WD My Passport External HD Failure

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
WolfsBane

WolfsBane

Honorable
Jan 22, 2013
18
0
10,510
I have a WD My Passport 0740 500GB external HD that stopped working just 2-3 months after I started using it. And it filled to the brim, too. I tried taking it to the local IT store to recover the data, but no luck. ( PS, they opened the casing, so warranty is void).The light on the HD turns on. The Hard Drive is recognized. But it does not show up on Windows Explorer (windows 7 Ultimate). I've read a number of forum posts regarding the issue and checked that:

a) the HD does not show up in that BIOS.
b) when I open disk management, the HD does show up as disk1, but with no bar.

At this point i've given up on recovering the data. But if the HD proves salvagable in any way, I'd be gratefull.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
CCleaner from piriform.com is worth a shot. Download it run the drive wipe on it but tell it to only wipe the free space which i realized may not be much but again, its worth a try. If that's a no-go, then i would just tell it to wipe the entire drive, sure you'd lose the info on it but it might save the drive.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The Hard Disk doesn't show up in 'My Computer' to begin with!

Also, I tried turning on the computer with the HD plugged in, then opened Disk Management. It asked to select Partition type for Disk 1. But on selecting both cases, MBR and GPT (one at a time), I got the same error message:

'The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.'
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


 
Upvote 0 Downvote
My WD passport is not recognized too, like yours, the light in the left side is blinking and the hard drive is making a sound ,,



how we fix it.

please help me to fix my WD passport.....................

please reply immediately

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've got this exact same problem as well! There is a white light which keeps flashing (to show it is on) and when plugged into the laptop/computer, it doesn't show up under any categories? However, the computer does read it as it makes the noise which is made when a functional USB is inserted. I have a black WD my Passport USB 3.0 compatible with USB 2.0. ANY help would be so much appreciated!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hey Guys,
Today I talked to those bullshit people(WD), the same problem occurred to me also and the only solution is hiring a third party professional data recovery company (which costs heavy bucks).

I cannot understand, if the hard disk failure happens, the only responsible is the company for ur data loss. so why dont they provide the data recovery service too.

its totally bullshit....

angry guy
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Same BS here. Tried all the above solutions but to no effect.
Had the HD for almost 3 years, never a problem. Doesn't make any sense what so ever 🙁
Particularly frustrating that this does not seem like a fluke error but happens to quite a lot of unlucky souls.

The whole reason I bought an HD in the first place was to create a backup for all my files in a save way in case my laptop crashed... F me

Thanks WD
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I had the same problem with my WD My Passport Ultra 1 TB HDD. I was moving a file into the drive and the device hung. I cancelled the move and, thereafter, I lost the drive. I rebooted my PC and plugged in my drive. The light the drive was flashing, but I cannot see my drive in the Windows Explorer. I panicked and went looking for a solution and came upon this thread. I experienced what the other people here were experiencing and decided to work it out myself when no one here had the solution to the problem. Good news. I got lucky.

My best guess was that the drive was still working because of the flashing light, but it was running very slow because of a file system error. I decided to wait it out until I see the drive in the Windows Explorer. A hour later, a drive icon pops up in the Windows Explorer, but with no information about the drive. The drive was assigned a drive letter, but it had no name or size. I clicked the drive icon and I get to see the drive’s directory. I could start copying my files to another drive at this point, but, since the drive was running very slow, I decided against it. But if you have a critical file that you need to get back, do copy it now. The recovery process that will follow next will not guarantee success or that that file will still be viable. Remember it will be slow and may look as if the process hung. You need to be patient. Do write anything into the drive! It could worsen the problem.

Now, on to the recovery process. Go back to drive icon in the Windows Explorer. Right-click on the icon and click Properties > Tools > Check Now. Check the 2 boxes in the Check Now window and click Start. Again, this will be a slow process and will take some time. Mine took 3 days to finish. You need to be patient and leave the PC alone to finish the job. And as I said before, I got lucky. I have my drive and files back!

I hope you have the same luck!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
So yea, my external hard drive ( WD elements 2tb ) was working perfectly fine yesterday, nothing happened since (didnt drop it or anything) and now it's not working anymore. Plug it in the computer it detects it I can safely remove hardware etc but wont show up in my computer. The hard drive still lights up, weird noises then after a while the noises stop but HD still lighted up. Cant detect it in disk management. Anyone found a way!? Please help got 1 year of pictures from travelling around the world 🙁


 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Read and follow my solution. It works. Plug your drive it your computer and wait. It will take a long time before your computer sees the drive and identifies it. I mean a really long time. Leave it plugged in for a day if you have to. When it does identify it, follow the next steps that I mention before.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have 2 x 2TB Western digital passport drives connected to my laptop. Both are USB 3.0 compatible.

One of them NEVER shows up (Not in Device manager etc) if I plug it into a USB 3.0 port when the other drive is already connected.

The temporary fix is to simply unplug it and move it to a USB 2.0 port I have on the laptop. This works 100% of the time. Hopefully some of you have that extra port as well as this will make life easy for you. But you get the slower transfer rate of USB 2.0. Not a big deal to me.

However, THERE IS a fix out there that I can't find right now. It was a great response which used the diskpart utility to fix the issue. WITHOUT reformatting your drive or losing any data. I'm still looking for it because I forgot to book mark the site....doh!! When I find it I'll come back and post a link.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This is weird. After plugging the drive into the USB 2 port. I moved it back to USB 3.0 and voila BOTH WD drives are visible and assigned drive letters.

Not a fix but at least I can see my drive.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Update: I had to remove the external drive and let it find it again. Once I did that and went back to the Check now part, it clearly showed the "start" going. However, a few mins in I get an error that says "can't check drive while it's in use"... wtf !!! I am not using it for anything other then this check ... any suggestions?

Diligent:

I followed your directions and it sorta worked! I can see my external hard drive, I have managed to move my critical files (took a long time but worth it). I am not at your recovery process. When I check off the 2 boxes under Check Now and click start ... nothing happens. How do you know if it is checking your hard drive .. does a pop-up box appear?








 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom