Help please my External HDD is cactus

[BumManLol]

yeah g'day.
I own a... gimme a sec... WD My Passport 071A.
I would like to format it but I cant. Heres some more details...

When I try to quick format I receive error "Windows was unable to complete the format"
I've tried changing the letter but this did <mod edit> all (just down the road from but <mod edit> nothing).
The file system should be "NTFS" but it's "RAW" what ever that means. But that shouldn't be.

When in CMD I typed g: (the letter of the drive after I changed it) and it said "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error"

any help appreciated. thanks.
I just want to say I do not care about any data loss, I just want to get it working again.

<Let's watch the language in these forums>

 

[leo2kp]

Open Disk Management (right click My Computer > Manage > Disk Management), find the drive, right click on it and see if you can create a new volume with it.

 

[BumManLol]

thanks for reply
It already has one, i can extend, shrink or delete volume.
idk what to do 🙁

EDIT:
If I delete and then add a volume, It tries (and fails again) to format, then goes back to RAW 🙁

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there BumManLol,

Sorry that you are facing some issues with your WD drive. 🙁
Is it still under warranty?
Apart from that, you can try something simple as just using a different USB cable. You can attach it to a different system as well.
In case the issue persists, then I guess there is something wrong with the enclosure or the HDD itself. You can test it with WD's DLG tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Xi5PRk

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD

 

[BumManLol]

Hi there BumManLol,

Sorry that you are facing some issues with your WD drive. 🙁
Is it still under warranty?
Apart from that, you can try something simple as just using a different USB cable. You can attach it to a different system as well.
In case the issue persists, then I guess there is something wrong with the enclosure or the HDD itself. You can test it with WD's DLG tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Xi5PRk

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD

Thanks for that mate.

Its getting a bit old now and I doubt it is still under warranty.
I tried using different systems and cable but the same issues occurred unfortunately.
Thanks for the suggestion for the software, I tried it out, It failed to complete the two tests and wasn't able to 'write zeros' so sadly, I think its broken. I'll post the written results in a spoiler below.

Thanks again mate

Spoiler

Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WD My Passport 071A
Unit Serial Number: WXH1A6000035
Firmware Number: 2011
Capacity: 1000.18 GB
SMART Status: FAIL
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 06-Quick Test on drive 2 did not complete! Status code = 04 (Unknown failed test element), Failure Checkpoint = 96 (Unknown Test) SMART self-test did not complete on drive 2!
Test Time: 17:29:38, December 08, 2015

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WD My Passport 071A
Unit Serial Number: WXH1A6000035
Firmware Number: 2011
Capacity: 1000.18 GB
SMART Status: FAIL
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 08-Too many bad sectors detected.
Test Time: 17:42:04, December 08, 2015


Test Option: WRITE ZEROS
Model Number: WD My Passport 071A
Unit Serial Number: WXH1A6000035
Firmware Number: 2011
Capacity: 1000.18 GB
SMART Status: FAIL
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 09-Sector #986368-986624::Write Zeros error!
Test Time: 17:44:07, December 08, 2015

 

[D_Know_WD]

Unfortunately, it seems that there are many bad sectors on the drive. 🙁
As even DLG can't write zeros on it, I doubt that you will be able to fix it.

Here you can check whether it is still under warranty: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=JL1GuO

D_Know_WD