is precisely why our bench exists. Restoring your data via our service will NOT prevent you from submitting a claim for a replacement drive under the terms of your existing warranty.
Yes, just if you suspect your drive may have been damaged but it sounds healthy and only behaves oddly. The initial diagnostics with SeaTools (the short test) can be used for a quiet drive. If the drive makes noises such as beeping, clicking, etc., or constantly disconnects, don’t bother running these long generic tests, because they will run hours at high read loads, which puts additional load on a possible injury. Also, a failing SeaTools test does NOT indicate that your data is missing; it simply indicates that you should stop the diagnostics and begin recovery efforts.
All the time. Each and every one of them contains a basic Seagate hard drive under a USB bridge. And the bridge fails much more often than the hard drive itself. Therefore, “dead” Seagate externals frequently contain good disks inside bad boxes. Please bring everything as is; safely disassembling the hard drive from its case is included in our FREE diagnosis.
We provide a complimentary 48 hour diagnostic: regardless of model (Barracuda to IronWolf), regardless of brand (Expansion to Maxtor). Prior to beginning work we provide a written quote.