FIX for clicking Seagate Expansion external USB hard drive

[haffamomo]

turning the unit upside down seems to work for me either

[redharrow]

The case is not usually the problem, it is the harddrive. If the external drive is removed before the harddrive has spun down it will fail overtime. Un-mounting the USB drive before switching off your computer will improve its longevity. When your harddrive fails [and it will] use their RMA procedure. Always back up your data and never make your primary back up a portable harddrive. NAS drives with 2 harddrives or online backup are getting very cheap and are the best way for avoiding disaster.

[ajskilton]

I've just solved my clicking problem by turning the unit upside down and it's now working perfectly! ??? Is it possible they have manufactured upside down internally ??

Anthony

[AlexDaCunha]

@ajskilton I just did same thing and worked for me also... after few minutes no more noise, and much faster access!! Thanks for the tip!

[Mat1az]

Thanks! Thought I had lost 2tb worth of files. Gonna try to put it inside the comp. tomorrow.

[SausageBaguette]

Seagate's are crap! Really really crap, I went through 3 in like a year but I decided to go £10 up for the Westerns make and this one is still working at 18 months old.

[nayman666]

Had the exact same issue. Barracuda CC49 firmware fixed it for me. So, apparently firmware and NOT hardware issue - who knew?!

[splogz]

Had similar problem with 2 WD internal hard drives. Read that power or connector issues can cause clicking. I noticed that my PSU sata connections have only 12 pins whereas my molex-sata adapters have 15 pins. Still having problems with multiple drives connected but for a single drive, using the 15pin molex-sata adapter reduces the clicking noise to very infrequently as opposed to the direct 12 pin PSU sata connector. Haven't figured it all out but hope that helps.

[iMaZeJackstr]

what are the wires called that u plug the haddrive to mobo called? my problem was the object you plug the usb into came lose and im not much of pro at this and your video shows me that its possible for me to still use this :)

[digitaltactics]

@iMaZeJackstr get a sata cable and make sure you have sata hard drive power cable inside you computer plug the sata cable in hard drive and the other end in to the computer board. plug the sata power cable in then start up computer and see if windows finds it. and thats it

[xTheShady1x]

Wouldn't just putting the hdd in another hdd enclosure work as well? This would be for those that don't want to install a hdd in their pc.

[Lilylibra]

Useful information, thanks.

[okcthunderup07]

may seagate expansion hard drive's usb port kinda got broken it went deep .. now i can't put any usb cord in it .. what should the best way to do ? any tips to fix it ? thanks..

[stunts81]

I opened the case, took the hdd out and plugged it into my pc. I only plugged in the power cable and I still had the clicking sound. They drive powers up clicks for a few seconds and powers back down. Any suggestions?

[princeflasharivu]

@stunts81 i have the same problem any suggestions please...

[koroshbaradaran]

I have 2, BTW...

[koroshbaradaran]

Very informative and I like your musings in the little message boxes...

I looked at this because I just wanted to see what's inside (i'm curious)

I had a 2 TB drive exactly like yours, but after a week, it was thrown by accedent out of a 2nd story window... I bought a 1.5 TB drive, and never did I see this problem. So I suggest (if losing half a TB is okay with you) to get a 1.5 TB drive of the same brand and everything. I scored mine for $69.99 at Fry's Electronics after 2011 Black Friday.

[Hemartia]

when i opened the box all the plastic holders broke. i don`t think that`s the opening system. my USB port broke too and got loose inside . damnit everything breakes when i need them the most !

[BIGBOSS1983100]

I have a seagate 500GB hdd that was working fine a couple of days ago. I plugged into my laptop and nothing happens. No blinking light or nothing. Can I fix this?

[BoundInChains]

My seagate freeagent GO's problem - flashing light, hardware detected by windows, but prompts for drivers, not visible in 'disk management' (storage) or in 'my computer' either. any idea what could be wrong with it?

[m1k3turbo]

Please help !!!!!! I have same hard drive 1tb the power light don't come on,the disc don't spin,no noise and the computer don't play TOTALLY DEAD !!!!! is there a fuse that might have blown inside?????? all cables have been tested and work fine....please reply

[obynoob]

hi, i have the same hard drive that is up there ^. i have had it for about a month and its been working fine, i woke up and turn on my computer and my hard drive started to beep every 3 seconds, and my computer says nothing is connected. can you please help me

[Sandman6616]

Best thing to do without going to Bios and all those setups is to Get a none Seagate USB enclosure and replace the disk in the new enclosure. Enclosures aren't expensive this days Cost about 14 dollar or so. I think thats simple.

