WD 2TB External My passport Hard Disk Uninitialized showing error in manegment

[adarshnayan]

- WD My passport Ultra 2tb External Hardisk |
-Use it daily for 3-5 hours |
-Stopped working all of sudden |
-My PC didn't recognize it at first |
-left the Hard Disk for few months untouched |
-All of sudden when tried again to connect it my computer read it |
-Device manger gave Error and asked to initialize the Disk |
-Tried in other computer and also changed wire nothings happens and get the same error |
-Tried in both 3.0 and 2.0 but seems to work only in 2.0 and rarely in 2.0 |
-When hardisk is connected a clicking sound emerges for 2 second and emerges again after a 10-15 second gap and then all of sudden stops.
- Light on the hardisk doesn't blink
- High Quality New 3.0 cable is used
-I am having warranty till DEC 2018 and WD have happily agreed to replace the drive with the newer and updated higher model

As to my knowledge after heavy and extensive search I have came a conclusion that the hardisk is having a weak or bad read\write head and that the single hand reason it isn't able to access it.

I really don't want to loose my data so any advice or suggestion are welcome.

Other option are if I can just get to know the name of files and folder made and stored on he disk and get the information about the same it would be really helpful.

I have read many thread related to same issue and I narrowed down to option for raid recovery aka partition recovery and use of ZAR 8.5 for raw recovery .

Please see the image for a better view and understanding

Here is a Image for explanation -http://i.imgur.com/3muxhKm.jpg

http://imgur.com/3muxhKm

DO YOU THINK TAKING IT TO AN EXPERT AND FIXING THE READ|WRITE HEAD WOULD HELP ME OR NOT?

 

[JaredDM]

OK, first off you should know that you can't address a hardware issue with software. The drive likely has either a weak read/write head, a large cluster of bad sectors in the low LBA's, or possibly a firmware glitch. This hardware issue is causing the drive to lose LBA access thus making it unable to read sector 0 (the MBR partition table). Since it can't read the partition table, it's assuming the drive is RAW (brand new unused) though it likely is not.

RAID recovery is also not what you need, a single disk is not a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks)

The first and last thing I might try before seeking professional data recovery service would be to use ddrescue in Linux to clone the whole drive to another good drive. If that fails, so will every other data recovery program in existance.

If the data is really valuable and can't be rebuilt, it might be best to seek professional recovery right away. The condition of the drive will only degrade the more you push it. What right now may only be a $300-500 recovery will quickly become a $1000-2000 recovery if you try too much DIY.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, @adarshnayan!

I'm sorry to hear about your issues with the WD My Passport external drive! You have done a good job with the troubleshooting so far, but I'm afraid that @Jared is right and you are most probably dealing with a failed HDD. I'd strongly recommend running the QUICK and EXTENDED tests from WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows. The utility will help us determine the health and SMART status of your WD My Passport. I'd also advise you to check the warranty of the product on our website. If it's still covered, you might want to get in touch with our Customer Support.
However, since the data on it is very important to you, your best bet on getting it back would be a professional data recovery company. Any data retrieving attempts you do by yourself could potentially do more harm than good, especially when we still can't determine the amount or type of damage. Check the hyperlink for some our Data recovery partners worldwide.

Let us know if you have more questions & keep us posted with the SMART diagnostic results!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[adarshnayan]

Welcome to the community, @adarshnayan!

I'm sorry to hear about your issues with the WD My Passport external drive! You have done a good job with the troubleshooting so far, but I'm afraid that @Jared is right and you are most probably dealing with a failed HDD. I'd strongly recommend running the QUICK and EXTENDED tests from WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows. The utility will help us determine the health and SMART status of your WD My Passport. I'd also advise you to check the warranty of the product on our website. If it's still covered, you might want to get in touch with our Customer Support.
However, since the data on it is very important to you, your best bet on getting it back would be a professional data recovery company. Any data retrieving attempts you do by yourself could potentially do more harm than good, especially when we still can't determine the amount or type of damage. Check the hyperlink for some our Data recovery partners worldwide.

Let us know if you have more questions & keep us posted with the SMART diagnostic results!
SuperSoph_WD

Yes you are right but if you see the image I have uploaded it says more than required and yes I have contacted WD and I am having a 3 years warranty meaning it will last till DEC of 2018 so that is not an issue, I am getting a replacement but I don't know really.

IF possible at least is it possible to know what data were on the Hard drive like all the files with original view like the name of the files and folder when it was made? Thanks in advance I will keep you updated.

 

[adarshnayan]

The drive likely has either a weak read/write head, a large cluster of bad sectors in the low LBA's, or possibly a firmware glitch. This hardware issue is causing the drive to lose LBA access thus making it unable to read sector 0 (the MBR partition table). Since it can't read the partition table, it's assuming the drive is RAW (brand new unused) though it likely is not.

SO I have updated the thread and added a few more points to look upon and yes I strongly agree to you verdict. I really appreciate your help do.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Yes you are right but if you see the image I have uploaded it says more than required and yes I have contacted WD and I am having a 3 years warranty meaning it will last till DEC of 2018 so that is not an issue, I am getting a replacement but I don't know really.

IF possible at least is it possible to know what data were on the Hard drive like all the files with original view like the name of the files and folder when it was made? Thanks in advance I will keep you updated.

Well, you could definitely give some third-party recovery tools a try, but that would be at your own risk, @adarshnayan! As I already mentioned a professional assistance would be your best chance. Nothing can be a 100% certain with these utilities. Although, there's another thing that helps a lot of people with similar external drive issues - a Ubuntu Live CD. You could give it a try and see if it will at least help you see what kind of data you have stored on the WD My Passport.

Hope it works! Keep us posted!
SuperSoph_WD