HElp! WD Passport not spinning, light steady, and not initialized.

[xeeme13]

I have a 1 TB Western Digital Passport Ultra which was actually new, and have only been used for a month however it just suddenly never worked. I don't ever remember dropping it, or being pressed under heavy objects. I've tried plugging it to different computers, and tried different cables but I can't make it work.

Its name does not appear on 'My Computer' but I can still safely remove it at the notification bar or at WD Quick View. The drive spins when plugged in, and its light blinks but after 1-2 minutes the light becomes steady but it no longer spins.

In the device manager, USB Mass Storage Device under Universal Serial Bus controllers, and WD Ses Device under WD Drive Management devices appears when I plug it.

In the disk management, it says my drive is 'not initialized'. If I try to initilize it, a dialog appears "the request cannot be performed because of an I/O device error" for Master Boot Record or "the specified disk is not convertible because the size is less than the minimum size required for GPT disks" for GUID Partition Table. Although the device status says that my device is working properly but under the Volumes tab of my driver's properties are the following --

Type: Unknown
Status: Not Initialized
Partition Style: Not Applicable
Capacity: 0 MB
Unallocated Space: 0 MB
Reserved Space: 0 MB

No wonder why it shows 'no writable partition' whenever I open WD SmartWare.

I also tried WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostic which showed the following results--

SMART Status: Not Available
Capacity: 0.00 GB
WRITE ZEROS test result: FAIL
Test Error Code (for WRITE ZEROS test): 20 - Delete Partitions error

Please help, it doesn't matter if I can no longer retrieve my data.

 

[Emerald]

If it is still under warranty, RMA it.

You could try another USB cable.

But usually, once the drive shows as Zero capacity, there is nothing you can do.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there xeeme13,

That is really unpleasant. 🙁

You've done some decent troubleshooting. Unfortunately, it seems that there is something wrong with either the enclosure or the drive itself. It's good that the data stored on the drive is not important.

As Emerald suggested, you can just contact the place you got the drive from or WD's Support and RMA it: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=tKdGbz

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[xeeme13]

The data was important but I just gave up trying on retrieving it for a 50/50 chance.
It's still under warranty but too bad, I threw the receipt, and the guy in the store wouldn't bother to check it out.
I guess, its much better to burn my files in a cd/dvd.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Well, mechanical drives could sometimes just fail, without showing that something is wrong before that. The same goes for SSDs, flash drives or even CDs. So, the most important data should be stored on several places.

D_Know_WD