[nikaicoh12]

-__-' How do you fix the USB port? My external hard drive's USB port just got loose. I really need help. My thesis is in here. I haven't copied it yet.

[nawoalanor]

@nikaicoh12 Very carefully.

[sunitpinto]

@nikaicoh12 hi, I have the same problem, the usb port got loose inside.. and I have not baked up my data did u have any luck in ur case?

[BluesKamikame]

I have a Seagate 1TB that started clicking more and more often recently. My fix is simpler: disconnect and reconnect power, listen for the disk to spin up with one small, initial click, then attach connect to USB (or turn on computer with USB already in). I do that, and it works flawlessly without modifying the drive or enclosure at all.

Does this work for anyone else?

[leoashy90]

what is the name of your antec bay called?...

[lox288]

what does it mean if the Seagate hard drive is beeping

[nobiggiestudio]

WTH?!!?!??!!? IS THERE A WD DRIVE IN THERE????

Or did u just show the drive as an example?

IM NOT! buying the drive if theres a Western digital harddrive hiding in there!

[atomjelly]

@nobiggiestudio YOU WD HATER!!! START LIKING WD!!!!

[zeyzey017]

can you help me ? what about for toshiba stor.e art 3 500gb usb ?? the device manager detect it with code 10 error

[ninvin21]

I downloaded Seagate Drive Settings tool and that seems to have fixed the problem.The drive is set to go to sleep after 15 min. I set it so it never goes to sleep.I would also suggest updating the firmware My system won't update it I believe it's because I'm running a dual boot system.So I bought a sata adapter cable I hope that allows me to update the firmware.

[ninvin21]

 The inclosure is fine it's the hard drive that is messed up.

[Makoholic11]

this guy is special

[SLRist]

Most portable drives go bad because people move them while they're powered up. I have several of these and I've had no problems after more than a year of operation.

[nawoalanor]

@SLRist Probably a newer model. It's good to know they might've actually fixed the problem at some point. I bought one about a year ago and followed the instructions in the video when it stopped working. A couple days ago it started clicking again, but luckily I was able to copy everything off in time! By the next evening it was clicking like crazy and now my computer wouldn't even detect that it was there. Completely dead now. Seems like this may not be a permanent fix after all.

[nat0000ham]

mine did the clicking thing for about 5 months until i got pissed off and shacked the shit out of it and it worked!!! :)

[collin418]

the small usb broke off my external hard drive if any1 knows a way to fix it please message me the usb is broken off the hard drive it self

[justcallmejim]

@collin418 shit i have the same problem what have you done im gonna remove the drive and put it in a new caddy.

[collin418]

@justcallmejim Yeah i have removed the drive from the casing whats a caddy the casing? lol where can i buy one of those?

[justcallmejim]

@collin418 so erm yeah i call the case a caddy dont know if its correct but meh. i have found a case that is compaterble with the drive but i fear that when i plug it in to the comp it will ask me to reformat the drive eeek. any advice would be apprieciated

[nawoalanor]

@collin418 You say the USB is broken off the drive itself... do you mean INSIDE the case, directly connected to the hard drive the connectors are broken? Or just on the outside of the case?

If it's just on the outside, the solution is the same as in this video: break the case open and connect the hard drive directly. If it's the hard drive itself that's broken, you're out of luck.

[TheLordstrider]

i wonder the drive inside is it from the bad 7200.11 series or the .12? any ideas?

[probacont2007]

@TheLordstrider, inside is a Barracuda 7200.12. 500418

[nawoalanor]

@probacont2007 It's a 7200.12? Damn, I thought it was only the 7200.11 ones that had like a 50% failure rate.

[ninvin21]

The 2TB has a Barracuda LP and The 1TB has a Barracuda 7200.12. The 1TB works fine the 2TB clicks. 

[salmanc1]

I had clicking on two seagate drives (USB power no AC adapter) and I just replaced the housing and sata connector. That fixed the problem.

[TheLordstrider]

Hi. please help :/ as soon as i plug the drive to the power unit there are 7-8 fast clicks 1 sec pause then 1 click and then all over again for around 60 sec then the drive will spin down and the drive wont show in the OS. will this fix bring my drive to life ? please let me know as soon as you can.

Thank you in Advance.

[Lambobeatz]

how the fuck do u fix it? 5min into vid and I have not learned anything

[rnortham]

Insufficient Power available to the drive. :O)

[aduchamps]

Hi, I had almost the same problem like you and neither Windows nor Ubuntu would recognize the drive.I opened the drive with you video instructions.

They helped a lot.

The case is fine with a few broken holders but never mind. I think it's the SATA-USB-chip-controller used which is causing the problem. I built my 2TB drive into another USB drive case from conceptronic with another chip-controlle and it's working fine so clearly a misconceived electronics design .

