Tried this on a Seagate Backup Plus Portable 1TB Drive. The Drive was beeping and as explained the head was stuck. No Clean Room required. All data recovered. Many Thanks
Man ! i got seagate 2 TB barracuda i got low clicking i dont know shall i proceed with opening it and adjust heads or not...it is expensive here also in my country to recover data
My drive was "beeping" just like this one, and I followed these instructions without any kind of clean room. And it worked. I'm copying off the data now.
It worked!!!! Thank you so much. After taking it to my nearest IT and data recovery shop and them "running tests" on it for two days, I followed your instructions, and now all I have to do is rescrew all the little screws into place and refasten the casing, and we are back to normal. Over £160 saved for a new 1TB Hdd, and my data recovered - priceless!!!!
You are a beautiful person, you saved me years of tears. 15 years of data saved and now backed up on 3 HDD! Dropped my hard drive on the floor while in use and it started beeping, so in fear of losing all my family's precious memories I thank god managed to find this video. Done this video step by step to my Samsung M3 1TB external hard drive in a clean and dry bathroom (as dust free as possible) and as quickly as possible whilst being careful. All went to plan, plugged it in and all my data was there. I backed it straight up. (A couple of tips from my experience doing this: Have confidence, don't take to long take the case off, carefully remove the heads from the platters then case straight back on. Try to copy data in segments don't try and copy 500gb at once. Your hard drive will get warm from reading/writing so much at one time and will start to transfer very slowly. Let it cool down by either ejecting the HDD safely then unplugging, or if you can't do that then shut down your pc and then unplug the HDD. Leave it in a cool place e.g. (window at night time) for an hour or so then try again. Will always transfer data faster when cooler, don't overwork it then burn it out once you have done the hard work and carried out this open heart surgery on a hard drive 😁 I will be donating money to this man 💯% what a an absolute gentleman this man is 🙏 oh and he has the same hands as me (skin condition: vitiligo) 👍
Thank you so much for this video! My seagate fell from the table on the floor. Beeping noise. I opened it (in the living room, in gloves, face mask, glasses and hoodie). My drive was a bit older - different hidden bolts, needed additional torx to open. The head was stuck. I moved them to parked position. Closed. Connected to computer with sata USB 3 connector. And. Clicking sound. Next day connected again. This time I could see the disc, but not for long. A few days later my older computer was able to see it. I had to use piriform recuva to get my files off it. Magic. Thank you.
YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS VIDEO. YOU NOT ONLY HELPED ME GET BACK PRECIOUS MEMORIES OF MY SONS BIRTHDAYS, BUT YOU SAVED ME HUNDREDS. I'M DEFINITELY SENDING YOU A DONATION!
Thanks Abraham, worked like a charm. I'm recovering my clients data as we speak. I used a paper clip bent at the end instead of the dental pick you used to park the heads. I wet wiped the table and shut off the furnace to reduce airborne dust.
one more "THANKS, you saved my day - or rather, my entire week!" Had that beeping-thing, came across your video and decided that there's not much to lose with trying your method. And yes, it worked, I lost just a couple of kByte. Incredible, so happy!! Opened the drive in my living room, found the head stuck midways and broke it free as you describe. Funny that after reassembly and starting up the HDD made quite some noise, and namely that it decreased to almost normal after a little while in operation. Maybe that's because of particles getting trapped as you describe. Some suggestions to others: wipe down the HDD case before you start opening it. This could help reducing particles reaching the actual platters don't leave the inside exposed to ambient conditions for more time than necessary your breath contains particles, too (even more if you fancy cigarettes), so if you have a magnification-lamp available to do the surgery, it can't hurt using it so that your breath does not go straight onto the HDD. Of course, other tranparent shielding might work as well.
Just chimed in to to say I attempted the fix on my external hard drive and IT WORKED! The whole repair was pretty straightforward and just as explained in the video. It dropped off my desk one too many times and it began to beep. I wouldn't trust it long term now that the case has been opened so it will be replaced asap.
I have a verbatim 1tb with the noise beeping problem. I followe your instruccions and everything worked as expected. All my info was there aswell. Thx so much for posting this tutorial. Your action shows that you are not only a person who know about this, also you are a great person by teaching others. Thx again, bests of luck!
Thank you!! My hard drive, which had all the files for my MA thesis, photos from the last 10 years, and basically everything I've worked on in the past years stopped working recently. I had exactly the beeping sound you described and found your video after searching for how to respond to this. Your solution worked and I got my data back! Thanks for explaining everything so clearly.
Just wanted to say thanks! My portable Seagate drive suddenly stopped working but had the beeps. I followed your instructions and was able to recover 90% of the data onto a new drive. Saved me a lot of money, so thanks!
