Case study of a 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive?
Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive is one of several types of mobile hard drive in the seagate family.
Seagate ST2000LM007 2TB portable Hard Disk Drive
Part Number 1K9AP9-501
Model:SRD00F1
Also known as a Seagate Rosewood (Rosewood being the drive family)
Our customer contacted us regarding their Seagate backup plus portable hard drive and how it had a problem. It was no longer allowing them to access their files. The problem was that the drive was producing a clicking sound every time it was powered on.
Convinced they could still gain access to their data, they continued powering it up, however, it made no difference. At this point, they realised they needed professional help and we got the call. They claimed not to have dropped the drive, or physically harmed it and couldn’t understand how it had physically malfunctioned.
Once a hard drive has started clicking, denying access to the data, DIY data recovery is no longer an option. Professional data recovery is the only way to proceed (if you value the data).
After a discussion regarding the typical fees associated with this kind of recovery, the customer sent in the drive.
Once we had the drive in the lab, our first check was to make sure the drive wasn’t internally damaged. Unfortunately, Seagate ST2000LM007 – aka Seagate Rosewood – have high failure rates and a reputation for suffering from internal damage.
Upon our cleanroom data recovery inspection procedure, there was no visible damage to the immediate platter surfaces. Nor the head stack assembly, or any indication of any physical damage elsewhere. So, we decided that swapping out the clicking head stack assembly for a brand new one should get a result.
With the new HSA fitted, the drive powered up on the PC 3000 Express data recovery machine. Only for it to perform the same clicking sounds and erratic behaviour our customer had described earlier.
A deeper dive required to find the cause of the problem. This meant a full strip of the Seagate hard disk drive, for a full cleanroom inspection.
Cleanroom
At first glance, all 4 platter surfaces had no indication of any media damage whatsoever. Also, using our powerful microscope, we could find no issues with the new heads either.
Very strange indeed.
Nevertheless, having worked on many Seagate Rosewood hard drives, the cause of the problem had to be media damage. It was just a case of finding it. And after looking at each surface very carefully under specialist lighting, we finally found the culprit.
Unfortunately, critical surfaces had spiral scratching cut into them, rendering the drive completely unrecoverable.
Such a shame!
If the drive hadn’t been repeatedly powered up – whilst malfunctioning – it’s likely we could have gotten a decent recovery.
Moreover, Seagate ST2000LM007 hard drives can suffer much worse damage than this example. We will soon publish an example of one such case completely destroyed by software data recovery attempts.
Therefore, it goes without saying. Should your hard drive start clicking – and you value your data – power it off and seek only professional help.
For specs and more information about the ‘Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive’ please visit their main support page here
If you need help recovering data from a Seagate Backup Plus portable hard drive, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here