thank you. I used this video to take apart my friends external because it was just clicking. either the board or the power supply went, but the drive is still working fine. I just didnt know where to begin! This helped a lot. I just disassembled it and hooked it to a sata reader and it worked. I never would have guessed to just start prying off the bottom.
Wow, that worked. Thanks a mil. And if someone comes across a company that doesn't invalidate the hard drive's warranty just because the casing has been removed, please let me know.
Imagine my delight when I typed "How to open Seagate Freeagent Desktop" into Google, and this vid came up! I was going to attack the bottom first anyway, but your guide reassured me that I wouldn't be wrecking it. Thanks dude, reps x 1000 ;-)
Thanks Kris. This had been baffling me. But thanks to this vid rescued the internal drive from a duff control interface and plugged the bare disk directly into my server. Data rescued. Brilliant. Thanks. (Mine was a 750GB but exactly the same process.
For those complaining about lost data: Hard drives are complex devices. They are prone to fail at any moment. Some will fail immediately, some within months, most after several years. Manufacturers provide many-year guarantees so that you're not left out of pocket if you're unlucky, but your data is your responsibility. Learn how to back up your data and do so with great care. Regarding standing the drive vertically: It's a good way to reduce footprint and get better air flow.
Good Video, very helpful so Thanks. just wanted to point out that before you removed the drive from the plastic casing, you undid the two screws on the bottom of the cage - this is unnecessary and is only needed if you want to remove the drive from the cage and the USB controller from the drive :)
Getting rid of all my old hard drives and needed to recover data from this. Don't know where the AC adapter was located therefore needed to take apart and mount in a different case. Thank you for helping.
Thanks! But this was insane! I will certainly never buy another one of these things from Seagate again. Every other external disk I've had has been a breeze to open. This was crazy.
i just took one apart and it is sata. you can get to the connectors eventually and hook a drive reader to it and save the files. in my case, the enclosure died, but i was able to save the files in this manner. but for sure, it is SATA. It is wrapped in metal though, might take a lot of effort to get into a PC.
@flame0731 i just opened my seagate 250gb, instead of taking the full case off, at the bottom of the base take off that case, you will see a silver housing, unscrew that and unscrew the screws connected to the board, there you will see the cable he took off on the right side. my hard drive light doesn't come on anymore, going to see if it works better
Well you can disable the lights without having to open the case. There is an option in the FreeAgent utilities that will turn off the light. Nice to know how to open the case anyway. ^_^
actually mine was quite easy to get out of the metal case. just unscrew the little pegs under those rubber bushings and opens right up. i pretty much destroyed the enclosure in the process but that's fine with me as my reason for extracing it was to slap it in a used machine
Excellent video, helped me get to open my exact same drive to try and recover the data, thanks! One suggestion though - why speed up the video? We don't mind watching it at "normal speed" so we can follow along clearly. But I still managed to get it done, so thanks again!
Thanks for giving me some hope with my HDD, glad to hear you could recover data. Any tips on that? my yellow light bar comes on but doesn't pulse like it used to and computer is not recognizing drive when I plug it in.
After opening the case and retrieving the HDD you could try to connect it to a regular PC or external harddrive enclosure. Don't know if it is IDE or SATA (you can tell by the connectors after disassembling the case - see www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1778&page=2 ), so you would need a fitting mainboard or drive enclosure/dock. There are some hdd docks on amazon that can do both IDE and SATA.
Does the desktop drive include any software like the "PRO" or "GO" variations? I just ordered the desktop model, by accedient, and I can't send it back. I was just hoping it did, but most likely does not. Thanks. I got the same one, the 500gb desktop model.
@niiu YES, it worked!!! I was able to recover all my data! :) You should be able to easily do the same thing...the problem I was having was that the Seagate wouldn't power on. I just cracked open the Seagate Freeagent and got out the hard-drive (I have zero technology/computer skills) and I popped it into a hard-drive "dock" that I got off of Amazon for $30, just like you would pop in a nintendo cartridge.
This hard-drive won't power up for me, so I'm prying it apart, and going to try an external casing....better than spending money on data recovery! I'm looking on Amazon for a sata 3.5 external enclosure...hope this is the right one???
M'kay...right after step one (remove base cover with flat screwdriver...the vid and RL stop matching. I have a aluminium enclosure with the UBS and Power plugs and what looks like a MoBo inside (2" X 2" X 1/4"). One screw is visible and the other screw seems to be under this enclosure. Any ideas as to how to get to screw #2 w/out damaging the Alum enclosure? KTHX
would a tech from seagate service center be able to know the drive was opened? i didnt see any mention of seals/stickers being broken, and i don´t want to void the warranty.
