How To Disassemble a 2.5" USB Seagate Backup Plus Disk

[@ComedyCole]

My internal hard drive died and I didn't feel like buying a new one. You saved me 100 dollars. I had a extra 2tb external hard drive that was blank. Thanks

[@LinsonJames]

Thanks for this video. BTW, to take out the HDD after removing the cover, instead of tapping on the back of the drive, just peel the aluminium layer from the end opposite the USB port and pull, and the disk will pop out.

[@ManiacX1999]

This video is so useful! I've never realized how obscenely common Seagate is, so when my laptop crapped out I was worried I had lost everything. Just popped the case off, took another portable drives 2.5 ports and plopped it into my desktop. Thanks!

[@FuoFire]

you are so smart tapping that hard on the back to get it out, keep it going

[@jamesspinella7053]

Still works on this drive in 2022! (4TB) I got a Seagate Barracuda, probably the only 4TB 2.5" model they make from the Barracuda line. I don't have the drive in front of me... It was more difficult to get the drive out than this video makes it out to be. Back in the day these drives had screws in them with rubber grommets over them and that's how they were secured inside the enclosure. These drives, however, were held in with plastic clips going into the screw holes, that kind of design where once the drive is in place, it's very difficult, if not impossible to get the drive back out. So I ended up using two old credit cards stacked on each other (one is too flexible) and basically pressed them into where the screw holes of the drive would be, pulling and prying until the clips were either depressed and freeing the drive, or broken. I shucked two of these drives (Seagate 4TB Gaming for PS4) and broke at least one of these clips on both, so the enclosures really can't be reused unless you were to use some kind of adhesive to hold the drives in. Seagate appears to be the only shuckable brand. No dice with Toshiba (owned by WD) or WD.

[@dallase1]

Where can you get a aftermarket USB 3.0 external enclose for this drive? All the ones I see online are for the thinner 2.5 inch drives.

[@buckwheatpie]

This is brilliant. To the guy in the video - you are brilliant. Thank you!

[@ShairDil-g7y]

4:17 Shock did not damaged your hard disk?

[@Pecola1FromScratch]

I did this because the USB interface for the external hard drive seemed to no longer be working. (Would cut out and crash Windows Explorer and any other device that tried to access the drive after a few mins) But unfortunately after plugging in the sata and power to my PC, it wouldn't even show the drive. (Showed Disk 0 Not Initialized, and wouldn't initialize either.) But the tutorial was very useful to trying to recover my messed up external drive regardless! I'll likely have to try to go to a data recovery place, or try out my SATA SSD/HD dock to see if that works. Thanks!

[@hansmaulwurf8027]

Thanks. My drive died yesterday after a reboot. The HDD was used as backup for my SingleBoardComputer. Sat only in the cabinet no movement at all. The motor doesn't spin up. The controller draws 160mA. Hopefully only the controller board is dead. I will try to RMA it before opening it. This video shows me at least, that it is nearly impossible to open without notice.

[@nasabear]

This was just the video I needed to help me extract the drive from one of these so I can destroy it.

[@shehabkataya7078]

Can I use a different cable on this seagate drive? For example would a USB A to micro B cable work on it?

[@chrisnelson1935]

It needs the extra USB 3 portion so it gets enough power to run the drive. Micro USB is limited to 500 ma with the USB 3 connector it has up to 900 ma

[@mmshrwd]

Thanks for this! Super helpful. What was the height of the drive inside?

[@cubeflinger]

Cheers bro! now I know why I keep all those all credit cards

[@beggerking]

Can you use a heat gun to melt the tape? Would that make it easier?

[@URTechDotCa]

Hi Jianre; You could definitely make this easy and cleaner with a heat gun or even a strong hair dryer, but it would make it hot to handle when disassembling and most people don't have a heat gun.

[@DaveBudness]

I have the 5TB seagate back up plus. I'm curious to crack it open to place it into the PS4

[@fnaelga]

hi, i got this legion 5i laptop and they say this has a free 2.5 hdd slot, can this fit into it? it seems thicker than the usual 2.5 hdd i got from my old one.

