So whilst I'm not a total computing n00b, there are some things I definitely bow to superior wisdom on.
This is one of those things.
My Seagate 3TB external drive is probably coming up on 10 years old now, and it's been amazingly solid, hence why I've kept it for so long.
I was having an issue with it tonight where I could hear it try to start up and read, and right at the point where it usually showed up on my laptop as connected, it would stop spinning.
I thought it was a power issue, so tried a different outlet and a different power cable but same thing was happening.
This was when I noticed that the USB cable in the drive looked a bit wonky, so I took it out and the female piece attached to the PCB came off and fell inside the housing.
Here are some visuals:
Now first question, could this lack of connection be causing the drive to attempt to spin up and read, then stop when it notices there's nothing connected?
Second question, can I get a new power/data port to see if the drive will work again?
Third question, there's some data on there that I'd like to get back as I don't think it's backed up anywhere else even though a lot of it is...is this a simple process given the right equipment or what's the dealio?