E:not accessible. The parameter is incorrect / You need to format the disk in drive E: before you can use it

[maria11]

I was using my Western Digital My Book external hard drive yesterday and as I was moving some files from one map to another on the hard drive, it started going really slow (5 small photos took several mins and wouldn't go past 15% etc) so I unplugged the hard drive. After that whenever I plug it in, the documents map freeze and when the hard drive shows up it just says "local disk", and I get the message "You need to format the disk in drive E: before you can use it" and when I click on local disk it says "E: not accessible. The parameter is incorrect" and another message I keep getting is "E: not accessible. The volume does not contain a recognized file system". I've tried another computer but I don't want to do too much with this as I'm really scared of losing everything. I feel like such an idiot for not having a backup. My question is, is this a common problem and if I give my hard drive to a data recovery company, what is the chance that this can be fixed? Will they be able to fix it?

Sorry for my bad english btw.. it's not my first language.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, @maria11!

I'm sorry to hear about your issues with the WD My Book external drive! I'd definitely recommend you try using a different USB cable and also try to access the external HDD from another computer. If the same issue still occurs, I'd surely check if the external drive passes both the QUICK and the EXTENDED tests from our Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows. It will help us determine what is the health and SMART status of your WD My Book.

If the data on the external is so important to you, you should definitely consider contacting one of our Data Recovery Partners. The data recovery itself is rarely a 100% sure or successful, but the professional assistance is definitely your best bet on getting any of your files back.

In the future, always make sure you backup your data to at least one more location (storage device). Moving data from your system drive to an external hard drive is not a backup, unless there is already a duplicate of the file on a different drive!

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions!
Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[maria11]

Thank you so much for your reply. I will try using a different USB cable. However I just downloaded that and at first it says SMART status: Pass, but when I did the quick scan it says:

Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 06-Quick Test on drive 3 did not complete! Status code = 07 (Failed read test element), Failure Checkpoint = 97 (Unknown Test) SMART self-test did not complete on drive 3!

I don't know why but I'm afraid to do the extended test in case I make it worse...? I'm going to send it in for data recovery I'm just afraid it won't be possible to get the files back.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hello again, @Maria!

I'm truly sorry to hear that your WD My Book is not passing the DLG's Quick test. I'd definitely consider contacting the data recovery professionals first, though. They could tell you more about your chances of retrieving the files.
However, I'd also advise you to check the warranty on the WD external here.

If it's still covered by it, get in touch with our Customer Support as well. You should also acquire a written verification from the data recovery company that would allow you to RMA and replace the failed WD product even after the data recovery services. You can read more about it in the Data Recovery Partners link I shared in my previous post or get more details from our Warranty Policy.

Hope you will find this useful. Best of luck with the data recovery!
Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

P.S. Don't forget to back up your files in the future and avoid such unfortunate situations.

SuperSoph_WD

 

[maria11]

Thank you for the quick reply! I'm definitely going to contact data recovery professionals. I'm also going to try another USB cable tonight when I'll have one available... And I really regret not having a backup... I'll always make sure to have that in the future. Although I cannot access the hard drive and everything is really slow and keep freezing, I can click on some of the photos under "Recent files" in the File explorer. It takes a while but eventually opens. I hope that means that there is a chance to recover the files..

 

[maria11]

I've tried using another USB cable now. It didn't help but I didn't really expect it to