Seagate FreeAgent Go External HD 320GB

I have Seagate FreeAgent Go 320GB external hard drive that just decided to stop being detected by my computer. It gets power, the lights blink and it sounds like its going to start up, then the drive stops spinning and nothing happens. The repairman said he hooked it up to his system and couldn't detect anything, he got the same result as I did with the lights flashing and start up sound. The he put it in a freecer over night to set if that would help. They said it could be a problem on the circuit board. When it stopped being detectable, it also made a few clicking sounds and really faint beeps a few times (it doesn't do that anymore), if that helps. It is about one year old. Another person said that the spindle motor could be the culprit, like it's trying to run, but not able because motors fail more often than circuits. They told me to send it out for data recovery, but with no promise of actullay recovering anything. What do you think my chances of getting anything off of it? I shot a wedding and transferred the files to it the day before and I need to have those files. Thanks for any help!!! (BTW, Seagate has a data recovery service starting at $149, up to $2500, sucks that I only paid $80 for the drive.) Erin

Yep. That's awful!

And my comment won't help you at this point, but your situation illustrates the importance of backup to more than one media.
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If you've already had a competent Tech look at your Seagate External HD, then you may already have the unfortunate final answer.

Apparently the tech did what I would do first, which would be to attempt to access the Seagate via another USB socket, and/or another machine entirely.

If the drive is mechanically Dead or the circuit board is dead, then you have an expensive repair proposition which must be compared to the value of the Data, and the cost of possible professional Data Recovery.
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However, that Seagate does come with some management software that includes:
Power Settings
and
Test My Drive

It would seem to be a worthy effort to give it a shot before resorting to more expensive solutions.
Here's the Manual… Have a look at Settings Page 9 and 10
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support…a_win_ug_en.pdf

Make sure the Power Settings allow the Seagate to actually run long enough to be detected before shutting itself off.
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Disclaimer: I do not own, nor have ever used this piece of Hardware.

I notice that it has a feature for SYNC and permits OverWriting

It is "remotely" possible that if the content on the Seagate does not exist on your host computer, AND you used SYNC rules, the files could have simply been deleted. (This is a wild guess)

If something like the above did happen, you may be able to use a file recovery software to find any remnants of saved files.

*** the above wild guess pre-supposes that the Seagate is being recognized as capacity 250gb or 320 gb and finds 100% free space.

Does your computer recognize the Seagate in:
Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Storage - Removable Storage ???

If not then you may have a mechanically dead drive or the circuit board may be dead/defective.
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If you resort to Professional Data Recovery.
*** Get a Firm Estimate
*** Tell them exactly what you expect to find on the Drive (approx number of image files, etc.)
*** Have them limit their Recovery efforts to the actual content you wish to recover

Best Regards