Thank you! This helped me fix a teacher harddrive that unexpected wouldn't boot. She came in to start getting ready for the year and I told her I would look into it. It was making a beeping sound, though not a fast as yours. I opened it up and found the head stuck on the plate just like in your video. The disk was able to spin up and I'm currently backing up data from it while I have a chance.
Thank you!! For anyone curious of the "success rate" of this process, I just finished doing mine and it fired right up, I'm copying the drive over to a backup drive as we speak. I can't speak for every hard drive problem, as I'm sure they are all different. But, in the event your problem is the read-write arm being stuck out over the platters and not allowing it to spin when you start it up, this is a very helpful video on how to fix it. FWIW, I went to plug in my daily use work drive yesterday and my computer didn't do anything. So I unplugged and tried again, and still nothing. I tried a third time and held it to my ear and could hear a distinct "beeping". Not a clicking, and could certainly tell the drive wasn't spinning. I went and bought a set of torx srew drived to get it opened, low and behold, arm was stuck out over the platter. I recommend doing the movement with two hands, and two tools. One, to turn the platter (with your same screw driver) and one to gently guide the arm back to the home position while youre turning. Good luck everyone! PS, I had the same (Silicon Power - Seagate 1 TB) brand of drive fail on me a couple years ago and I used Drivesavers.com I got most everything back, but it was a $2400 invoice. I took a chance on this one, and luckily it worked out.
I wanna thank u so much for this information. I had the exact problem as described in this video. I was about to be charged $1000 to recover my data. Recovered about 95% of my data and that was more than enough for me to be happy.
This worked for me, a 1TB seagate was beeping, opened the drive, got the discs to spin again, pushed the heads to start reading again and it worked, got all the data off no data loss at all. I did work on one of those antistatic mats but other than that just in my own study. As Abraham said, don't do this if you cannot live with the data on that drive because it remains tricky and you may just loose it all. My data was backed up but very inconvenient to go back to restore it all, fixing the drive and copy it all was a breeze.
as i am looking for sometime now how to fix-repair and recover data by myself,because i had an experience that i had to pay a lot of money for it,i will totally agree with you about helping people and make them happy,since i am a technician myself i want to inform people from Hellas(Greece)that they can contact me as well and help them in case they have any issue with an old hard disk.thank you for this useful video.
Thanks!! Worked like a charm on a new Seagate 1tb HDD that fell off the table while working and got "stuck". All i got was the dreaded beeps. I moved the platter while VERY gently moving the head back in place just as shown in the video. Got all my data off without problems or costs.
Hello Mr. Levit...I want to publicly Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Following your direction allowed me to recover my data from my buzzing HD. I viewed your first one; this follow up one was my complete answer. People who asked you questions, Thank you. I did need to purchase the USB to SATA cable set in order to do the transfer and the screwdriver set from HomeDepot.You are thorough and honest. Thank you for saying to the pros that we will NOT pay their high $ if we are willing to DIY. So true. With that said, I am honoring your integrity and kindness by sending you some $ in appreciation for it.
Awesome! I have just done this and recovered my all my work and photos from a seagate back up plus which I dropped last night, it started beeping on start up and wouldn't work. Found this vid last night, bought a new hard drive today and am currently transferring my data across to the new drive!! Thank you
As a computer professional, I would ordinarily recommend against this HOWEVER I was lazy with my backups (some professional I am!) and this video saved my arse. Back your work up, folks, otherwise swallow hard and cross your fingers. Many, many thanks for this.
Our external hard drive fell off a table and onto a tile floor. I watched your video and gave your method a try. Success! We can't thank you enough. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I had the buzzing/whizzing sound and did this myself!!!!! FIXED IT!! I can now successfully navigate through my files like it was working before!! Awesome video man! Clicking that donate button now! You are a good guy! and very smart at that aswell!
Thank you so much for making this video and being so honest. This video helped me recover most of our data (only lost a few videos vs years of memories). We tried taking it to a local lab but they told us the data was lost forever. You gave me the confidence to try/make an attempt at recovering our data. Thanks again!
So, I had the exact same problem. HDD wasn't spinning up because the heads weren't in parking position. It beeped/buzzed. I followed the instructions in the video, and afterward it did spin up... unly to make this horrendous grinding/clicking noise. I killed my HDD and all of the data on it, probably by being not careful enough. I can't stress the fact enough that you have to apply absolutely no force at all when moving the drive heads. If you do, and they suddenly snap back, you're screwed. Still: thank you for the video! It helped to make clear what the problem was and gave me the courage to attempt to recover the data. Failing at it was my own fault.
