Seagate Hard Drive Data Recovery: Recover Deleted Files From Seagate Drives

No matter how reliable they get, Seagate hard drives are just as prone to data loss as any other brand. You can lose the data stored on your drive by accidental file deletion, improper formatting, and corruption.

Is It Possible To Recover Data From A Seagate Hard Drive?

Yes, it is possible to recover deleted files from a Seagate hard drive. However, the process is not the same for both internal and external storage. Moreover, it also differs depending on the type of drive you’re using. Let’s take a look at the different types of Seagate storage drives and their scope of recovery.

• 🟢 Seagate external hard drive recovery: Seagate external hard drive recovery: External storage drives are usually easy to recover data from. This is basically because they usually have only one partition which makes recovering data from external hard drives fairly simple. In a majority of cases, the external drive gets accidentally formatted, or you might accidentally end up deleting some important data from it. In such scenarios, using good data recovery software can easily help you out.
• 🟡 Seagate internal hard drive recovery: Even though it’s possible to recover data from internal storage drives, the chances of recovery entirely depend on how long it’s been since the data was deleted and how much data you’ve stored on your drive since then. This is because even though the deleted data is still present on your drive, it can be overwritten by the new data you store on your drive which makes the recovery process complicated. Additionally, if you have a hard drive for your internal storage, it is more prone to errors related to disk formatting, disk corruption, and physical damage to the disk as it is being used more often and for longer time periods.
• 🟠 Seagate SSD data recovery: Even though it can be difficult, it is possible to recover data from an internal SSD. However, your win rates and the amount of data you can recover completely depend on whether your drive has an active TRIM command or not. The TRIM command is exclusive to SSDs, and it basically wipes out unused or deleted data internally to speed up the drive’s overall performance. However, if you quickly begin the recovery process before the TRIM command kicks in, you can easily recover your deleted data using data recovery software.

Before We Start

Now that we know the challenges you’ll face while recovering data from different types of drives, it’s best to go over the actual steps you can follow to perform data recovery. However, there are a few minor things you should keep in mind before you start. Let’s go over them briefly:

How To Recover Data From A Seagate Hard Drive?

As mentioned earlier, data recovery software like Disk Drill and TestDisk are excellent tools to guarantee the safety of your data. Both the software have a fairly straightforward operation and offer something to both casual users and experts alike. Let’s briefly go through them:

Method #1: Disk Drill For Windows

Disk Drill is an excellent data recovery software application that is critically acclaimed for its easy-to-use interface, data protection tools, and powerful data recovery capabilities. It caters to everyday PC users who are struggling with data loss and corrupted storage and are looking for user-friendly software to help them. Here’s how to use Disk Drill to recover data from a Seagate hard drive.

1. Download Disk Drill from its original website.
2. Run the Disk Drill installer and click Install. Launch Disk Drill once the installation is finished.
3. You will be greeted by the Disk Drill main window. You will see all your drives listed here, even the ones that don’t show up in file explorer.
4. Select the drive you want to scan and click Search For Lost Data.
5. Once the search is complete, you can view the results by clicking Review Found Items.
6. In the Review Found Items menu, all the files recovered from your Seagate hard drive will be segregated based on their format, so you can easily pick out the ones you’re interested in restoring. Simply select the files you want to retrieve and click Recover.
7. Browse and select a destination folder for your files and click OK.

Disk Drill will take a few moments before restoring your files to the selected destination folder. Once the process is complete, you will have access to all your lost data.

Method #2: TestDisk/PhotoRec

TestDisk and its satellite software PhotoRec are freeware data recovery software bundles that can easily recover data from both internal Seagate hard drives and external Seagate hard drives.

However, unlike Disk Drill, both TestDisk and PhotoRec feature a command-line user interface that might not be accessible to everybody. That being said, if you follow these simple steps, you will be recovering data using these two software solutions in no time.

1. Download TestDisk data recovery software from its official website.
2. When the download has finished, extract the contents at your desired landing location. (The extracted folder will be named after the TestDisk version you download)
3. Open the folder and navigate to the application called testdisk_win. Launch it.
4. Once you launch the app, you will be directed to a terminal screen, which is the TestDisk home. Here, select the Create option and hit Enter. TestDisk will now scan your PC for available storage devices.
5. Once the scan is complete, you will get a list of available storage devices on your screen. Select the drive you want to further scan by using the arrow keys and press Enter.
6. Now, select a partition table type. To do that, navigate to Intel and press Enter.
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   Intel here represents your Windows PC, and the partition table type will be different for mac users.

