WD My Passport External HD Failure

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WolfsBane

WolfsBane

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Jan 22, 2013
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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.
 
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I can only but agree with whoever said to plug in the drive and wait until it recognizes it.

I am currently dealing with TWO failed external WD drives, one is a 2011 1TB my passport SE that all of a sudden became slow and unusable. It also was unrecognized by the OS. I was contemplating using the freezer trick as I thought it was a temperature issue that stopped it working after a short while. Instead, a few days later, in an attempt to try to get into it with a data recovery program, I left it plugged in (light was flashing) and waited almost 30 minutes and it appeared. I was able to pull all the data off it (except for a couple of bad sectors). S.M.A.R.T program has warned me that it is failing.

Second drive is a 250gb My Passport, this also was plugged in after not having used it in a year, and it turned on fine. Unplugged it, plugged it in later in the day and it was unrecognizable. It shows up on Disk utility, but it is unmounted. So I could only get into it with a data recovery program. I was able to recover everything, but obviously all file structure/names are wiped. I guess better than nothing.

 
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Guys,

This MAY be the solution to all your problems.

I was in the exact same dilemma when my HDD would power on but not be acknowledged on my Win8.1 laptop.

Turns out, i had defined a few network drives on my laptop. Just as C: is default for your OS, D: and E: were partitions I created. In the past (when I did not define a network drive "I:") my WD would load as Drive I:, but seeing that this drive had now been defined as a network path, WD wasn't smart enough to create a new drive to launch the HDD.

SOLUTION: Rename your network drives starting from Z (backward). I did that, and bingo - I had my 'WD Password Unlocker' running as good as new.

Hope this helps.

Thank me at josephjohn02@gmail.com
 
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I had read all of the horror stories concerning the WD external HD. I was unable to read the drive and my computer (win7) kept instructing me to initialize the Passport. I tried all of the advice given in all the forums I searched with no success but alot of time infront of my computer praying I would not loose the information contained within (35g). My passport had failed me two years earlier and I put it to the side and at times would hope for a miracle and attach it to the computer. NO LUCK! Last evening I searched for any program and was specific about using search words that described an external disc not recognized by my computer and PRESTO I was introduced to "EaseUs". I downloaded the free trial and it activated my external HD without it being recognized under mycomputer. As I type with joyful strikes to the keyboard my information is being recovered after two years of thinking I lost it all. I used a coupon found on line and my cost was the best $44.97 ever spent to ease my mind and regain my files. I am not a computer wiz nor did I have the money to takes my HD to a professional. It was a simple and long process but I enjoyed every time the program racked up another file. Additionally I DO NOT WORK FOR NOR DO I HAVE ANY CONNECTION TO THIS COMPANY except as a customer.
 
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My WD My Passport 500 gb decided to crash while I was traveling, having tons of travel photos, songs I've been working on etc. I'm using a Mac. It didn't show up in finder, but in disc utility. I did a check, it said it needs to be repaired. Tried to repair, but got the message "your hard drive is fubar" (or something like that).

I just downloaded the firmware update from the WD homepage. It worked. I could access my files again, and I just saved them.

TIP: UPDATE FIRMWARE!
 
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I had the unrecognized drive message and it didn't show up in disk management either. It was a bad USB3.0 cable. Try a known working USB3.0 cable before taking drastic measures.

Luckily, I had a second known working WD MyPassport drive I could test with so I used that good cable on both drives and they both worked fine. Tried the bad cable on both and they both got the unrecognized drive message. I think I bent the cable slightly at one point and it caused the problem. NEW CABLE FIXED MY ISSUE.
 
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This worked for me on my 1tb drive. Thanks heaps...
 
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HI
I have a WD 1 TB HDD, the device is giving me an option to unlock it but after that it doesn't open the drive. a drive comes up which looks diff than others ( c,d & e) and when i open it, its blank. I go to disk fragmentation it shows by drive there but can't do anything there.
I go to properties and it shows memory full and data size 0. Tried data recovery free softwares, they were not able to find the driver on the computer.
Light is on, it vibrates everything i fine ..it just doesn't work.

I have my comp data in it and if i dont fix it i am fired for sure...I boss said a straight NO to data recovery as it expensive.
please help buddy....i am in a very very bad situation...

 
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I have a drive that went dead as network storage drive. When I plugged it in the computer, it would not boot straight to Windows. Even when in BIOS, the SATA cable was turned off. I turned it on, still to no avail. I booted up successfully to Safe Mode. It does not show the 2nd drive at all.

The main issue here is I cannot use the computer as normally as I would with the 2nd drive in the system. What do you suggest I do?
 
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Diligent - my 0740 passport is showing up but it's not showing any of my files. I can see that the drive has a lot of data on it but none of my files are visible. I've left my passport plugged in for a couple of days now, and again, I can see it, but the files still aren't showing up. Any ideas for me?
 
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Hi, how did this work exactly? I tried downloading the universal firmware updater but in order to update the computer/updater must first recognize it, which it doesn't in the first place if you're in this thread. So I'm unsure how this worked for you..
 
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try to use an 3rd party explorer like servant salamander to view your unseen(but not hidden) files.
 