"I think they are kids, just trying to say things". Couldn't have put it better myself. Whilst I'll use your videos here to take my first tentative steps into HDD repair, I thank you, Abraham, for sharing your skills and knowledge, but also giving me the benefit of my own common sense, when describing your approach to this all to common problem. In my case, I will attempt to purchase all the tools displayed here, use my static mat, and a clean room (the dining room), good lighting, and disposable gloves. If, indeed, I get a lucky break, I have a new Ext HDD and hope I get the chance to move as many files as I can over to it. Again, thanks for sharing.
This worked perfectly with my POS Seagate ST1000LM024. I had tons of family photos & videos when it wouldn't read, getting fast beeps for about 15 seconds. Took no time, thanks again, beats the hell out of sending off for $300+!!!
Thanks for the video. Following your instructions, I was able to confirm that the arm of the 'beeping' drive (Seagate 500gb) wasn't stuck in the wrong position. I then purchased a hard drive case and inserted the faulty drive. It worked, which suggests a problem with the power unit on the Seagate drive case (which seems another common fault of the Seagate drives, from a quick internet search).
Amazing. You da man. I was hesitant to try this ... but I did ... and I got my data. Thank you soooo much. I had to pull the label off the hard drive to find that 7th screw. And of the six outside screws, one ended up being smaller than the rest. I think I had the back cover off for about 20 seconds total. Prayer definitely preceded the procedure. Worked like a charm. I plugged it back into my laptop and took care of a few things. Right now I am "ghosting" it hoping it will be a smooth transition to a new hard drive. Many thanks.
Thank you for the easy to follow advice. I woke up to a BSOD this morning and a beeping computer upon restart. The heads on my hard drive were stuck just as you described and I was able to use your trick to return them to the home position and was able to recover all of my data. Thank you!
Thank you so much. This video has helped me to "revive" my 1TB Samsung 2,5" HD. Besides that it saved me to pay € 200,- to a data repair/restore company. You are a true savior
EXCELLENT video. I haven't yet tried to 'fix' my hard drive but still I really love your way of thinking. So, even though you recognise that making this video may cost you lost business, STILL you make it in order to help people. THAT is a fantastic way to be. Well done!
thank you so freaking much. This data wasn't SUPER vital but I'm glad I'm able to access it again. Couldn't have done it without you and I never could have afforded to do data recovery
Thank you for posting this video I just dropped my 2TB hard drive and now have a clicking sound I inspected the outside it doesn't have any signs of being fried I hope this works god bless you
Most excellent! I so much appreciate your honesty...very refreshing. I didn't know about the 'once open...junk' . I opened it and have since closed it. My needle was exactly where yours was. I had moved it back to main starting spot as you did. Now I have to get my computer to recognize it, which I know how to do. Prior to your video, I was contemplating swapping platters...removing my Seagate platter and inserting it into a Toshiba ext. hd. I don't think I have to do that now, so many thanks!
you sir have just saved my hard drive. i had years of picture back when i was in the service with my family... i held on to the drive thinking i could save enough money to get it saved. Thanks a lot.. just brought back 10 years of memories.
Very professional, dear Sir! Throughout out the video, I learnt a lot of wisdom, really instructive. Feels comfortable just looking what you're doing and listening to what you say. Rarely have I come across such a tutorial. Hats off and all due respect to you.
Just wanted to say THANK YOU. I just used this successfully on a friend's Samsung HD that had crashed. When connected it made a series of beeps (appx. 12) and the laptop failed to start. I opened up the HD and saw that the head was indeed stuck, then gently moved the head back while turning the screw. When I started it back up it no longer beeped or clunked. The HD was up and running again right away.
Thanks man! I have a samsung m3 portable external HDD, but I repaired it with the same analogy that you showed and it works! You spared me 1 week at my work, and not to mention the other informations that were on the HDD.
Thanks you so much Abraham, your very clear explanation gave me the confidence to take apart my HDD. I managed to recover all the data completely!! Very happy.
You are hilarious. Making people happy instead of broke. When we were kids we took a screw driver to a live motherboard and we could not get it to fail sparking it out. I think we crippled it at some point but it was difficult.
Totally agree, with you Abraham. People who are watching youtube videos are not going to send their hard drives to data recovery centre. They are most likely WANTING (not absolutely NEEDING their data) youtube is the last step before the bin.
As long as people understand this is not a permanent fix, but a short-term workaround to get the data off and saved somewhere else ASAP then this is a great video :) Not for the feint hearted and DONT GET FINGER PRINTS ON THE PLATTERS!!
This video was exceptionally helpful! Was easily able to follow all the steps and, lo and behold, I was able to recover all my files for the cost of the box of computer screwdrivers. Why is it that Seagate needed to charge me minimum $500 just to tell me if they could even recover the files? Something very wrong with that. Thank you VERY much for posting this video!
