Question External HDD is only blinking, not detected ?

[sono11]

My Western Digital External HDD stopped working. It is formatted to NTFS. If I plug it in, the light on it is blinking, you can hear it spinning, but it is not recognised in Windows, and in the partition manager it is not listed either.

If I plug it into a Mac, it is recognised but very slowly, I can see the file system and copy certain files, but many files fail to be copied. But even the copying is slow.

Sometimes when I plug the drive into computers it is only beeping repeatedly (not clicking), I need to move the USB cable a bit at the connector of the drive to stop this.
Is is possible to repair this drive at home?

Let me also mention this error came after I was deleting a folder from the drive, it did not want to finish for hours, so I unplugged the drive. The slow operation had been present for a while before though, but back then I could copy things at least at acceptable speed.

 

[SkyNetRising]

What specific model WD External HDD ?
For some models it's possible to remove HDD from external enclosure and connect it to a desktop pc directly with sata cables.

I need to move the USB cable a bit at the connector of the drive to stop this.

This seems like a bad USB connector/bad USB socket.

 

[sono11]

WD MyPassport
WDBACX0010BBK

It has a USB Mini B soldered onto the panel that is attached to the buttom of the disk housing. I already removed the external case. I couldn't check if the Mini B is loose though, you can't see it.

So you say if I remove the panel and try a port resoldering, it might work? I know it is not 100%, but maybe that causes the problem?

 

[SkyNetRising]

if I remove the panel and try a port resoldering, it might work? I know it is not 100%, but maybe that causes the problem?

Could be.

 

[sono11]

I will try it then. Very slowly I could extract most data from it meanwhile, I will give resoldering a try maybe I can have a good drive without spending much money.

 

[rgd1101]

it did not want to finish for hours, so I unplugged the drive.

you unplug the drive while it was working on deleting file?

 

[sono11]

you unplug the drive while it was working on deleting file?

Yes, but it was deleting 24GB for hours. The drive already had speed problems by then but was never that slow.

 

[Misgar]

So you say if I remove the panel and try a port resoldering, it might work?

Best of luck re-soldering a USB mini-B connector to the SATA-to-USB interface printed circuit board.

You stand a better chance with flux paste and solder paste, plus a dedicated hot air soldering tool. The surface mount contacts on the USB connector are tiny and standard multicore (wire) solder plus a standard soldering iron will probably bridge the contacts.

As others have said, it might be worth "shucking" the drive from the plastic case, unscrew and unplug the SATA-to-USB interface card with faulty connector, then connect the drive to a desktop PC using standard SATA power and data cables.

Alternatively, you could buy a new USB SATA enclosure or a cheap SATA-to-USB cable assembly.
https://www.amazon.com/FRIGRAF-Compatible-Reader-External-Converter-Adapter/dp/B0D8ZX7D2K

If you manage to copy the files, it's best to stop using the drive. It's probably developing bad blocks and should be discarded.

 

[sono11]

You mean removing that green panel from the bottom of the disk housing? Because the Mini-B slot is soldered to that big panel. I have seen this drive being deassembled, the panel connects to the disk housing using a ribbon, I doubt you can plug that into a SATA cable, can you?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I doubt you can plug that into a SATA cable, can you?

Obviously not.

 

[evermorex76]

I doubt you can plug that into a SATA cable, can you?

Older external drives were just normal SATA drives put into a housing, with an adapter board that had SATA on one side and a USB port on the other, and a bridge chip that converted the connection signal/protocol (just like buying your own USB enclosure and putting a drive in it, or like the adapter cable above). Some years ago they switched from using separate bridge PCBs and integrated a USB interface and bridge chip onto the PCB of the drive itself, so they could eliminate the cost of the SATA connector (and inconveniently make it nearly impossible to remove the drive to use outside the enclosure, or to put a different drive in). So unless you can desolder the USB bridge chip and solder a SATA data and SATA power cable into the proper teeny tiny pins to communicate with the drive's controller chip and motor, no, you can't just use a SATA cable.

Of course you could perhaps find a new controller board that has a SATA interface itself, if you could find exactly the right drive (matched to the internal model, not the whole external drive model) and desolder the BIOS chips and swap them.
https://www.datarecovery.co.uk/late...tal-my-passport-data-recovery-start-to-finish

But this is probably just a failing drive. Not a connector issue. If it was the connector, you would be seeing the drive connecting and disconnecting constantly as either the data link or power was lost. The fact that you said the drive has been very slow for some time further indicates that it has been failing and getting worse over time. I think the fact that it stops "beeping" when you move the cable may be because you're resetting the drive.

With a drive like this, the "clicking" is probably extremely soft so it's not recognizable as such. The "beeping" is the actuator arm trying to load and failing, over and over, which does make a squeaking sound. There could be damage to the firmware area on the platters so the drive can't figure out its configuration, and resets itself, or there could be some other issues.

If the drive is detectable and readable on a Mac or some other system, try to use a tool that can read the SMART data from it and look for errors and/or reallocation events, etc.