Thorough hard drive test for western digital external hard drive

[knorssman]

I have used a hard drive test that comes with hirensbootCD in the past but it won't detect my external unless i find a way to pull it out of its enclosure and i don't want to pry that open so is there another utility out there that can test for bad sectors? i'm concerned because i got a "Data Error (cyclic redundancy check)" related to files on the hdd

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, knorssman,

I'm sorry to hear about the problems you're having with your WD drive. 🙁

So, as I understand the situation, you have an external drive, which you cannot access due to CRC errors? Has anything in particular happened before those issue started to occur?

If the HDD is recognized by the computer you could try testing it with DLG (Data Lifeguard) by running the Quick and Extended tests. Here's how to do that: How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.

However, since it sounds like you're worried about your data, the best thing to do in cases like this one is not to scan the drive for errors and run tests on it, because it might make things worse. If you have data which you need to recover, you should start with that. Give it a go with Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if that OS is capable of properly accessing the drive so that you can get to your files. If that doesn't work, you could try data recovery software, to see if any of the suggestions are capable of recovering your information: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm
And last, but not least, the most reliable option would be a data recovery company: WD Data Recovery Partners.

Please do not take the drive out of its enclosure, because it would definitely void its warranty. Also, depending on the model of the drive it might have hardware encryption (which would make it impossible to recover your files without its original enclosure), and/or a proprietary connector and you won't be able to connect it via a standard SATA connection.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD