Temporarily booting into Linux may increase the chance of accessing your files, and improperly unplugging your burnt-out Seagate HDD may restore access after it jams with errors. Depending on how exactly the Seagate HDD is defective, unplugging it or attempting to access it may cause damage and may not successfully provide access to files.
WARNING: It is your responsibility to decide if this is appropriate for you. If you have a low risk tolerance, you should have the disk recovered professionally. I am not responsible if attempting to access the HDD causes unrecoverable damage. Never attempt to physically open the HDD under any circumstances. This procedure is mainly fit for when disks sound normal but have I/O Device Errors, not for disks with grinding or relentless clicking sounds.
1. If the burnt-out Seagate HDD is not currently running, leave it off until Step 10. If it's currently inserted in Windows, remove it for now.
2. Download the latest Manjaro XFCE minimal ISOs from [
https://manjaro.org/downloads/official/xfce/].
Note: you will not need to install this anywhere or replace your current Windows installation. You will be running from the installer itself, which will be the only medium required.
3. Download Rufus portable from [
https://rufus.ie] and run it (administrator password required). Select the Manjaro ISO and choose a spare USB pen drive or SD card.
WARNING: All files on the pen drive or memory card will be DESTROYED. Proceed at your own risk. Remove all other external storage devices and triple-check the remaining one has no valuable contents.
4. Shut down your computer. While holding down F2, press the power button to turn the computer on again. Once you reach the gray screens, use the arrow keys to navigate to the Boot tab, press the down arrow until the pen drive is selected, and use F5/F6 to move the pen drive to the top of the boot priority list. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the Exit tab, use the down arrow to highlight Exit Saving Changes, and press the Enter key.
5. If it boots into proprietary Windows again, it could be caused by "Secure Boot" (which is actually Proprietary Boot) preventing the open-source operating system from booting. Proprietary Boot is managed by Microsoft by default, which refuses to sign anything open-source as per Rule 4 of the UEFI Signing Requirements. I don't know what model your computer is, so I don't know how to disable Proprietary Boot if necessary.
6. If you have a NVIDIA GPU, boot with Proprietary drivers. Otherwise, boot with open source drivers.
7. If the burnt-out Seagate HDD is
mostly filled, you should
create an image. If the burnt-out Seagate HDD is
mostly empty, you should simply
copy and paste the contents. Files are rearranged while being copied and pasted, whereas images copy everything sequentially and leave every file in the exact same arrangement as before. It is much faster to copy sequentially, but an image also copies free space and deleted files, causing images to be slower on disks with mostly empty space.
8. Insert a different HDD for transferring the files to, but
don't insert the burnt-out Seagate HDD yet. If you are copying and pasting, ensure the destination has enough free space to fit all files on the burnt-out Seagate HDD. If you are creating an image, ensure the destination has enough free space to fit the entire capacity of the burnt-out Seagate HDD (1 TB).
CAUTION: If the second HDD does not have enough free space, you risk having the burnt-out Seagate HDD enter idle.
9. Open Add/Remove Software and install the GNOME Disk Utility.
10. Insert the burnt-out Seagate HDD.
CAUTION: Anytime this disk is inactive for more than 20 seconds, open a random folder to prevent the disk from entering idle. If the disk is allowed to enter idle, you may need to unplug it again, losing progress and pushing it closer to corruption or permanent inaccessibility.
11A. If you chose to
image the disk, open the Disks tool, select the burnt-out Seagate HDD on the left, select the right menu icon, and click Create Disk Image. Choose a destination folder on a disk with enough free space to fit the entire capacity (1 TB) of the burnt-out Seagate HDD. Start Creating.
Note: this step will not overwrite contents on the destination disk, because the image file can coexist with other files.
11B. If you chose to
copy and paste contents, locate and open the burnt-out Seagate HDD in the Files viewer, press
Control + A to select everything, hold Control while clicking to deselect items to exclude, press
Control + C, and press
Control + V in a destination directory with enough storage.
12: If you cannot access the files or there is an error, unplug the power cord of the burnt-out Seagate HDD without safely removing it, and then try again.
WARNING: If your HDD is older, it is less likely to have power loss protection. It is extremely dangerous to improperly unplug HDDs without power loss protection. Without power loss protection, the read/write heads will plow into wherever it was located above while operating. With power loss protection, a circuit will strongly push the actuator arm into the parked position, which actually produces the desired outcome.
Not only is this ineffective on HDDs without power loss protection, but it is also dangerous. To be safe, I would need to know the model of the defective Seagate HDD.
13. While transferring, you can open GSmartControl (preinstalled) to check the SMART attributes on the burnt-out Seagate HDD. This will not stress the HDD or interfere with the transfer. If it has a high raw value for Current Pending Sector Count, you may want to consider cancelling the transfer and using professional data recovery services, depending on your risk tolerance.
Note: this is after Step 11 because doing it before would cause the disk to enter idle. Idle could be prevented by opening random folders, but starting the transfer in that time and having the transfer prevent idle is more efficient.
14A. (Not Urgent) If you made an image, insert a third HDD to restore the image to. After restoring, which can be done with the same GNOME Disk Utility, the original contents of the burnt-out Seagate HDD will appear on the third HDD.
WARNING: All files on the third HDD will be COMPLETELY DESTROYED. Proceed with extreme caution. Remove all other external HDDs except the second and third HDDs, and triple-check the third HDD does not contain any valuable files.
15. (Optional) File a lawsuit against Seagate in small claims court.