Seagate hard drive

Is it a portable External drive ?
If it is the type with a 2.5" spinning disc in it, I would not use that in a car if you paid me a fortune.
They can withstand large shock when they are not 'running'
However when 'running', even a small bump (or bump in the road), can allow the floating heads to hit the surface of the spinning drive platters, and it may never work again.
One alternative is to -
Get a portable SSD (Solid State Drive), as they have no moving parts, and should let you drive over footpaths, when running.
Or use a USB stick like you used to.
Hope this helps,
Rob

Check to see if your pc has a SSD drive (Solid state Drive).
If it does and it still works.... you should be good.
Reason: SSD units have no moving parts.

Non-SSD drives have spinning platters.
Any hard drives listing rpm's (Rotations per minute) spin at high speeds. Example: 7200 rpm's
A drop like that could cause the heads to crash into these platters.
Just watch to see if data starts to disappear or the pc acts really slow. The good news, most hard drives with rpm listing made recently park the heads to prevent damage from drops or sudden bumps.
Good luck and hope this helps

Suggest you remove the harddrive inside the case of the WD Passport, and install it in an inexpensive external enclosure.

However if the harddrive was on, and in use when dropped, you need not bother.

Inside that plastic case of the WD Passport, is a regular harddrive. There is also a small circuit board.
Interface Board.
The harddrive connects to the small circuit board directly, or there are cables (Wires) that come from the circuit board, and connect to the harddrive.

This Interface Board is damaged very easily.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITObQxytdH4

Harddrives are measured by their Width. How wide across is it.
A laptop size harddrive is 2.5 inches across in width. (6.4cm)
A desktop harddrive is 3.5 inches across in width. (8.9cm)

There are two styles usually used in an external harddrive.
IDE (PATA) and SATA.

The harddrive in the WD Passport 250GB external harddrive is a 2.5 SATA harddrive.

This is an example of a 2.5 SATA external enclosure,

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3195233&CatId=2783



Why do I state forget about repairing if the WD Passport was on when dropped?
The resulting internal damage.

Bear with me, I'll try to make this short;

A) Inside the case of a harddrive as used in the WD Passport, are Platters.
These resemble a CD or DVD disk.
Usually made of metal, or glass.

The top surface, and bottom surface is coated with a magnetic medium.
(Ferrous substance)
There are usually 3 to 6 Platters.

B) There is a Read/Write Head for the Top, and Bottom of every Platter inside the harddrive.
One on top, one on bottom.

The names imply just what the portion of the Read/Write Head does.
The Read portion reads whats on the Platter. The Write portion writes to the Platter
(When writing the magnetic medium is arranged. Arranged in 0's and 1's.
1 being ON, 0 being OFF. This is changed into computer language)

C) There is an Actuator Arm for every Platter. Holds the top Read/Write Head, and the bottom Read/Write Head.

The Actuator Arms are moved back, and forth across the Platters.
The Actuator Motor moves them.
(When the harddrive is operating, the arms can move back, and forth across the Platters, at
Hundreds of Times a Second)

D) There is a Spindle Motor that spins a Spindle. The Spindle goes up through the center of the Platters.

The Read/Write Heads are parked away from the Platters when the harddrive is not activated.
When activated the Read/Write Heads have a VERY close proximity to the surface of the Platters.

If memory serves it's around .0003
Three ten-thousandths of an inch.
An average human hair is .003
Three thousandths of an inch.

With the close proximity of the Read/Write Heads to the Platters, and the extremely fast movement, the Read/Write Heads actually float on a cushion of air.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/hard-disk.htm

If dropped while activated, the Read/Write Heads will crash into the Platters.
Retrieving information, would require a professional data retrieval shop to remove each Platter, and install them one at a time in a harddrive setup they have.

As much information is retrieved as possible.
Once a harddrive is opened up, it is doomed. A harddrive is built in a Clean Room.
A room that is 99.9 percent dust free. The tech's wear a suit, and have to walk through a corridor with air jets, before they can enter the Clean Room.

For additional questions please post in a Comment.

Regards,
joecoolvette

Unfortunately the hard drive is toast, the only hope of retrieving data is take it to a well equipted computer service store in the hope of extracting the imformation, this will be hit and miss whether it can be successful.

The arm that moves the heads over the platters inside your drive is loose. That means your drive is mostly toast. Read this link that I wrote on hard drive failures. It also has a way you can possibly recover a few files.

http://www.fixya.com/support/r3584465-bad_hard_drives_and_data_recovery

brother
your hard drive has either a crashed head,ir amisalligned head due to dropping it several times. also head stuck to platter is the result of dropping it.and may be the motor of the hard drive has lost its central axis and has got jammed.
if your drive is still spinning i am sure it has head crash problem only.
please try to either get it replaced if its under warrenty.
if you wish to recover data , please pm me.

datarecoveryfactory

http://atulchitnis.net/files/seagate.pdf http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/downloads/firmware/ follow indications carefully

a single speck of dust is bigger than the gap between the platters and read/write heads. If dust/debris does enter the drive, it can have catastrophic results when the heads crash into it. SO OPEN your hard drive's sealed casing to clean the hard drive. clean it and fix it .

Just a note, instead of making another post, you can just reply to it and I will get back to you just as fast. Well, sorry to say, but you can't do anything to fix it yourself. The problem (sorry if you don't understand) is apparently the fact that the read/write heads for some reason don't park themselves off the platter when you turn your computer off. This causes the read/write heads to stick to the platter, and the platter cannot spin. If you have a warranty, you could sent it back, but if it has expired, then there is nothing you can do except get a new hard drive, and don't get Maxtor next time, instead get a more reliable brand like Seagate.