This Seagate ST320LT007 came in for data recovery from a client located nearby in Wichita, Kansas. The client needed the important work documents that were stored on the drive, but they could get gain access to the hard drive using their computer. Any computer that the drive was connected to would not find the hard drive.
The hard drive was reported to sound normal, but the computers would not recognize it at all. These thin Seagate ST320LT007 drives commonly have hardware issues, so I was ready for the worst when it arrived and started with my diagnosis. A lot of these thin drives will get stuck heads, damaged heads, or other internal issues. But in this case, it was something else causing the problem.
After discussing the project with the client, he decided to bring it in for my affordable data recovery service.
Seagate ST320LT007 Diagnosis
The hard drive did indeed spin up and sound normal, but it would not ID on my PC-3000. It did get ready, but that was as far as it would go. With a stuck heads situation, the customer would normally have reported a beeping or no signs of life, so I didn’t expect that to be the issue (and since it spun up that was obviously not the problem. But with the drive getting ready, it made me think this would likely end up being a firmware-based issue.
I was able to connect via the terminal to turn off features in the drive’s firmware that can cause this type of issue. Once the firmware was edited, I was able to get the drive to ID on the PC-3000 and started diagnosing the heads. All the heads in the drive tested good, and the quick check for sector access across the drive also passed.
Now that the firmware issues were taken care of, I configured the Seagate ST320LT007 hard drive for imaging and started the cloning process. I use an imager when cloning the failed drive to a good drive, and I always start with a gentle first pass to get as much of the data back as I can without stressing out the drive too much.
Cloning The Slim Hard Drive
In this case, the first pass got over 99% of the data from the bad ST320LT007 drive, but there were some areas of the drive that had bad sectors. It took a couple more passes of increasingly more stressful passes to get all the data back possible from this drive.
I was able to get 100% of the sectors on this drive, which is a best-case scenario. The only step left was to connect the drive to my recovery PC and run data recovery software to pull the data from the clone of the drive.
Recovering the Important Documents
I didn’t run into any issues during the software recovery portion of this project. All the data was easily recoverable from the clone and I moved all the important data to the new drive the client had provided to me. I use a variety of data recovery programs during these projects, just to verify that every file possible is recovered from the hard drive.
Affordable Seagate Data Recovery
If you have a Seagate hard drive or any hard drive that needs data recovery services, I hope you will consider sending your drive to me. I am pleased to be able to offer the best affordable data recovery services possible. I have all the expensive equipment and experience as the big guys, with none of the overhead. By offering data recovery services from my home I am able to offer unbeatable value to my clients.
Please contact me with any questions you have, or start the recovery process by filling out my quick data recovery form. I look forward to working with you.
Thanks for reading!
Drive info: Seagate Momentus Thin Serial ATA Disc Drive 320GB, DTO: 628207-001, ST320LT007, PN: 9ZV142-622, FW: 0004HPB1, DATE: 13354, SITE: WU, Product of China, WWN: 5000c500602C8000
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