@billywool Yeah, they'll replace it all right. With another 'refurbished' drive that had stopped working for someone else. The one they "replaced" for me fell apart. Specifically, the connection came loose inside the drive casing. And yes, these are crap.
Hey man like the vid :) just wonderin if there is anyway I can remove the hard drive from the casing and just use it as a smaller external hd ex. SATA casing?
I used to have this drive but the USB plug inside broke. I'm planning to buy a replacement inclosure but I need to know more about the HDD inside. what type is it and how big is it? and what type of enclosure should I buy? I was thinking of a "StarTech.com 3.5in Silver USB 2.0 to SATA External hard Drive Enclosure"
its the power adapter and not the drive itself i had similiar problem with a WD the hard drive is ok just take it out put it in a external case also try changing te usb cable
@Spank2798 hopefully they just misunderstood you, hard drive recovery from a damaged hard drive can be really difficult and expensive, but just retrieving the data is super easy like you explained.
@BalazarsBrain Hey there! I have the same problem, I was just wondering if you were able to buy an external casing and if it worked. Please let me know, I'm trying to retrieve the data that's on my hard drive. Thanks
ps thanks for the video, very useful. But I can see they changed the design of the drive slightly, the plugs are now in the base. Making it harder to get into the drive.
Hello, please convey the power/voltage specifications of the Power Adapter to be used along with it as I've lost my Power Adapter supplied along with the product.
All my 3 PCs have stopped recognising my Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500GB HDD. The guys at the local PC store said that I can replace it but I will lose all my data. Alternatively, they said I can open the case and connect the HDD directly to the motherboard so that I can try and save the data, but if there is any visible damage to the case the warranty will be invalidated. Do you think that the drive would work after connecting it to the motherboard? Will any damage be visible afterwards? Thanks
@BalazarsBrain @BalazarsBrain Hey there! I have the same problem, I was just wondering if you were able to buy an external casing and if it worked. Please let me know, I'm trying to retrieve the data that's on my hard drive. Thanks
@danwat1234 Yea after 3 rma's where they sent me drives that failed their own seatools test, they broke down and sent me a new drive. I immediately cracked that case open and ripped it out, damn the warranty.
-UPDATE- The main problem is caused when the drive goes to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity then reconnects at USB 1.1 speeds (instead of speedy 2.0 speeds). The best way to cure this behavior is to use the Seagate FreeAgent tools (from their website) and use the tools to set the sleep timer to 'never.' If you use this drive on a Mac and it is formatted as HFS+, don't worry, you can still use Windows XP (maybe a friend's house) to download the freeagent desktop tools and set the sleep timer.
Hello does anyone know if its IDE or Sata? Im actually thinking about opening mine as i bought it for my laptop but built a new computer and wanna use another HD in it.
I dropped my 500gb external and its not turning on. it keeps making a beep when i plug in the AC power. i tried to perform this on my problem too, but it doesn't seem to work, so overheating is not the issue on mine... any ideas?
I am also facing the same problem. My computer can recognize it, but it's showing Zero GB used and Zero GB space available!!! It's making noise too... what do I do save my data
Hi, my hd has been a pain in the ass.. it wont show on my pc, and i tried to unplug the light. It still wont show on my PC. People mention "sleep mode" could this be it? but then how do i turn it off, when the hd wont show? Pls Help me
i have the exact same drive, does anyone know why is not finding anything using either Spotlight or Find on Leopard??? it says "0 found" even though i can access those files manually... help anyone... thx
You might be right. DD has been around for the same amount of time though. I was watching some Ventures clips after your post and they were really tight. DD didn't have that good of a band.
When I pry open the bottom base there is loads of electronics in there?!? power connector and connector to computer wtf...ah iv noticed your connections are on the side of the drive, mine are in the actual base. Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500gb...same as yours apart from that. So how the hell do I open this thing? Can't find any videos with my model
@omgwtfbbqstfu Yea its amazing that they think 60 celsius is OK for a hard drive to run at! Both Seagate and Western Digital need to rethink cooling with external 7200RPM drives..
Used this video tonight to liberate a drive from the housing as the power supply is lost, many thanks for the upload.
