Seagate 1TB Hard Drive ST31000333AS The drive spins up, clicks, spins down. not detected by bios.

Sounds like driver problem to me. Re install the driver by using installation disc, or if you have lost your CD, than use this Driver Update Software to update. I hope this helped.
Brian

Claire,

Have you tried connecting the drive to another computer using Windows 7 or later. You could try chkdisk /f at a command prompt or get the testdisk app to identify deeper issues with the drive.

Chappo07

w7

First, please disconnect all USB devices and then perform the following steps:

Click "Start" button, type "devmgmt.msc" (without quotation marks) in the "Search" bar and press "Enter". Click "Continue" if necessary.

In Device Manager, double click to expand "Universal Serial Bus controllers", right click on the Host Controller, click "Uninstall" and click "OK".

Repeat the step 2 to uninstall all items under "Universal Serial Bus controllers".

Then, restart your computer and Windows 7 will reinstall all USB controllers automatically.

for xp

click start control panel administrative tools computer management device manager scroll down universal serial bus controllers you could see a yellow question / exclamation mark? ! or a red X

you will need to update/reinstall drivers

right click to reinstall drivers

if you can see your usb but its not working

ports(com&lpt)right click update driver

sometimes the wires inside the cable will be damaged due to bending or stretching or placing heavy equipment upon the cable

just replace the cable of the hard disk, when you plugged the external disk drive you got that windows could recognize the USB device change the cable everything should work fine again,

if you can see your usb drive but its not working

ports (com&lpt) right click update driver if this fails to fix the problem

check the USB leads that attach to the motherboard usually red white green black make sure they are securely seated and have no dust build up on them dust will cause static and a lot of unforeseen problems to a computer and its parts

if this fails to fix the problem
Downloads to Recover Your Files and Save Your Bacon and 10 Best Free Hard Drive Utilities.

Some addition links found on Google
http://www.datarecoveryreview.net/

http://www.cleverfiles.com/

http://www.easeus.com/resource/hard-disk-data-recovery.htm

hope this helps

You can't it's dead....

It sounds like a problem with the card on the drive. You could try replace the card with one from an identical drive just to see the result you will get. I have read a lot about what they call "the click of death". So it could well be time for a new drive ckanca. The fact that the bios isnt detecting the drive points to the card. You sould also ensure there is no dirt on the cards contacts with the drive body (by removing the card and cleaning them aswell as ensuring they all make proper contact).

I am afraid the device is dead. You may be able to recover the data from a professional recovery firm but there is no other way.

could be the sata cable not seated properly or bad cable. check connections. If its the only sata drive connected make sure it's plugged into sata #1 slot. Could be drive, motherboard or bios problem. Next step would be to update the bios. That might help.

Install the Western Digital OS drive as a master with a slave present and the Seagate drive with no jumpers set as a salve. Turn on the computer and immediately press the Delete key or press it when prompted to enter the set up bios. The first screen is the Main BIOS Setup Menu. Do see you Seagate IDE secondary slave since. If none is displayed on the secondary slave highlight none in the secondary slave column and press enter. Press enter to auto detect the drive. If no drive is detected, enter the drive capacity, cylinder, and head manually. Make sure the PIO and UDMA are both set to auto. If the above results in no change you may try loading fail-safe defaults from the exit menu and save and exit. Start windows normally. If you do not see the drive click on start and select run. Type compmgmt.msc in the Open: pull down selection and click OK. Click on disk management and look for the Seagate drive. If you see it right click on the drive icon and make it basic. Make sure you see an assigned drive letter or right click on it and assign it a drive letter. The last task is to download and install Seatools and use the utility to try to repair the drive from the below link.
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=SeaTools&vgnextoid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD
Download and install Diskwizard and see if it will recognize the drive for a new install.
I sounds like you drive is defective on the interface which will require service.
You may have tried the above but if none of the above has any positive results the drive is defective.

To determine if the drive is at fault, try it in a different computer. If it doesn't work, its now a faulty drive I'm afraid.

Do the neccesary jumper cable settings. then manually detect it through your bios. If not detected, try to replace the ide cable. if still not detected, try to feel the hard drive if it spins, if not, the had drive is damage.