[@shribalaji1403]

Yeah, i dont think its 2.5 inch disk...

[@C4ETech]

Thank you - helped a lot :)

[@DesignXstream]

Was shocked to see your comment here! Love your content man... Keep going 🤘🏼

[@URTechDotCa]

Glad it helped. Thanks for the comment

[@wonderboygaming]

Can I connect this using a SATA 3 cable?

[@LowEndPCGamer100]

thx m8, just built my dream rig and seagate sent me a defective 4tb hdd, im not even gonna ship it back im so pissed, so this will be a fine substitute! a backup drive should be a SSD for longevity's sake anyways, so ill grab one of those and re copy my pirate stuff!

[@RichardDower]

Excellent....you saved me money.

[@byuntaeyeonkim4322]

hello. i broke my seagate expansion portable drive's usb port and i want to transport it to a new enclosure/casing. the pins were torn off of the computer chip at the usb port and i have lost them already. will i be able to do this?

[@Archaeopteryx92]

From my personal experience, the USB to SATA adaptor damage the drive more compared to when the drive is connected to regular SATA interface. The adaptor used in Seagates is especially bad. But WD made the adaptor a complete part of the harddrive making it useless for installing in the standard SATA ports and they still fail, part of the reason might be less stability for USB ports ( some are loose, some are worn off). Not sure but I feel the USB to SATA needs some better design improvements for all manufacturers.

[@poxy1000]

it looks like a normal hardrive underneath, would I be able to rip it out of the casing and just stick it into my laptop without any trouble?

[@jamesoffer5019]

Yes.

[@madelinzaycheck1874]

Thanks for your video, it was super helpful!

[@DavidWilliams-wj4sc]

this looks too thick to use in a regular laptop (in my case an Intel Nuc as 2nd disk). Looks really thick. Is this a unique size hard drive for that enclosure?

[@URTechDotCa]

Hi David; Noper, these are all stock 2.5" drives. Remember however that there are two thicknesses of 2.5" disks (1 platter & 2 platter), so it MIGHT be too thick for your laptop if that laptop will only take 1 platter disks.

[@WillieBeard]

That was hilarious. Thanks for the entertainment.

[@neon_one]

these are still just regular hard drives underneath right? I keep expecting them to make them exclusively portable

[@Excalibur250]

Depends on the brand from what I hear. Seagate tends to use the sata/usb adapter.

[@maman89]

Very nice.The USB 3 header on the hard drive is really stupid, real easy to bend them. Plus sellers in my country is asking around 400 USD for a 4TB internal 2.5 while selling 4TB external 2.5 for around 190USD which doesn't make sense.

[@spasi57]

Really...? Usually is the other way around...

[@maman89]

@@spasi57 computer parts price in malaysia rarely do. I got into an argument on facebook over a E8400 listed as high end in 2018.

[@blacksnow7106]

right now, even in US, HDD price is also bonker, most external are cheaper than internal per TB which is why i'm watching these how to tear down externals

[@Magnificent1393]

Thank you! Is it a CMR or SMR drive? Where is it made? How much is the memory cache?

[@hansmaulwurf8027]

Unfortunately this must be smr. Cmr will be hard to fit in this form factor for this capacity

[@Joreg_Catapang]

Actually I just want to get the hard drive because in CrystalDiskInfo it said good but when Im going to wigle little bit the usb cord to drive it will going to disconnect that why I open it, and the cord is good the port is broken

[@CKallias_SteelEternal]

This model is actually so simple you can rip the top with with nails, it will deform/bend the top but it's super easy...

[@dearcharo6411]

How to unscrew that mine have like star screw and it was stuck

[@URTechDotCa]

If a screw gets stripped, you will likely have to use a drill to hollow out the screw hole.

[@Vger77]

Hei, thank you for the video, can you tell me how it is, to see if it fits in my ps4

[@realshompa]

no. You need a slim 9,5mm height drive.

[@TheEpmedia]

Some consider such behavior as hard drive abuse.