Fantastic help. I just broke the mini USB port and I need to fix it but I didn't want to waste the whole cover.
thank you
Pier
thank you. I used this video to take apart my friends external because it was just clicking. either the board or the power supply went, but the drive is still working fine. I just didnt know where to begin! This helped a lot. I just disassembled it and hooked it to a sata reader and it worked. I never would have guessed to just start prying off the bottom.
Wow, that worked. Thanks a mil. And if someone comes across a company that doesn't invalidate the hard drive's warranty just because the casing has been removed, please let me know.
Fantastic that you took the time to film this. Somethings just aren't so obvious! Thanks.
Imagine my delight when I typed "How to open Seagate Freeagent Desktop" into Google, and this vid came up!
I was going to attack the bottom first anyway, but your guide reassured me that I wouldn't be wrecking it.
Thanks dude, reps x 1000 ;-)
Thanks Kris. This had been baffling me. But thanks to this vid rescued the internal drive from a duff control interface and plugged the bare disk directly into my server. Data rescued. Brilliant. Thanks. (Mine was a 750GB but exactly the same process.
For those complaining about lost data: Hard drives are complex devices. They are prone to fail at any moment. Some will fail immediately, some within months, most after several years. Manufacturers provide many-year guarantees so that you're not left out of pocket if you're unlucky, but your data is your responsibility. Learn how to back up your data and do so with great care.
Regarding standing the drive vertically: It's a good way to reduce footprint and get better air flow.
Awesome. Very useful to know that the base can come off to make the thing more portable. Thanks.
Good Video, very helpful so Thanks.
just wanted to point out that before you removed the drive from the plastic casing, you undid the two screws on the bottom of the cage - this is unnecessary and is only needed if you want to remove the drive from the cage and the USB controller from the drive :)
Was easy to get this thing open and replace drive with one with a larger capacity. Thanks!
Thank you! I had no idea how to take this thing apart once my usb port was destroyed.
Getting rid of all my old hard drives and needed to recover data from this. Don't know where the AC adapter was located therefore needed to take apart and mount in a different case. Thank you for helping.
It really helps. I unplugged the light and it starting to work smoothly again.
Good info....I'll keep that in mind since mine won't turn on so I'm wondering what will happen once I get it open and hook the drive to my system.
Thanks! But this was insane! I will certainly never buy another one of these things from Seagate again. Every other external disk I've had has been a breeze to open. This was crazy.
Thanks, just successful disassemble the drive to replace a dying hard drive of old desktop. It was tough to pry open the case though.
Thank you for the video, very helpful.
I dunno what kinda stress it's supposed to withstand. but it gets a +1 to resilience. :D
i just took one apart and it is sata. you can get to the connectors eventually and hook a drive reader to it and save the files. in my case, the enclosure died, but i was able to save the files in this manner. but for sure, it is SATA. It is wrapped in metal though, might take a lot of effort to get into a PC.
Great tutorial. I was able to replace the dead hard drive inside. Love the music even better! Ventures, Shadows and the like!
Sounds like Dick Dale. King of surf rock guitar. If it isn't him, it's someone that wants to sound like him!
@NaimLisEntertainment it is a normal 3.5 SATA drive, my usb connection broke as well and I had to resolder it to get it to work again.
I had that song stuck in my head while I opened mine. haha thanks for the info!
@flame0731 i just opened my seagate 250gb, instead of taking the full case off, at the bottom of the base take off that case, you will see a silver housing, unscrew that and unscrew the screws connected to the board, there you will see the cable he took off on the right side. my hard drive light doesn't come on anymore, going to see if it works better
@ulujm Once you have the drive fully removed, it's a standard SATA hard drive.
Well you can disable the lights without having to open the case. There is an option in the FreeAgent utilities that will turn off the light. Nice to know how to open the case anyway. ^_^
actually mine was quite easy to get out of the metal case. just unscrew the little pegs under those rubber bushings and opens right up. i pretty much destroyed the enclosure in the process but that's fine with me as my reason for extracing it was to slap it in a used machine
Nice. Just swapped mine out for a different disk. Thanks.
Useful, 6 years after! Thanks
Thanks for the comment - I'm so surprised how many views this has!!
Excellent video, helped me get to open my exact same drive to try and recover the data, thanks!
One suggestion though - why speed up the video? We don't mind watching it at "normal speed" so we can follow along clearly. But I still managed to get it done, so thanks again!
Thanks for the suggestion - guess I thought it would be too long and drawn out but it's good to know! Glad it helped!
