Seagate FreeAgent Desk External Hard Disk Drive Retrieval

I had this Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1.5TB external hard drive (Barracuda LP) for about six months when a brief power outage appeared to have damaged the USB power and communication board.  Despite every variation I could think of, the drive would power on but all it would do is display a rapid flash error signal with no access to the drive through the USB port.

It turned out that there was nothing wrong with the drive, only the USB2.0 board which plugs into the eSATA port of the Barracuda LP drive inside.  The pictures below show how to extract the drive from its plastic case and interior metal housing.  When powering up my drive did not seem to exhibit the click of death.  Removing the HDD from its case as shown below will void you warranty, but if you are like me and you would rather have access to your data, the warranty is basically useless anyway.

Once you extract your HDD from its casing, do not attempt to open the hard disk drive itself with a T8 star wrench, you will ruin the drive and all its contents.

First, use a flat-head screwdriver or putty knife to pop the silver top from the white base.  There are no screws to be removed until the metal drive housing is fully removed from the plastic shell.  The circular  rubber feet do not hide screws on this model, so don't bother trying to peel them off.  There are only plastic tabs which must be popped open on all four sides as shown.

Carefully lift the silver top straight up to reveal the hard-drive and its metal housing inside.

The metal housing is secured into the plastic case by four square rubber feet which are attached to the side of the metal drive housing.

Carefully lift the entire metal housing up and out of the plastic shell.  There are no screws to remove yet.

Here is the drive housing flipped upside-down after removing from the plastic shell.

There are three small phillips-head screws which must be removed first.

Now turn the housing assembly around and remove the rubber foot at the back of the drive (which secures the top of the housing to the hard drive) with your fingernail or a screw driver.  It should pull off easily.

Unscrew the screw underneath.

Gently pull the top of the housing up from this side and remove it from the drive.

The red USB control board was the culprit.  Remove the two screws which secure the USB board to the bottom portion of the housing.

Now remove the two rubber feet and screws which are accessible.  The rubber foot and screw which is covered by the USB board will be removed last.

Because of the position of the last rubber foot and screw, carefully pull the USB board from the eSATA pins while angling the board slightly downward so that it clears the rubber foot.

Remove the last rubber foot and screw and the HDD will be ready to insert into an internal desktop SATA cable, an external eSATA slot, or an alternative powered external drive mount or housing.  This drive is a 3.5in eSATA drive.  I was using this Seagate external HDD via USB with an older PC with internal IDE cables so there was no option to plug it into an open internal slot in the PC.

AGAIN:  Do not attempt to open the hard disk drive itself with a T8 star wrench, you will ruin the drive and all its contents.