WD My Passport Ultra 1TB, sudden malfunction/crash?

[RookieTechSavy]

I've had this WD drive for about a year now, and my use of it has decreased over time particularly in the last few weeks. When I went to use it again about a week back, it wouldn't play any media, transfer speeds are ridiculously slow (300kb/s) even when connected to USB 3.0 port like usual but all the content on the drive is still accesible and shows up on screen. Im in the process of putting everything onto another drive and reformatting the drive itself; every once in a while if i unplug it and plug it back in and begin to transfer a folder with large files (>90GB) the transfer rate with shoot up for about a minute and suddenly drop the the lower rates. Any ideas to what the problem could be?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, RookieTechSavy!

I'm sorry to hear about transfer rate issues with the WD My Passport drive. I'd recommend you to try using a different USB 3.0 port on your computer and also a different USB cable to connect the external with. Have you also attempted to connect the HDD to a different computer and check its performance there?
I'd also suggest you backup the data that is stored on it somewhere else before proceeding with the troubleshooting. Afterwards, it's probably best you try WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows and run the QUICK and EXTENDED tests. The utility will help you determine the health and SMART status of the hard drive. Here's a link to the software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=tkIsjB

Hope it helps. Keep me posted!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[RookieTechSavy]

Hey there, RookieTechSavy!

I'm sorry to hear about transfer rate issues with the WD My Passport drive. I'd recommend you to try using a different USB 3.0 port on your computer and also a different USB cable to connect the external with. Have you also attempted to connect the HDD to a different computer and check its performance there?
I'd also suggest you backup the data that is stored on it somewhere else before proceeding with the troubleshooting. Afterwards, it's probably best you try WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows and run the QUICK and EXTENDED tests. The utility will help you determine the health and SMART status of the hard drive. Here's a link to the software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=tkIsjB

Hope it helps. Keep me posted!
SuperSoph_WD

Hey SuperSoph__WD,

Thanks for the advice. I ran both tests, switched cables and USB ports (3.0). Unfortunately neither seemed to help much. Both of the test results came out to be a PASS and although the transfer speed increased to a regular USB 3.0 speed for the first 20 seconds of a transfer of a 1GB folder when i switched cables and USB ports, after the 20 seconds it just dropped to 355kb/s again and progressed slowly ever since. It's what's been happened for a while now. I am in the process of backing it up but it takes a bit to backup files 800GB of files when the transfer rate is 355 kb/s. Any other suggestions..?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, RookieTechSavy!

It's really unfortunate that the speed drop with your WD My Passport is so persistent! 🙁 Have you tried using the HDD on another computer and see how the transfer rate will be there both in USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports? Give it a try and if things are just as bad, I'd strongly recommend you to contact our customer support for assistance with this. Here you can find their contacts: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=sepntz
If the WD My Passport is still under warranty, you should be able to RMA it and get a replacement from us.
As for the data on it, it's probably best to consult with one of WD's Data Recovery Partners worldwide: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Jyih99

Hope it helps. Let me know how it goes on the other computer!
SuperSoph_WD