Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive stopped working

[aspenlouise]

My Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive stopped working. It was in storage for two years. I pulled out to work with an old iPhoto library. I left it plugged into my computer for a few days. Slowly it stopped working. It started taking longer and longer to do things. Then it started crashing my computer. Then after a restart from a crash it simply disappeared. The light is on. It sometimes making spinning noises and it sometimes just hums. It does not show up in DiskUtility. It does show up under System Information. It does not work on my other Macbook either. I have tried different cables and different ports. I am attaching a few files so you can see my computer info and where the HHD shows up. I understand the hard drive has failed. Is there anything that can be done to recover the data on it? Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Longkeg]

It does work on my other Macbook either.

Huh? Could there be a typo here? Please clarify.

 

[aspenlouise]

Huh? Could there be a typo here? Please clarify.

Yes, typo. It does not work on my other Macbook either.

 

[Longkeg]

I think you’ve correctly deduced that the drive is toast. Unfortunately the time to think about data recovery was when you first noticed a slow down. At this point your only option may be a professional data recovery lab which will be very, very expensive with no guarantee of success.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you connect the drive now, can you hear the platters "spin up" inside?
If they do, that's "a sign of some life".
If you hear nothing, almost certainly the drive has suffered a hardware failure.

The lesson here is:
Never trust important data to only ONE drive.
It should be stored in at least TWO places.
THREE is even better.