I'm having trouble with one of my Seagate Exos X18 14TB drives. It spins up normally for a couple of seconds, but then powers off and is no longer recognized by my operating system. I've tried swapping cables and ports, but no luck. Has anyone encountered this before and knows what could be causing this issue?
1 Answer
This issue typically indicates a hardware problem. If the drive briefly spins up then shuts down, it could mean:
- There's an internal failure, like a controller issue or a firmware crash.
- The power supply might not be providing enough juice on the 12V rail, especially with high-capacity drives like this one.
- Your PSU or backplane may not be managing the spin-up current properly.
Here are some quick checks you can do:
- Try using a different PSU power cable or a direct SATA power cable instead of splitters.
- If possible, test the drive in another system or with a USB-to-SATA dock.
- Also, check if the drive shows up in your BIOS/UEFI settings. If it doesn't even appear there, running SMART tests won't help because the drive isn't initializing correctly.
Sadly, if it's not detected in BIOS on another machine, it likely means the drive has failed, and you'll need to consider warranty replacement or professional data recovery.
I've tried three different power supplies and two systems. I’m pretty sure it’s an internal issue too. I tried to erase it when it powered up, touched the top and it spun down. Definitely not a loose connection! Wish I hadn't messed with it. Thanks for the advice!