My experience. I had a hard drive that was making a similar beeping noise and had to buy a star shaped screw driver in order to open it. I mounted the T6 bit (as shown in the video) but had trouble with turning the screws. However it wasn't nearly as bad as finding that last hidden screw underneath the plastic labeling. I had to scrape through two layers of it in order for the bit to seat properly into the bolt (just enough to be able to turn it) and almost completely stripped both the bit and bolt head in the process. After opening the hard drive I attempted the same method shown @ 5:23. Only I was using a pair of tweezers and watched in horror as the metal apparatus connected to those mechanical arms nearly snatched the tweezers right out my hand by way of magnetization. After another attempt using a carefully inserted T5 bit in one of the arm holes, I was able to successfully pull the heads back away from the platters. The arms seemed to click right into place and I only ever applied a very minute quantity of force in order to pull the arms back. My computer seems to be working fine now. I am hopeful I will be able to transfer the data to another hard drive before this one inevitably malfunctions again. Thank you very much Abraham, this video was most helpful.
you are absolutely right @ 8:15 onward, fully agree with you, I have recovered data from so many hdd using same techniques, you don't really need a clean or airtight room for opening hard drive
Good afternoon, I saw your demonstration about damaged hard drives and the type of sound they make when turning them on, and it helped me check mine, which is in the same condition, but with the detail that it sounds the same as a DVD player, it starts up and then does a pause intermittently which in each one tries to read the disk and repeats the same process, for which I am encouraged to ask, consider that it has possibilities that in a laboratory or if it is the case, try to rescue the data.
SAVED MY LIFE! I dropped my hard drive by accident and I thought I was screwed, all I had to do was spin the disk a little bit and park back the little hand.
Excellent show off tutorial. For clicking noise we have another tut and that one you usually cant do at home as you need another fully working and tested hdd from same series so you could doing some part transplant. Usually just actuator with heads as even labs dislike to even contemplate removing all platters from one case to another when motor fails.
Thanks a lot Abraham! I had an end user with a Seagate laptop drive with a beeping issue. Followed your instructions and got the data off! Awesome video!
I viewed the other video of yours they were excellent and now this one it's even better I like the way you demonstrate & explain how to do this repairs!
many many thanks. my hard drive is alive again. it is common mistakes by hard drives, which can we repair it easily by this helpful video. thanks again.
Abraham Levit, thank you so much for the advice. I live in Brazil, and my Seagate external HD was beeping noise. I followed your steps and it worked perfectly. Thank you so much again.
One happy person here. Had the beeping noise. I thought I had lost all my data on the main laptop boot drive. Just followed your instructions and was able to recover (still copying) all the data after booting up from the same drive (bit risky, but hey, was right to feel confident). My heads were all the way over in the middle of the platters (which made my heart sink at first). But I followed your instructions and was able to recover (hopefully everything). Many thanks for sharing your knowledge. Switching from this SSHD to SSD :)
Hi Abraham. Thank you for your fix, it worked. My drive was removed while it was in use, so I believe that is the cause. I fixed my drive little differently. I didn't open it, just shook the hard drive vigorously and heard that the piece was moving. I continued until I didn't hear anything with shaking it. Then, it started working again. If people are afraid opening their hard drive, do you think they can try this method? Would it cause any harm? Can the heads scratch the platter?
Thank you for both videos. Mine fell over, (going use upright mount again). It failed and started the buzzing noise. Tried disk utility (Mac) repair function, but it gave me bad news. I only have my iTunes library on it, so I followed your advice on these two videos. I thought, "If I can avoid copying all 54gig of music from the CDs it will be worth the risk of losing the drive". I found the head wasn't stuck when I opened it. No skid trails or anything else. The head and platters are moving freely, but I'll take your advice and assume this one is toast. Right now it's transferring the files at 47% right now,yay! If you hadn't posted this second video, I would likely have assumed that on putting it back together, that it would work fine again. And might have put it back to use.
Great video Abraham.. And for the record, whoever has any problems with how your doing things and explaining things then they are new to technology, we are much older and know/always remember words like molex as if it were a family member.. Keep up the great vids, without this vid and many other from long ago youtube would be pointless..
Awesome !! You are really genius. You know this is impacting your business but even though you are giving this valuable guide to all the users, like us. Thanks a lot !!
Abraham, you are a Chef !!!! Congratulations from France, have done the same and it works !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MERCIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Vincent
Great job! I like your way to explain things and precautions to take. Responsible attitude of posting! Any recent video to recommend? I sent my failure HDD to a recovery expert after reading your post. Thanks!
Thank you so much for your video! Thanks to you I was able to access all the data from my Samsung M3 portable after it almost fell on the ground and started beeping after that accident.