Thanks for giving me some hope with my HDD, glad to hear you could recover data. Any tips on that? my yellow light bar comes on but doesn't pulse like it used to and computer is not recognizing drive when I plug it in.
After opening the case and retrieving the HDD you could try to connect it to a regular PC or external harddrive enclosure. Don't know if it is IDE or SATA (you can tell by the connectors after disassembling the case - see www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1778&page=2 ), so you would need a fitting mainboard or drive enclosure/dock. There are some hdd docks on amazon that can do both IDE and SATA.
Thanks Sebastian, I will give that a try.
thanks for the vid again..
Is this drive a SATA? or IDE drive?
Does the desktop drive include any software like the "PRO" or "GO" variations?
I just ordered the desktop model, by accedient, and I can't send it back.
I was just hoping it did, but most likely does not.
Thanks. I got the same one, the 500gb desktop model.
@niiu
YES, it worked!!! I was able to recover all my data! :)
You should be able to easily do the same thing...the problem I was having was that the Seagate wouldn't power on.
I just cracked open the Seagate Freeagent and got out the hard-drive (I have zero technology/computer skills) and I popped it into a hard-drive "dock" that I got off of Amazon for $30, just like you would pop in a nintendo cartridge.
This hard-drive won't power up for me, so I'm prying it apart, and going to try an external casing....better than spending money on data recovery!
I'm looking on Amazon for a sata 3.5 external enclosure...hope this is the right one???
M'kay...right after step one (remove base cover with flat screwdriver...the vid and RL stop matching. I have a aluminium enclosure with the UBS and Power plugs and what looks like a MoBo inside (2" X 2" X 1/4"). One screw is visible and the other screw seems to be under this enclosure. Any ideas as to how to get to screw #2 w/out damaging the Alum enclosure? KTHX
would a tech from seagate service center be able to know the drive was opened? i didnt see any mention of seals/stickers being broken, and i don´t want to void the warranty.
nice, thanks for posting, now time to open mine, same Freeagent.
@billywool Yeah, they'll replace it all right. With another 'refurbished' drive that had stopped working for someone else. The one they "replaced" for me fell apart. Specifically, the connection came loose inside the drive casing. And yes, these are crap.
This was really helpful! Thank you!
Hey man like the vid :)
just wonderin if there is anyway I can remove the hard drive from the casing and just use it as a smaller external hd ex. SATA casing?
I used to have this drive but the USB plug inside broke. I'm planning to buy a replacement inclosure but I need to know more about the HDD inside. what type is it and how big is it? and what type of enclosure should I buy? I was thinking of a "StarTech.com 3.5in Silver USB 2.0 to SATA External hard Drive Enclosure"
Thank you - helped me out!
its the power adapter and not the drive itself i had similiar problem with a WD the hard drive is ok just take it out put it in a external case
also try changing te usb cable
I love you. exactly what i needed. blissings.
@Spank2798 hopefully they just misunderstood you, hard drive recovery from a damaged hard drive can be really difficult and expensive, but just retrieving the data is super easy like you explained.
@BalazarsBrain
Thanks man! I appreciate your help. I'll buy a dock now. Thanks again!
how do you take out the hard drive from the metal housing??????
@BalazarsBrain Hey there! I have the same problem, I was just wondering if you were able to buy an external casing and if it worked. Please let me know, I'm trying to retrieve the data that's on my hard drive. Thanks
ps thanks for the video, very useful.
But I can see they changed the design of the drive slightly, the plugs are now in the base. Making it harder to get into the drive.
Interesting, mine also developed controller issues, and it was also a 750GB ... Might be planned obsolence ?
Okay I have seagate 250GB hard drive. Is there a video on how to open it? Or repair it? Or extract the information. Something.
Helio Sequence sticker on that drive...nice.
Hello, please convey the power/voltage specifications of the Power Adapter to be used along with it as I've lost my Power Adapter supplied along with the product.
12V, 2A
its the power adapter and not the drive itself i had similiar problem with a WD the hard drive is ok just take it out put it in a external case
All my 3 PCs have stopped recognising my Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500GB HDD. The guys at the local PC store said that I can replace it but I will lose all my data. Alternatively, they said I can open the case and connect the HDD directly to the motherboard so that I can try and save the data, but if there is any visible damage to the case the warranty will be invalidated. Do you think that the drive would work after connecting it to the motherboard? Will any damage be visible afterwards? Thanks
This was helpful - thanks!
