[SOLVED] WD Harddrive can't access

[OptimusSolo]

I received a WD Elements hard drive in the mail from the videographer that did our wedding. I can't access the content so far though.

It doesn't come up as a drive on my PC.

It does exist and it has content. I can see it under Disk Management. However, in Disk Management it will NOT let me assign a drive letter to it. That option is 'greyed' out for me.

Through limited research I believe the reason I can't assign a drive letter is because it is listed as a 'primary partition'.

This is where I am stuck though because every article I've read online only provides options that will wipe the hard drive of all its content. I cannot do that as the content is NOT backed up by me and is very important to myself and my wife.

Is there a solution to get the computer to assign a drive letter to this hard drive without erasing the drive.

I'm also not 100% sure if the videographer was using a PC or a MAC in the creation of this content but I only have a PC.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[USAFRet]

1. Ask the producer.
2. Please post a screencap of your Disk Management window, with this drive connected.

 

[jay32267]

If the videographer used a MAC....you will see what you are seeing.

How to Read a Mac-Formatted Drive on a Windows PC

Windows can't normally read Mac-formatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead.

www.howtogeek.com

ng.

 

[Krotow]

External drives usually are partitioned by MBR scheme with 4 primary partitions possible and first used to map whole drive. So far drive must work. You have some other problem. Permission problems perhaps. But most likely - drive is formatted in Mac file system (see a post above about HPFS). Or drive is not "clean" because was removed in unsafe way - disconnected without making "Eject" or "Disconnect" from drive/USB menu.

 

[USAFRet]

And however you proceed, be very very careful.

Personally, I would try to do a sector by sector clone off on 2 other physical devices.

Drive A, the original you have
Drive B, copy 1
Drive C, copy 2.

Work with Drive B...
If you screw it up....Drive C.

I can't believe a paid professional would deliver a storage device that is not instantly readable by the customers system.

 

[Krotow]

I can't believe a paid professional would deliver a storage device that is not instantly readable by the customers system.

By thinking about that again I can see two most possible causes:

• USB port does not support enough power for particular external drive. Happened with me many times. OP must try this drive in different USB port. Or in another computer.
• If drive is still not recognizable, then he must try that HPFS explorer utility. Maybe photographer mistook drives (or had other external drives full) and gave away drive which is usually used in his Mac only.

 

[OptimusSolo]

Sorry guys had to stop for lunch.

Here is a screenshot from Disk Management. As you can see when i right click i don't have many options

When I try the HPFS utility I am also having problems (might just be that I'm not educated on how to use it.) When I click on "File" > Load File System from Device I have three options.
#1. Auto Detect which returns this error

Or I can #2 Select a Device or #3 Specify Device Name which both return this error

 

[OptimusSolo]

I also forgot to mention, I have tried both USB ports on this computer as well as my wife's personal laptop and her work laptop and they all have the same issue.

The hard drive is lit up and humming and based on disk management I assume that means there is content on it based on the file size etc.

 

[USAFRet]

What is the specific make/model of the WD Elements drive?

 

[OptimusSolo]

What is the specific make/model of the WD Elements drive?

 

[OptimusSolo]

Am I doing something wrong when I am using the HFS application? Also should I be worried on the disk management screen that the Disk 1 options are saying they are 100% free as far as space on them?

 

[USAFRet]

Am I doing something wrong when I am using the HFS application? Also should I be worried on the disk management screen that the Disk 1 options are saying they are 100% free as far as space on them?

I would absolutely contact the videographer and ask him how to proceed.
Make NO changes on this drive, the current one and only copy you have.

 

[OptimusSolo]

The videographer has confirmed

"Yeah it's saved as mac ... they have programs you can run I have to check that should give you access"

 

[USAFRet]

The videographer has confirmed

"Yeah it's saved as mac ... they have programs you can run I have to check that should give you access"

Unless that was stated in the contract that it will be in that format, that is pretty unprofessional of him to assume that you have a Mac to access it, or that you are a computer geek that can successfully convert it the very first time.

Hopefully he still has a copy of all this, just in case your conversion routine goes wrong.

 

[OptimusSolo]

Yea it's been one headache after another with him. The wedding was in September of 2018 and I got the hard drive this past December... It was through some third party site which I would never use again in retrospect

 

[USAFRet]

Yea it's been one headache after another with him. The wedding was in September of 2018 and I got the hard drive this past December... It was through some third party site which I would never use again in retrospect

Wow....2.5 yrs.

Again, be really really careful how you proceed with this drive.

 

[Krotow]

Unless that was stated in the contract that it will be in that format, that is pretty unprofessional of him to assume that you have a Mac to access it, or that you are a computer geek that can successfully convert it the very first time.

Hopefully he still has a copy of all this, just in case your conversion routine goes wrong.

I'm surprised that OP got his wedding pictures and videos at all. Well, I hope he will succeed with copying.