Plug the external drive into the computer, then sit back and watch and listen for approximately two minutes without doing anything else. Does the light turn on? Is it quietly spinning up? Is it making a new noise that wasn't there before? Based on what you observe, you are looking at one of three possibilities: an inexpensive repair (a connection issue), a careful repair (a software issue) or a full lab repair (a hardware issue).
If the drive is clicking, buzzing or beeping, or just keeps spinning up and down repeatedly, stop now. This type of behaviour indicates that something has gone mechanically wrong with the internal parts of the drive. Most commonly, the read/write heads have failed, or the motor has seized (particularly if the drive was dropped or knocked against something). The longer you keep it connected to your computer, the higher the likelihood you could damage the platters where your files reside. Disconnect it right away and go to the last section of this guide.
First try a different USB cable. Cables supplied by manufacturers with portable hard drives often fail, particularly those from Seagate and Western Digital. Next, try connecting to a different port (directly to the computer, not through a hub or front ports). Finally, if possible, check whether you can run it on a completely different machine. Desktop-style units that require their own power brick also need that brick working properly. If the drive is not spinning at all, consider trying a compatible adapter before giving up.
To open Disk Management on Windows, right-click the Start button. If your disk is shown in Disk Management but cannot be found in File Explorer, it has probably just lost its assigned drive letter. This can be changed by right-clicking the partition and choosing 'Change Drive Letter and Paths'. If your disk is displayed as RAW, unallocated or asking to be initialised, the partition or file system has been corrupted. However, most likely your data is intact. Don't initialise, don't format, and do not let Windows 'fix' the disk. Initialising, formatting and fixing all overwrite the very structures that a recovery rebuilds your data from.
On a Mac, open Disk Utility. Click View, then select Show All Devices. At this point your actual physical drive should be available in this listing. If your physical drive shows up in Disk Utility but doesn't mount, do not immediately use Erase, as erasing removes the data from the disk completely. Using First Aid on a disk with audible issues is not recommended: First Aid repair tools are not capable of addressing hardware failures and will only make an already failing disk work harder. If a disk mounts on one operating system but not the other (Windows but not Mac, or vice versa), more often than not it's because it was formatted for the other system. The data is fine, and as long as you access your files from the system it was made for, you should have no problems.
The most likely reason that the indicator light on your Seagate hard drive is lit, yet nothing is visible (and you don't hear any strange noises), is a problem with the USB bridge board or firmware. Most of these can be recovered from, but they cannot be resolved simply by swapping the cables. Do not waste time opening up the enclosure, removing the drive and attaching it directly to another external case, as many newer WD My Passport and Elements drives encrypt the user's data via their onboard USB board, rendering the bare drive unreadable in any other enclosure. For proper recovery of the data, a laboratory needs to either work with the original USB board or find a way around it.
Regardless of whether or not you try anything else, don't keep plugging the drive into your computer to see if "it will come back". If the drive is detected less and less often after several attempts, that is indicative of a failure trend as opposed to moody behaviour. Each additional attempt also increases the chance of complete failure of the drive by adding more rotations on the failing hardware.
Do not continue attempting to access the drive if it is making noise (clicking, beeping) or has been dropped; if Windows says the drive is RAW or uninitialised and you need access to those files; if the drive detects intermittently but shows signs of getting progressively worse; or if you've spent multiple hours using recovery software with no results. The maths is easy: your DIY attempts could destroy the data, while having your drive evaluated by professionals costs you nothing.
Get a quote from us for recovering your external hard drive prior to posting it to us: call 0800 689 0668 or use our free online diagnostic form. After you receive a quote, post your entire external hard drive to our lab in its original case with its cable and power supply (bubble wrap is acceptable). We will provide you with a detailed description of the fault(s) present within two working days of receiving your drive, along with a list of the exact files that can be recovered and a fixed price for our service. In most instances, you only pay if we successfully recover your data. See our external hard drive recovery page for more information.
Golden rule: if you need the files and the drive starts making a noise it did not make when new (for example clicking, buzzing or beeping), turn it off now. All mechanical faults worsen whilst the drive is powered on.
There's no charge to begin. Our process starts with a free diagnostic. Following completion of the diagnostic, we'll give you a quote with a fixed price based upon what we've determined needs to be done. In most cases, you only pay if we recover your data. Begin today or call us on the freephone.