@BalazarsBrain @BalazarsBrain Hey there! I have the same problem, I was just wondering if you were able to buy an external casing and if it worked. Please let me know, I'm trying to retrieve the data that's on my hard drive. Thanks
i just got my hard drive a new power cable but it won't turn on, will this help?
ive done that too. how did you fix it? i just want my data and don't care if the things does not work any more.
@danwat1234
Yea after 3 rma's where they sent me drives that failed their own seatools test, they broke down and sent me a new drive. I immediately cracked that case open and ripped it out, damn the warranty.
good demo!
what was that music?
Thanks! It's a song by the Ventures called Diamond Head
if you rip off the rubber things on the side and take out the screws under them it slides open
Just amazing how this harddrive company engineered a vent free plastic oven for its own drives.
incompetence++
-UPDATE-
The main problem is caused when the drive goes to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity then reconnects at USB 1.1 speeds (instead of speedy 2.0 speeds). The best way to cure this behavior is to use the Seagate FreeAgent tools (from their website) and use the tools to set the sleep timer to 'never.' If you use this drive on a Mac and it is formatted as HFS+, don't worry, you can still use Windows XP (maybe a friend's house) to download the freeagent desktop tools and set the sleep timer.
how do i take out the hard drive? can u post that half of the video? my usb connector broke, i'll by a casing if its a normal 3.5" in here
Thank you very much for posting this video.
wooow this help me a lot! perfect!!!!!!
I cant pry open the casing. any tips?
Hello does anyone know if its IDE or Sata? Im actually thinking about opening mine as i bought it for my laptop but built a new computer and wanna use another HD in it.
I dropped my 500gb external and its not turning on. it keeps making a beep when i plug in the AC power.
i tried to perform this on my problem too, but it doesn't seem to work, so overheating is not the issue on mine... any ideas?
This was helpful, thank you. Think I will buy a new enclosure ($14.30) as I have an intermittent fault and I suspect the interface.
I tried this. My HD still wont show? any suggestions? dont know how to get it out of sleep mode without i showing on my pc
hey...soo is it true?/ if I have dropped mine, and makes the same noise, it means it`s finished??
thanks man waned to no how to open mine if i eaven could
so i can replace the led on front with green should look good ill post bout it
Do you still get the Delayed write error?
I am also facing the same problem. My computer can recognize it, but it's showing Zero GB used and Zero GB space available!!!
It's making noise too... what do I do save my data
I just zapped mine, plugged in the wrong adapter and it sparked, burnt smell, and now it won't turn on. Can it be fixed?
does anybody know was the drive a SATA inside?
What type of HDD is it, IDE or SATA?
Tried this on my seagate, but i still wont show on my computer? any suggestions?
very usefull , its work TYVM
Hi, my hd has been a pain in the ass.. it wont show on my pc, and i tried to unplug the light. It still wont show on my PC. People mention "sleep mode" could this be it? but then how do i turn it off, when the hd wont show?
Pls Help me
i have the exact same drive, does anyone know why is not finding anything using either Spotlight or Find on Leopard??? it says "0 found" even though i can access those files manually... help anyone... thx
You might be right. DD has been around for the same amount of time though. I was watching some Ventures clips after your post and they were really tight. DD didn't have that good of a band.
Love the music!!
i deleted the files off my hhd and then my comp stop detecting! could you please help me?
i this hard drive and it locks up on me
i never dropped it.
i paid so much for it and it doesn't work properly :(
ive got a new tiny red one :/ anyone know how to open that its much smaller
When I pry open the bottom base there is loads of electronics in there?!? power connector and connector to computer wtf...ah iv noticed your connections are on the side of the drive, mine are in the actual base. Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500gb...same as yours apart from that. So how the hell do I open this thing? Can't find any videos with my model
I just opened my FreeAgent Desktop 1TB....
almost all tabs are broken now! :(
Damn thing is harder to open than an iPhone/iPod
thank u for the video.
damn thing is bad. the powercord got disconnected and it broke :S.
anyway thanx
try changing the usb cable
@omgwtfbbqstfu Yea its amazing that they think 60 celsius is OK for a hard drive to run at! Both Seagate and Western Digital need to rethink cooling with external 7200RPM drives..
Thanks a million!
It's a standard SATA disk
how much are one of these things? I think i broke my brother's...
Now my next question is how to open one of the 2.5" drives... no visible screws or anything.. no holes nothing..
Love the six Seagate employees who disliked this vid.
background music is good.
mine turns on - light comes on - then off again before the pc can recognize it!!!! HELP!