7. The next screen contains a lot of options you can explore. For our purposes, we will go with the Analyze option to scan your Seagate hard drive for lost data.
8. You will be prompted with a few options on the next screen. Here, select the Quick Search option and hit Enter.
9. If your files are not visible in the Quick Search, you can follow the prompts on your screen and perform a deeper search of your Seagate hard drive. (This process will take a significantly longer time to finish, but you will receive a list of all the partitions of your Seagate hard drive you can fix.)
10. Follow the prompts on your screen and at last, select a landing destination to store the files recovered from your Seagate hard drive. Once the restoration is complete, you will receive a text that says “Copy Done!”.

Options To Recover A Malfunctioned Seagate Hard Drive

If your Seagate hard drive is malfunctioning, has corrupted, is unrecognizable, or even unreadable in the File Explorer, you can still recover data from it using a good data recovery software like Disk Drill. However, to normally use it again, you must recover it so that windows can read it properly. To do that, follow the methods below.

However, before we proceed, you need to make sure that the drive you want to recover is showing up in Windows Device Manager under the “Disk drives” tab.

Fix #1: Uninstall And Reinstall Drives

If your Seagate hard drive is not being detected by Disk Management, you will have to uninstall and reinstall the drivers for it to work again. Follow these steps:

1. Connect your external Seagate hard drive to your PC.
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   Skip this step if you are performing troubleshooting on your internal hard drive.

2. Go to the search box and type “Device Manager”. Or you can run the device manager directly from the Control Panel.
3. Click on disk drivers and right-click on your hard drive. Select “Update Driver”
4. Select “Search automatically for updated driver software”. Once the process is complete, restart your PC and your hard drive should work fine.

Fix #2: Format RAW Seagate External Hard Drive to NTFS

If your Seagate hard drive is malfunctioning and you don’t have anything valuable stored on it, you can try a simple remedy to fix it by formatting it. Formatting the drive can also fix errors if your hard drive is appearing as RAW or unallocated.

1. Connect the Seagate external hard drive to your PC. (Skip this step if you are performing troubleshooting on your internal hard drive)
2. Select your RAW hard drive that is not working and select “Format”.
3. Set NTFS as a file system and tick “Quick Format”. Click Start to format the drive.

Fix #3: Change Seagate Drive Letter

Sometimes the OS gets confused with drive letters and ends up not showing storage drives in the file explorer at all. You can simply bypass this conflict by assigning a new drive letter to your external Seagate hard drive.

1. Connect your external Seagate hard drive to your computer.
2. Open Disk Management and navigate to your malfunctioning drive.
3. Right-click your drive and select “Change Drive Letters and Paths”.
4. A pop-up window will appear. Here, click on the current drive letter and then click on the Change button.
5. Select a new drive letter from the drop-down menu that opens up to assign to your drive and click OK to confirm.

Is It Possible To Recover Data From A Dead/Physically Damaged Seagate Hard Drive?

It’s common for external hard drives to take a beating. It can be due to a fall from the table or it might just slip off your hands while you try to put it in your pocket. However, such incidents can cause mechanical damage to the components of the hard drive which may result in a dead or damaged hard drive. Here are the most common clues that might indicate a physically damaged hard drive:

• 🔊 Strange Sounds: A hard drive includes a spinning disk that contains all your data. Naturally, the spinning motion creates some noise. However, if you hear strange sounds like clicking, whirring, or popping coming out of your hard drive, you might be dealing with a physically damaged hard drive.
• 🐌 Slow Performance: If you notice longer than usual load and boot times while using your PC, it could be due to a physically damaged disk.
• 💻 Partial Data Loss: Even though your data can be compromised by a virus, it can also be the fault of a damaged disk. If you notice that the data you often access is no longer visible, it could be a sign of a damaged hard drive.
• 🔇 No Sound: As mentioned earlier, a spinning hard disk is bound to create some noise. However, if you hear no sound at all, it means that you might be dealing with a dead drive.

Even though it is possible to recover data from a physically damaged hard drive, you will need to take your damaged Seagate hard drive to a professional data recovery service.

So, is it possible to recover data from a physically damaged hard drive? Yes, it is possible. But the best solution to this issue is to take your Seagate storage to the nearest service center and have the professionals deal with the problem. If the damage isn’t too bad, they might be able to fully recover all your data from your damaged Seagate hard drive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s take a look at a few commonly asked questions related to recovering Seagate hard drives:

Wrap Up

It can be upsetting to see your hard disk storage rendered useless due to corruption, virus, or improper formatting. Luckily, you can rely on data recovery software like Disk Drill and TestDisk to carry out your Seagate hard drive recovery and retrieve your important files.

If you prefer using a GUI instead of a command-line interface, you should check out Disk Drill. However, if your drive has sustained physical damage, it might be best as your last resort to head to the nearest data recovery center.