Data on a disk drive may become inaccessible either by simple corruption or by physical damage. In the case of data corruption, the disk drive hardware is in perfect working order and is as reliable as it should be. However, the data has become corrupted by a fault usually caused by the system memory, or the operating system or even improper shut down. In the case of physical damage to the disk drive, this can be caused by some extreme conditions like floods or fire, damage to the electronics from a power surge, or abuse from being dropped or mishandled, or failure of the drive, itself.
In these situations, the data may be recoverable through extraordinary means offered through a specialized data recovery service.
Please see the following link for more information:
Seagate Recovery Services
Seagate Recovery Services are a pay-per-use service and not covered by a drive’s warranty.
If your drive is still under warranty and you intend to pursue data recovery, you must do the data recovery before exchanging the drive. Once a drive has been returned for warranty exchange, any data on the drive is forfeited and lost.
Seagate now offers Do-It-Yourself Data Recovery software:
File Recovery for Windows
Please remember, you should always keep current backups of your critical data. Seagate is not responsible for lost user data.