[jose1bc]

@ninvin21 damn, good luck let me know how it goes i might have to do the same

[makapav]

Dude - you are awesome for making this video duet and helping the rest out!

[jose1bc]

ok so i just got one of these recently. i was plugging in the usb cable to it and the little slot broke off and its just moving around inside the hardrive. is there a way i can fix that?

[ninvin21]

@jose1bc Same thing just happened to me, I guess Im going to take it out and out and put the drive into a different case.

[CesCh2983]

tearing apart the thing its not a fix for me, im just use a laptop cooler for the heading problem for my disks, i have 3 of these working fine.

[murtcrowley]

It worked for me, i got back all my missing data. plus it has stopped over heating. Thanks

[ozdagz]

this guy is a dim headed twit what a waste of time with his long drawn out shit, have another roofy and learn how not to speak like a hillbilly, its dicks like you that waste everybodys time , you make me angry

[TheRioTaRD]

I've had a seagate 2tb external HDD for over a year now, when I first got it (for a christmas present) it had this clicking noise, and when i looked for solutions back then I found nothing. So instead of revising for exams I decieded to try and fix this problem, I've looked at videos and solutions of forums, however before i ended up taking it apart is just happend to leave the thing upside down. It's completely stopped clicked and has normal read/write speeds. Will post back in a week to update

[Valisidor]

Also heat could of gotten to the other electrical components, which could of caused the short if thats the case.

[Valisidor]

Its mainly a heat problem, most if not all external drives have no fans in them except the expensive ones and that is a fatal flaw that will shorten the life of the HD, so just cut a hole in the top of it and place a small high speed mini cpu fan, wire it into a seperate USB plug and tilt the front end up slightly and you shoudlnt have any problems.

[horlonangel]

seagate is pool shit

[eronpj]

Try to use a powered USB HUB too.

[alexasiandude]

With great fury... lol

I bought one of these drives in 09's black friday... just got the clicking... she hasn't died yet but ugh. This sucks.

[Ripitup11]

when i plug my external hardrive into my mac it does not recognise, sometimes it opens and shows but most it doesnt? how do i fix?

[ForbodingAngel]

@Ripitup11 Go buy a real computer with windows 7 on it.

[nomewmew]

@ForbodingAngel ....macs have multiple programms like parallels that enables the computer to have windows on a second session

[Mac2Bee]

@Ripitup11

If you're still suffering from your ext. HDD problem on your Mac then PM me with more details...

I'm a -Doctor and have also worked as an HDD OEM manufacturer for the last 15 years.

And never mind ForbodingAngel2's remark :D Your Mac is such a "real"-ly good computer that it tells you (by not mounting your HDD every time) that something must be wrong with that drive for sure...

:)

[jonosbor]

Thanks man I have the same one 2tb it started clicking so I put it in my Desktop the clicking stopped and I got lucky I didn't even have to go in the Bios and change anything

[reehnruht]

hi i dont have i clicking seagate but one of the cable inputs has gone inside the hard-drive and i want to open it up,its my brothers hard-drive so i want to know if oening it will break the cover? will it be noticable?

[taterbacon]

was that a refrigerator?

[SPACEENTER1]

Thanks for this info. I thought i was doing something wrong with it, but now i realize that this Seagate Expansion external USB hard drive is JUNK.

[killkk2]

I have tryed it again in a new Antec external drive case and it still has the clicking so you do need it in the computer. I dont think any external drive cases that you can put it in. i have tryed a 2tb external iomega and a Antec cace that is worth $50. The hard drive still makes the clicking.

[killkk2]

I just wanted to open it up to put it into another external drive i will let you know if it works. Peace of crap.

[fizzmaverick]

hey im having the same problem was yours the freeagent desk? is the drive a normal 3.5" with sata connections? can you chek out my vid i posted: /watch?v=1oQgGr7WLg0

thanks!

[PAWLOA]

The problem I had was actually the drive and I did the reverse of what you did. It was an internal SATA drive that clicked like crazy until I mounted it in an external case and now it works fine.

[spudshooter29]

LOL you know if you pry it open from the back that front bit stays attatched and acts as a lever thingie...

[stuartatruered]

The USB socket has broken on mine. And yes all they will do is send me a replacement drive. The only problem I have with that is that there is a lot of stuff on this hard drive which I want to keep.

[grayhulk101]

And you did'nt mention about the circuit board being different. Is there an adaptor for the back of this.

[nani1962]

Why did it take you 3 months to decide to open it lol. Also just buy a case and you'll have an external again

[nani1962]

Why did it take you 3 months to decide to open it lol