How To Disassemble a 2.5' USB Seagate Backup Plus Disk

If you want to remove and / or replace the disk from a Seagate Backup Plus External USB chassis, you are in the right place. Our short video below demonstrates how to remove the disk from the Seagate Backup Plus chassis and you can easily replace it with any other 2.5" 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.

[FuoFire]

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

[ManiacX]

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!

[jamesspinella]

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.

[buckwheatpie]

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

[nasabear]

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

[cubeflinger]

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

[PecolaFromScratch]

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!

[leftypenny]

I have a 4 TB Backup Plus which I plugged into the USB port on my Smart TV, to watch a movie. It hasn't worked since. When I plugged it into my computer, the device manager, nor the disk management would not see the drive. I disassembled the Backup Plus case and removed the drive and took the usb circuit board off of the drive, plugged it into a sata to USB adapter and the disk management saw the drive but said it needed to be initialized. I am wondering, is it possible that, the circuit board that was on the drive could have been fried by the smart TV?

[LowEndPCGamer]

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!

[dallase]

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.

[hansmaulwurf]

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.

[madelinzaycheck]

Thanks for your video, it was super helpful!

[WillieBeard]

That was hilarious. Thanks for the entertainment.

[DaveBudness]

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

[Archaeopteryx]

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.

[maman]

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.

[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.

[mmshrwd]

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