[SOLVED] Trouble booting with WD 2.5" External Harddrive

[Delroy Thompson]

Hi. I am having trouble with my WD external hard drive. Whenever I used to plug it in, it would boot up just fine, and I could access its contents on Windows. However, now the only response I see is that I plug it in and my computer slows down to a halt for about 2.5 hours and in that time any application software I try to load hangs, the partitions on the external hard drive slowly populate in My Computer every 30-45 minutes or so, and any action I try to take whether through Windows File Explorer or any kind of software that interfaces with it hangs with the loading bar and as soon as I disconnect it the computer springs back into operation and all applications I had attempted to launch open as well as all the partitions of the external hard drive show up, I get errors requesting me to format the external hard drive but since its already disconnected that's all the hope for it. I noticed the same even if I try to use boot-up antivirus software or any other kind of software at boot-up, that is, the whole computer freezes.
I tried connecting it to another device and a Smart TV but it does not even load, the light just flickers repeatedly non-stop. Also, it does that in the aforementioned cases too. I tried installing UBUNTU for Linux on a flash drive and was successful in just touching it in the explorer unlike in Windows where it would just hang but whenever I tried to run GPart or any app to interface on it, the machine froze again.
It is still under warranty but I have seen many reviews about refurbished faulty equipment being distributed as replacement, and want to use that card as my last resort. Any advice or information as to what state it is in? Also, I read some article about rebuilding the MBR, and was considering to do that but I did not want to try any tinkering until I know what I am up against or break it further.

 

[USAFRet]

That simply sounds like a dead drive.

If it is still under warranty, start the RMA process and see what happens.
Getting a 'refurb' as a replacement is not necessarily 'bad'.

 

[Delroy Thompson]

Ok. It's that or experiment and void the warranty I suppose. Thank you USAFRet. Do you know of any details like how often you should use a harddrive like that on a daily basis, how much data transfer is a power problem to the harddrive or what loads normally cause this kind of problem? Please share so I can be aware and avert a future recurrence.

 

[USAFRet]

Ok. It's that or experiment and void the warranty I suppose. Thank you USAFRet. Do you know of any details like how often you should use a harddrive like that on a daily basis, how much data transfer is a power problem to the harddrive or what loads normally cause this kind of problem? Please share so I can be aware and avert a future recurrence.

It wasn't anything you did, or overruse.
I have drives that have been in 24/7 use for several years.

But the last two HDDs I had die went bad at 5 weeks for one, and 7 months for the other.

Drives die. Not often, but sometimes.
All you can do is be prepared, and replace them when they do.