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View Full Version : WD 3tb external hardrive not working, plz help!!!



Hero_X
05-09-2016, 01:09 AM
Hey everyone,

So few days ago i decided to "defragment" my desktop and ran the utility by right C drive and proceeding. However, before it started, I unplugged the usb cable to my external harddrive because I didn't want to defragment it (I don't know if it would help). Anyway next day when I turned on my computer i noticed my external drive wasn't showing on my computer (I had plugged it in of course). I tried several different usb ports and it didn't work.

Then I tried my laptop, and it some how worked.. or at least appeared. I got a feeling my drive may be dying so I decided i should back up everything to my other drive, I started the process and left it over night. Came back to it and not much had transferred, the transfer rate had dropped to 100 kb/s. Again I wasn't sure wtf was going on so what I did was I opened up the WD enclosure and connected the internal drive to another enclosure. Connected it to my PC and bam, again drive doesn't show up on my computer.

I clicked disk management and it shows up there as a 3tb disk which is unallocated. Windows prompts me to "initialize" the drive and I clicked cancel.

So I have a LOT of data on this drive and I really need to get it off this drive. I'm guessing the drive is fcked but is there ANYWAY I can extract the data off of the drive?

Please help me! :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:


NOTE:

The drive is a Western Digital "My Book Essential" 3Tb drive.

RickDaTuner
05-09-2016, 02:59 AM
I had this happen to one of my WD HDDs too, the header information was damaged from a power spike I imagine.

This was a while ago, but I managed to repair the header/drive directory with a drive utility, can't remember which one exactly. Iirc I was in the process of ghosting the drive to another one because much like you, it showed a drive in DU, but wouldn't mount.

Sorry I can't give you specific details but I hope that steers you in the right direction.

firebane
05-09-2016, 06:41 AM
If the drive isn't under warranty pull the case apart and put the drive directly into a computer and go from there.

A lot of times the enclosure dies or stops functioning correctly and the drive is still fine. Also those WD external drives use Green drives a lot of the time which are the poorer of the 3 they have.

Seth1968
05-09-2016, 08:06 AM
I would first attempt to clone the drive.

If that fails, I'd try the the deep recovery in Recuva:

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

Hero_X
05-09-2016, 10:55 AM
Yes it is the green drive

And yeah already pulled it out of the enclosure and connected it to pc via another enclosure that I know works for sure.

How can I clone the drive ?

MR2-3SGTE
05-09-2016, 11:19 AM
Try in Ubuntu. I've had tons of hard drives that read fine in Linux but give issues in Windows such as "this hard drive needs to be formatted or initialized". You could also run chkdsk, that sometimes fixes it for me.

Seth1968
05-09-2016, 11:45 AM
Originally posted by MR2-3SGTE
Try in Ubuntu. I've had tons of hard drives that read fine in Linux but give issues in Windows such as "this hard drive needs to be formatted or initialized". You could also run chkdsk, that sometimes fixes it for me.

Do not run a chkdsk. The priority is getting the data, and if the drive is failing, a chkdsk could make matters even worse.

I think it's time for the OP to contact a data recovery lab.

Boat
05-09-2016, 11:57 AM
That recuva software looks pretty neat.

I would also recommend the guys below:

http://www.onepcbsolution.com/datarecovery.html

I have sent a few drive PCB's to them with success. I also used their data recovery service as well. I believe they are out of BC so it was pretty easy working with them. Price seems high but maybe that's what its always been but because of our Canadian peso it looks more scary.

One thing to note about them is that they will start by seeing if they can repair the drive first, then you only pay for the shipping and new PCB.

Seth1968
05-09-2016, 12:13 PM
Originally posted by Boat
That recuva software looks pretty neat.

I would also recommend the guys below:

http://www.onepcbsolution.com/datarecovery.html

I have sent a few drive PCB's to them with success. I also used their data recovery service as well. I believe they are out of BC so it was pretty easy working with them. Price seems high but maybe that's what its always been but because of our Canadian peso it looks more scary.

One thing to note about them is that they will start by seeing if they can repair the drive first, then you only pay for the shipping and new PCB.

Thanks!

revelations
05-09-2016, 12:26 PM
You can risk trying the Recuva program (have used it in the past and its worked here and there) but I generally prefer to do a sector-sector clone of the drive and then try various things on it.

That way if the issues are PCB or mechanical, you're not degrading the bad drive further.

Seth1968
05-09-2016, 01:09 PM
Originally posted by revelations
You can risk trying the Recuva program (have used it in the past and its worked here and there) but I generally prefer to do a sector-sector clone of the drive and then try various things on it.

That way if the issues are PCB or mechanical, you're not degrading the bad drive further.

That's what it comes to. That is PCB or armature failure. Given the symptoms, I'm going with the PCB.

Either way, the first step is cloning, and if you have to ask how to do that, then it's time for you to take to it to someone who doesn't ask that question.