Question HDD is making my whole laptop unresponsive.

[STZ]

I recently bought 5TB Western Digital, brand new, no issues, installation went smoothly, mainly used to store movies and TV show, since I have no internet on board (I'm a sailor). I wanted to take some classic old movies from a colleague and once he returned it to me, my HDD was useless. It plugs in okay, and it ls being recognized by my PC. But once it's recognized, everything becomes unresponsive in my computer. Can't eject (eject option appears when I unplug), file explorer becomes unresponsive, no apps can open, if I already have the File Explorer open and connect the HDD and click on it, unresponsive and crashes. I tried formatting by right clicking on it, file explorer crashes, I tried through the cmd with diskpart, can't type (works fine when the HDD isn't connected), tried through powershell, can't type, tried restarting, can't restart. Nothing works when the HDD is connected, neither does scanning for virus. Then again, System and antimalware of windows 10 (in task manager) is using almost 100% my disk if I'm correct and my HDD makes a sound, usually when it gets recognized and appears in File explorer. Idk what to do, but I just lost around 1TB of movies and valuable info about my job. Any solutions would be very helpful. Other HDDs work fine.

 

[Rokinamerica]

Ask your colleague what he did?

 

[USAFRet]

Is this 5TB internal or external ?
External, right?

I'm thinking your popped a bunch of pirated junk in there, including some nasty malware.

 

[STZ]

Ask your colleague what he did?

I did, he told me he just copied some movies and that's it. Next time he went to use it again, he had the same problem.

 

[USAFRet]

I did, he told me he just copied some movies and that's it. Next time he went to use it again, he had the same problem.

Malware.

 

[STZ]

Is this 5TB internal or external ?
External, right?

I'm thinking your popped a bunch of pirated junk in there, including some nasty malware.

Yes it is an external one. Could this be a result of the HDD being dropped and breaking something?

 

[USAFRet]

Yes it is an external one. Could this be a result of the HDD being dropped and breaking something?

Could have been dropped.

Above,
"your " == "your buddy"

 

[STZ]

Could have been dropped.

Above,
"your " == "your buddy"

I forgot to mention that, if the file explorer doesn't crash and it fully loads the green bar on top, a message appears which writes the parameter is incorrect.

 

[USAFRet]

I forgot to mention that, if the file explorer doesn't crash and it fully loads the green bar on top, a message appears which writes the parameter is incorrect.

Well, this is sounding more and more like a physical issue.
Dropped.

 

[STZ]

Well, this is sounding more and more like a physical issue.
Dropped.

So, no possible solution?

 

[USAFRet]

So, no possible solution?

Well...if you take the drive out and put it in a different external enclosure, you might be able to see if the physical drive works.
I doubt it, but maybe worth a try.

The data on it...almost certainly gone.

 

[STZ]

Well...if you take the drive out and put it in a different external enclosure, you might be able to see if the physical drive works.
I doubt it, but maybe worth a try.

The data on it...almost certainly gone.

I see. Thank you for your time. I'm never sharing a hard drive ever again. I'll wait until I disembark to work on it. Maybe by chance I might be able to save it.

 

[Rokinamerica]

You might be able to, as said above, might be enclosure.

Never share your drives.

 

[STZ]

You might be able to, as said above, might be enclosure.

Never share your drives.

Fingers crossed I can use it again. It was a rather expensive one. 😮‍💨

 

[USAFRet]

Fingers crossed I can use it again. It was a rather expensive one. 😮‍💨

Your buddy owes you a new device.

 

[Rokinamerica]

Make sure you have backups in the future. Best thing you can do to ensure data protection. Warranty may replace your device, but data is not so easy to replace. Use several sources, but for sure, at least have 1 source. I use the 1-2-3 method, and then actually, a 4th because my pc is my work. And maybe a bit of OCD.

 

[STZ]

Make sure you have backups in the future. Best thing you can do to ensure data protection. Warranty may replace your device, but data is not so easy to replace. Use several sources, but for sure, at least have 1 source. I use the 1-2-3 method, and then actually, a 4th because my pc is my work. And maybe a bit of OCD.

My sources are limited on-board, as I like to travel light. Nonetheless, I understand what you mean. A backup HDD back home is a must from now on.