If you have a Seagate drive that is making a beeping sound instead of mounting on your computer, you likely have stuck heads! The first thing to think about is how important the data is on the drive.
If you already have a backup of the data on the drive, then trying to fix the drive yourself might be a good idea! Or if the data on the drive is not important, doing a DIY beep fix on your drive might be a fun project.
If the data on your beeping Seagate drive is important and you do not have a backup, I recommend not trying the do it yourself repair, and rather going to a data recovery company that will open the drive in a clean room environment in order to get the heads moving again and the data off the drive safely.
If you have decided the data is not important enough to pay for data recovery, here is what you will want to do to get your beeping Seagate drive working again.
First, gather the following materials:
- Can of compressed air. Keep in mind to hold the can upright so you don’t spray the liquid out of the can during the process.
- Screw driver set that includes electronic screwdrivers. This one from iFixit is great and will likely give you everything you need.
- Tweezers, a really nice pair like these ones from amazon.
- A steady hand. Like a really steady hand. Think about caffein intake and other things that might cause you to shake and figure out a time when you are alert while also having steady hands.
Now to start the process of unsticking the stuck heads on your beeping Seagate drive.
- Remove the cover of the drive by removing all the screws from the top of the drive. Keep in mind there are usually a few screws under the label on the drive.
- Once the drive is opened, be very careful to not touch the surface of the platters. Also keep a can of air handy for when you are done so you can blow as much debris as possible off the platters of the drive.
- Next you will want to use a screwdriver to spin the platters as shown in the picture below. While spinning the platters counter clockwise, use the tweezers to guide the head stack to the ramp.
- Now use the compressed air to clean the platters as well as you can, and immideatly put the cover back on the drive. Screw all the screws back into the cover (all of them).
- You can now plug the drive into the computer and see if the drive still beeps! Hopefully it will spin up and read the data. If it does, back up anything you want right away.
Once again, it is important to remember that you should not try this DIY beeping hard drive fix method if the data is important on your drive. The chance of damaging the drive is pretty high using the DIY method.
So what is the safe method of fixing a beeping seagate drive you ask? Well, that will be covered in a future post.