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my hard disk 0740 my passport not showing in Explorer, size is 0 in managment of Windows
and it asking about intialization, but then i got error message.
i tried to update the Firmware, i got the error message that the hard disk is used,
i tried in Mac it sais that the hard disk is portected,
and there is no protection or Password
but i think the harddisk showing it is used,
i can not see the hard disk in Explorer of Windows or in Disk utilities of Mac, but Software of Firmware can recognize it but not update it because it is in used
i restart the Computer but it is the same, i do not use any things which is using the hard disk
 
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My HD was showing up in devices but wouldn't let me see or use the contents inside. The light come on and the computer was detecting the HD so that led me to the driver. I checked the driver and it was the correct most up to date driver. My next solution was to delete the HD from the devices folder and then re plug it in and then PROBLEM SOLVED!!! The HD reinstalled and everything was working fine. My problem started because I let my mother in law use my hard drive to watch movies and come to find out she unplugged the drive in the middle of the movie so that led me to believe it was stuck in the movie file. Always remember to correctly eject your HD or anything plugged in that is USB. If you're watching movies stop the movie before removing the HD. If you are removing it from a desktop or laptop etc Properly eject the HD so it prevents problems like this and the hardware is safe to remove. I hope this helps somebody with a similar problem! GL
 
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THANKS ALOT .. THIS SOLUTION IS 100% WORKING.. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TYPE THE CODE AS IT IS MENTIONED AND WAIT TILL IT AUTOMATICALLY FINISHES.. DON'T INTERRUPT THE PROCEDURE... YOU DON'T NEED TO LOSE YOUR VALUABLE BACKUPS ..

The fault is with the partition table on your external hard drive. You can fix it by doing the following:

Open an elevated command prompt (Start menu → type cmd → hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter)

Type in the following command and press Enter:

chkdsk E: Replace E: with the letter of the drive you want to check.

After it finishes and gives you a report on bad sectors, retype the command, but add the /F switch:

chkdsk E: /F That should fix it. It took about 30 minutes for me, and when the process was done my files were still there.

-Narean-
 
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Boy this thread has been going on for quite a while. Keep in mind that chkdsk reallocates your data to different sectors and then marks the bad sectors as unusable. The problem lies where the utility does a terrible job reading bad sectors (it times out too early during the read if the sector has damage) so it may not reallocate them in their entirety leaving them incomplete and as corrupted files. It's a gamble, so be prepared to for the risk with this method.
 
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I had the same problems as everyone else where one day it was fine and out of the blue nothing could recognize the darn thing. I tried different computers with different versions of windows and still no respond.

My last attempt however did work. I plugged the passport into my routers USB port and gave it a few minutes and BAM! All was found!
 
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While some solutions posted in this thread may solve the problem in the correct set of causal circumstances, none worked for me. What did work for me is:

1) Unplugged WD Passport 0740
2) I removed Acronis True Image via Control Panel, rebooted
3) Used Acronis Clean Tool, rebooted.
3) Removed WD SES driver via WD msi installer from WD webiste, rebooted.
4) Reinstalled WD SES driver and plugged in my WD 0740.

Worked for me.
 
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GOOD NEWS!!
I had the same issue with my WD passport.
No response when plugged into my laptop.
Only the white light (steady on).
Tried every port,no luck.
Tried update firmware. did not take because the hard drive wasn't recognized.
Saw one answer that recommended changing the cord.
I figured it didn't matter since I did have the light come on.
Tried anyway.
Took my charge cord from my Motorola android smart phone and
it worked.
The system immediately downloaded new software and my files appeared minutes later.
I thought that I was dead in the water!!!
Good luck.
Mark C.
 
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IT WORKS! IT WORKS!!!
I cant believe I found a solution to the exact same issues the posts before me have experienced.

If your drive is visible, skip to step#2

#1- If your drive is not being recognized, try it on a different laptop/pc. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the drive was visible (still corrupted) when I switched to another Laptop.

#2- Go to Seagate's Online Data Recovery http://www.seagate.com/services-software/seagate-recovery-services/recover/?cmpid=ppc-_-SRS-_-G-_-us

Use the free trial, it will tell you if the files are recoverable BEFORE you buy!!
LOW AND BEHOLD, I COULD SEE ALL OF MY LOST FILES USING THEIR SOFTWARE!!!
Next, it will ask where you want the files to be transferred to (obviously not to the same POS WD Drive)....and then it will ask you to purchase. It was 99 bucks and soooooo worth it! I added the key, and it fricken recovered over 76k files. I think Im gonna cry!
 
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Diligent: Your solution partially worked for me as at least the ext drive could finally be seen by the computer. The drive was indeed running very slowly and the HDCheck and repair took nearly 24hours to complete. After the disk mounted Win 7 wanted to reformat it so I tried updating the Firmware ... this didnt work. I then did a Google for an old app I used 20+years ago "Norton Disk Dr" and I found on another forum that it had morphed over the years into an app like Partition Table Doctor, which is now known as EaseUs. Mentioned earlier in this thread. I tried the demo version and success. I could see all 35Gb of files. The demo only allows 2Gb recovery so I asked the owner of the disk how much she wanted her data (Aus$100) $No problem. All files recovered.
 
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Hi Nerean I tried your solution but in the end " Error Found, CHKDSK cannot continue in read only mode.

What should i do? i have important files on my WD 0740 1TB. T_T please help, thank you!
 
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