[SOLVED] External USB Drive Transplanted to New Enclosure - Invisible in Disk Management - Shows SCSI Disk in Device Management

[NHEuphonist]

I have a 4 TB external WD hard drive with a bunch of important files on it. Recently, while cleaning, the drive fell and the data connection port was broken, making it unusable. I opened the casing and removed the 3.5 hard drive within, disconnecting it from the hardware with the USB and power connections. At first, I attempted to put the hard drive in my tower in an empty slot, but when I fired up the PC, it didn't recognize the drive. I fear this is where I created a larger problem than the one I already had.

I purchased a USB 3.0 to SATA Hard Drive Enclosure and connected the drive via the USB. The drive powers on and spins, but I can't interface with it. It does not appear at all in Disk Management. It shows up in the Device Manager under Disk Drives as "RSH-319 ASM 1153E SCSI Disk Device," but is unusable. It appears as though Windows believes it is is an SCSI drive when it was originally used via USB for years and is currently connected that way.

Windows states that the drive has up-to-date drivers and attempting to manually update them times out. In fact, the computer seems unhappy with the drive in general. Trying to view the properties in Device Manager usually causes the program to stop responding. If and when I'm finally able to access the properties, the program crashes if I attempt to view the Details tab. Having the drive plugged in and turned on causes random programs to freeze and significantly slows down the boot up process.

I connected the drive to a laptop and got identical results, so it seems to be affecting the drive itself rather than how my PC is interacting with it. I haven't found any existing threads in forums that match my scenario. I'm quite concerned that I may have lost all of the files on that drive, which would be a pretty serious issue for me. My priority is being able to access the files, even if it's just to transfer them elsewhere. Being able to use the drive again is secondary, although great if possible. As such, I really don't want to try reformatting if at all possible.

If anyone has any recommendations, I'd very much appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

WD enforces drive encryption via the controller in their external drives. You have to use either the original case or contact WD for a replacement. There is no other option.

And, where is your backup in case the drive should outright fail?

 

[NHEuphonist]

WD enforces drive encryption via the controller in their external drives. You have to use either the original case or contact WD for a replacement. There is no other option.

And, where is your backup in case the drive should outright fail?

Thanks for the info. That's unfortunate news, but very helpful to learn.

You might have an answer to this... If I'm able to somehow temporarily reconnect the port for the USB connection and successfully transfer the data off the drive, can the WD drive be reformatted later for use in the enclosure I purchased or will it only ever work in a WD case? I'm not sure how much luck I'll have getting the port to stick to the controller, but I can try if it's worth the effort.

As for backups, some of the data on that drive is also on my internal drive. This drive was in fact a backup, but it had a fair amount of older work on it that I had to remove from the internal drive and I didn't have room to put it elsewhere. I'm pretty cash-strapped, so I can't always afford to get enough storage to back up all of my video editing work, which can take up a lot of space. As it isa, I've got about 8 external drives. The bitter irony is that I had just ordered a new 8TB external drive that arrived the day after the accident.

Thanks again. I've had this question sitting on a Microsoft forum for a week with no responses.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

There's nothing special about the drive itself, it's just another WD drive. Now, if that drive was running at the time of the fall (no matter how hard it fell) there's a very real chance that one or more heads contacted a platter. This will render a drive unusable and possibly unrecoverable.

 

[NHEuphonist]

There's nothing special about the drive itself, it's just another WD drive. Now, if that drive was running at the time of the fall (no matter how hard it fell) there's a very real chance that one or more heads contacted a platter. This will render a drive unusable and possibly unrecoverable.

Everything was powered down when it fell. Unfortunately, the USB was connected and when it hit the ground, it knocked the port off the controller.

I had no luck getting my computer to read the drive with the port reconnected. Either I'll have to try to get a compatible case to try or I found a site where someone has outlined steps to try and bypass the encryption via Linux. It may be way beyond my abilities, but it's better than giving up.

Thanks again. Cheers.

 

[fzabkar]

You should connect the drive directly to a SATA port and verify that you can access its SMART report. If the drive doesn't show up in BIOS, then it may have sustained internal damage. In fact it would not be wise to power up a drive in such a state.

 

[NHEuphonist]

You should connect the drive directly to a SATA port and verify that you can access its SMART report. If the drive doesn't show up in BIOS, then it may have sustained internal damage. In fact it would not be wise to power up a drive in such a state.

Is there a reference you can point me to that lists the steps to do that?

 

[fzabkar]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=install+sata+"hard+drive"

 

[NHEuphonist]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=install+sata+"hard+drive"

Thanks. I have a number of things I can attempt now and will hopefully have some luck whenever I find the time to try them out.