[SOLVED] WD Easystore 4TB: Windows keeps saying "This Device is Not Ready", but it works fine on Mac ?

[NateyBoi]

A while ago I got a WD Easystore external hard drive, and for a few months, it worked fine on both my windows computer(10/11) and my iMac. Recently though, My External hard drive had only just been barely working on my mac(I can see and copy files from the hard drive to the mac, but I can't move around or delete any files), and when I try to click/open any files on the drive while it's connected to my Windows, I'm met with "Location is not available." and under that message, it says "E:\ ___ is not accessible. The Device is not ready."

I've used WD Drive Utilities to run a Drive Status Check, which returns with "SMART status failed", I've also tried running a quick and a complete drive test, which just didn't respond. I've also tried running the CHKDSK command and Windows came back with no problems. any Idea on how to fix this?

My mac is fully updated, and this has happened on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

 

[Colif]

chkdsk doesn't run SMART tests.

SMART is a test run by hdd - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

Its possible the drive itself is dying or almost dead.
https://community.wd.com/t/external-drive-smart-status-failed/250504/3

can you copy the files off it on Mac as you would be best getting a new drive. Can't fix dying hard drives, just replace them. If its under warranty it might be covered.