WD External Encrypted with TrueCrypt not recognized

[Hillbilly1969]

Hello everyone. I have a Western Digital My Book 320GB external drive that was purchased way back in 2006. The drive itself, although used sparingly, has been working fine up until about 2 weeks ago when TrueCrypt stopped recognizing the drive. Even though my laptop, which is running Windows 7 64 bit shows it connected via USB TrueCrypt only acknowledges my system hard drive and partitions on the laptop. Nothing more. Disk Management also shows the drive, but has it listed as Disk 1 and 'Not Initialized'. Furthermore, it tells me that I must initialized he drive before I can access it. Everything I have read about initializing says that this process will wipe the drive clean and that is not an option as I am really hoping to save the data.

I have upgraded to a new WD 2 TB Passport external drive for my storage use and I normally I wouldn't bother to ask for advice on such an old and outdated piece of hardware but unfortunately I have a number of family photos and videos that are irreplaceable and I can't bear the thought of losing. Also unfortunate is the fact that I was not smart enough to back up the contents of the hard drive.

The goal here is that I really would like to recover the data if at all possible and without having to pay a King's ransom in doing so. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. And let me apologize if I haven't provided enough technical information. I really don't know my way around computers as well as I would like. Thanks so much and God bless.

 

[drtweak]

Yea here is the downside to encrypting. Does a great job of protecting your stuff but a lot of hardware and software issues can ruin everything for good.

ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP PEOPLE!

So now that is out of the way.

Download the crystal disk info in my signature and run it which the External is plugged it. See if any drives show up as caution or bad or if the USB drive even shows up in the listing at all (It is an old drive so not sure)

 

[Hillbilly1969]

Yea here is the downside to encrypting. Does a great job of protecting your stuff but a lot of hardware and software issues can ruin everything for good.

ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP PEOPLE!

So now that is out of the way.

Download the crystal disk info in my signature and run it which the External is plugged it. See if any drives show up as caution or bad or if the USB drive even shows up in the listing at all (It is an old drive so not sure)

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately the program only showed my system drive.

 

[drtweak]

Yea sounds like either some kind of hardware malfunction/failure or something happened to the file system and killed the partition.

 

[Hillbilly1969]

Yea sounds like either some kind of hardware malfunction/failure or something happened to the file system and killed the partition.

Any recommendation at this point, other than trashing the drive or taking it to a professional data recovery lab?

 

[Mr5oh]

I only use WD drives in my PCs, but I avoid their externals like the plague. That being said I've had some luck opening the external enclosure and removing the hard drive. Its just a standard hard drive inside that you can plug into your PC, or another SATA to USB cord etc.

If that doesn't work you are going to be out of luck, unless you want to try and repair itself or pay a recovery service to do it.

 

[Hillbilly1969]

I only use WD drives in my PCs, but I avoid their externals like the plague. That being said I've had some luck opening the external enclosure and removing the hard drive. Its just a standard hard drive inside that you can plug into your PC, or another SATA to USB cord etc.

If that doesn't work you are going to be out of luck, unless you want to try and repair itself or pay a recovery service to do it.

I'm not too tech savvy but I can check into having someone with a little more knowledge than me crack it open and take a peek inside. Thanks for the input.

 

[drtweak]

I only use WD drives in my PCs, but I avoid their externals like the plague. That being said I've had some luck opening the external enclosure and removing the hard drive. Its just a standard hard drive inside that you can plug into your PC, or another SATA to USB cord etc.

If that doesn't work you are going to be out of luck, unless you want to try and repair itself or pay a recovery service to do it.

As yes it could just be the USB adapter that is bad here is the possible down side. I know this because i just had a client with a WD Password with the click of death and was going to open it up and freeze it (I still did but no go) BUT!!!!

The USB 3.0 drives are least the USB adapter is built into the PCB board and you can ONLY use the USB 3.0. Can't take it out and connect it to SATA directly.

Just be careful what you do. over writing, formatting, ect could make it so you can never get anything back ever.