[@emade9744]

is it a 2.5 inch drive

[@URTechDotCa]

Yes. It is a 2.5" drive you can install in any other computer. :)

[@emade9744]

@@URTechDotCa i thought it as a laptop 2.5 inch drive but it seems to be very thick

[@lalamove8712]

can be support ps4?

[@Orselo]

Yes I have a 4tb

[@MrBali123456]

Thank you for the video. And you are so funny 😊.

[@RMonty559]

Hey @URtectdotca I had a question about this can u get back to me asap plzzz thanks

[@URTechDotCa]

Sure, what up?

[@miketurner4611]

Is this a hard drive rather than an SSD drive ? I hoped it was an SSD drive but it doesn't look like one, can you confirm what type of drive it is please ?

[@hansmaulwurf8027]

Spinning rust (HDD) it is

[@spezialvideos]

Thank you

[@URTechDotCa]

Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@YT-io8uw]

how much tb

[@chrisg6091]

The latest ones are much harder. (2021) Removal is a destructive process to the case now.

[@URTechDotCa]

Hi Chris; You might find using a heat gun or hair dryer, along the seam might help.

[@achridhan]

thanks just to make sure no screw inside..

[@dallase1]

It's not a disk or disc but a drive, you don't want the platters inside it. Why did you bang on it? That can damage it, even if the heads are parked hitting hard the drive can still damage it.

[@URTechDotCa]

Hi Dallas. Disk and Disc have been used interchangeably for decades in the industry (I have been in it since the 1980's!) and I assure you this IS a DISK DRIVE as opposed to SOLID STATE DRIVE. As for banging it, yes, you are definitely correct that it could cause damage but it won't. If you spend your time wearing anti-static bands and being delicate you will find these projects take double the time. It is more efficient to 'get it done' and break something every decade or two. Thanks for the comments

[@DamienGardner]

Unfortunately they no longer look like this. The new cases are HORRID to open :(

[@peterpappas620]

Were you able to open the new case? Just got one and it looks to be a real pain. any tips on how to proceed? I guess Seagate wanted to stop people from opening these and pay almost half of what they sell the same bare drive.

[@DamienGardner]

@@peterpappas620 They ended up being not tooooo bad to open - you have to slide a spudger in along under the front (front being the 1cm x 5cm or whatever end where the metal folds down from the top) to get under the strip of glue they have holding the metal to the plastic. Once it’s loose, keep that spudger there holding it 1/2 a mm away from the plastic, and use a second spudger kinda as a really wide screwdriver at 90 degrees to the front of the case (same definition of front) in the ‘slit’ that’s created between the metal and the lip of plastic, to lever the aluminium case upwards. Once you have it up enough to get something under the top at the front, pop something in there and lift the line upwards, and work your way along to the back, there’s three or four tabs holding it down on each side. Sorry, it’s hard to describe, but once you’ve done one and butchered it a little, you’ll see how it goes together and understand :). I butchered my first, and my other 14 came apart nice and clean.

[@peterpappas620]

@@DamienGardner Thanks, I got one open by starting at the top. A bit of a pain because it's so tight between the metal top and plastic sides, but not too bad.

[@andrewdrinkwater1986]

You can do it with your nails easily enough

[@CaptainXLAB]

My 4tb failed, I was pissed off, I just did that. Tip - make sure nails are short.

[@PabzRoz]

guys... please don't pop the drive out by banging into your hand. this is a mechanical hard drive still...

[@0MVR_0]

oh, slapping on a Sata to proprietary converter with a plastic casing we see what is happening here

[@no-page]

In all of your videos, you mangle up new disks with a screwdriver. Why assume everyone is an idiot? I came searching for a way to disassemble the drive without damaging it. Sure, I could take a screwdriver to it, or a hammer; why bother watching a video?

[@URTechDotCa]

Well, I have the proper tools and I use them 90% of the time, but most people do not so this shows them how to do the work with what they have and what the real world results (some scratches) will be.

[@Lomax81]

You can pop the top off with yer finger nails