External HDD Error

[ali1346]

Hi, my laptop was stuck in the win10 automatic repair loop, so I decided to do a fresh install, so first I had to copy my data from the internal hdd. I had a live boot cd with wondershare data recovery installed on it. I plugged my external hdd and started the recovery process. It ran for 3 hours approx and then I started recovering files onto the external hdd (only 60 to 70% of the data was found). Dont know what happened, the program suddenly stopped. To check if the files were copied or not, i took out the external hdd and plugged it into another laptop. First it showed up in my computer without its name (as Local Disk F and took around 10 minutes to open up, in the recovery folder only 3 gb of data was copied (out of 320 gb shown by wondershare). The next time I plugged the external hdd in the laptop, it wouldnt show up. The light on it is blinking and windows makes the sound when it is plugged in. It is showing up in device manager but not in disk management, any help please as this is my backup hard drive. I even tried plugging it into two other laptops but same issue.

The HDD is Western Digital Elements 500gb.
The windows that corrupted was Win10. The three laptops that I used for checking the hdd are win8, win8 and win7.

 

[Mr_Limo]

Your drive is failed at this point, it happens. If the data is important enough, professional recovery is an option, WD has referral sources on their website. If the data is not that important, pull the drive out of the case (you'll void your warranty), and try to slave it. If it mounts, you can try to pull the data, if it doesn't, professional is the way to go.

 

[ali1346]

Your drive is failed at this point, it happens. If the data is important enough, professional recovery is an option, WD has referral sources on their website. If the data is not that important, pull the drive out of the case (you'll void your warranty), and try to slave it. If it mounts, you can try to pull the data, if it doesn't, professional is the way to go.

Thankyou for the response! I was wondering could it be a virus that was transferred from the laptop to the external hdd while recovering data? Because before I copied data on the external hdd, it was working fine!

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there ali1346,

That is really unpleasant.

My suggestion would be to attach the drive with a different cables.
In case the issue persists, you can consider what Mr_Limo said. You can check WD's Data Recovery Partners: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=U9oYsT

As the drive is not recognized by Disk Management, I doubt that you will be able to access it with software tools. Yet, it will not hurt to try. You can even try some data recovery tools for DOS as well: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode

Regarding the idea of taking the drive out of the enclosure, I would say that there is a chance that it has proprietary connector. In that case you will not be able to attach it through SATA.

Let me know in case you have some more questions,
D_Know_WD

 

[ali1346]

Hi there ali1346,

That is really unpleasant.

My suggestion would be to attach the drive with a different cables.
In case the issue persists, you can consider what Mr_Limo said. You can check WD's Data Recovery Partners: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=U9oYsT

As the drive is not recognized by Disk Management, I doubt that you will be able to access it with software tools. Yet, it will not hurt to try. You can even try some data recovery tools for DOS as well: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode

Regarding the idea of taking the drive out of the enclosure, I would say that there is a chance that it has proprietary connector. In that case you will not be able to attach it through SATA.

Let me know in case you have some more questions,
D_Know_WD

Thankyou for your help!
It turns out you were right, the drive has a proprietary connector. Also it is not being recognized by software tools. I'm considering professional data recovery, but before that is there no way to connect this drive directly to the PC? Like could there be a proprietary to SATA cable?

 

[D_Know_WD]

I doubt that. It will not hurt to contact WD's Support either by e-mail or phone on that: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=9xHU8b

Cheers,
D_Know_WD