- Apr 18, 2017
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Hello everyone. I have a hard drive issue that I could use some help with.
I have a Western Digital Elements 1042 External Hard drive that stopped working about a year and a half ago. To the best of my memory, I had it plugged into my Windows 7 laptop and as I tried to move something, the drive fell, dangling from the cable, then got unplugged and fell to the floor. When I plugged it back in, it seemed to work fine. Then there was another day where I plugged it in, and had to remove it. I tried to safely remove it, but an error message came up saying that a program was still using it. Against my better judgment, I unplugged the drive and put it away before I left for the day. When I tried to plug it in later, it would make a beeping sound, beeping 9 times, then 3 times, then 3 again, and repeating. It still does this to this day.
Eventually, it will stop and I am able to see the LED light on the HDD blinking on and off. I am also able to see the drive as "Disk 1" in Disk Management on Windows 10, but the drive was originally formatted when my laptop was using Windows 7. I can see the drive, but it won't initialize. When I try to right-click and select any options, (except for properties), an error message saying something to the effect of "cannot perform due to fatal hardware failure". When this happens, the drive will start beeping 9 3 3 again.
It's not a cable issue because I tried another cable, and it still gives the same issue. And I don't think it's a power issue because I have tried using a Y-USB cable (one end in the HDD, and two plugged into the laptop), but I was told by someone that that's not actually a powered USB cable. I don't know how reliable the cable I bought actually is.
I've had a couple of people who were more experienced than me take a look at it. One of them wasn't sure if it could be fixed, and wasn't able to help since the drive doesn't use a SATA port that a SATA-to-USB kit would normally be able to read. The port is attached to the PCB, and the only other feature on the PCB of note are some pins sticking out that don't look like anything that can transmit data (to my knowledge.
Another person suggested that the PCB might be damaged. I purchased a matching PCB on http://www.hddzone.com, but when I opened the enclosure and switched it out, the drive still makes the beeping 9 3 3, and I can't see the drive in Disk Management. Currently, the original PCB works better than the new one I bought.
Using WD DataLifeGuard, I was able to do a Quick Test and an Extended Test (with the original PCB). Both of them provide a "Pass" status for the drive, but will show 0.00GB, and will say "Not Available" for a SMART status. WD Disk Utilities (or whatever it's called) doesn't even seem to see the drive.
I have also tried plugging the drive into an older Mac Notebook (don't know the model), and have tried using a USB to boot Ubuntu and see if the drive will appear there. The drive doesn't appear in Ubuntu, but a coworker of mine suggested that maybe I need to mount the drive (I don't know the exact terminal commands for that. I am a novice at Unix/Linux at best).
Can anyone recommend what else to try? If I can get into the Elements drive, I can backup the data to two other External HDDs that I purchased after the Elements drive started to fail. I have also thought that maybe rolling back to Windows 7 might help, but unfortunately I can't do that since it's been so long after I upgraded to 10. Another suggestion I have read in other forums involves checking the drives BIOS, but I don't know how to do that. Does anyone have the exact procedure?
Thank you all for any help you can provide. As it currently stands, I am considering a Data Recovery service, but only as a last resort since costs are a factor.
I have a Western Digital Elements 1042 External Hard drive that stopped working about a year and a half ago. To the best of my memory, I had it plugged into my Windows 7 laptop and as I tried to move something, the drive fell, dangling from the cable, then got unplugged and fell to the floor. When I plugged it back in, it seemed to work fine. Then there was another day where I plugged it in, and had to remove it. I tried to safely remove it, but an error message came up saying that a program was still using it. Against my better judgment, I unplugged the drive and put it away before I left for the day. When I tried to plug it in later, it would make a beeping sound, beeping 9 times, then 3 times, then 3 again, and repeating. It still does this to this day.
Eventually, it will stop and I am able to see the LED light on the HDD blinking on and off. I am also able to see the drive as "Disk 1" in Disk Management on Windows 10, but the drive was originally formatted when my laptop was using Windows 7. I can see the drive, but it won't initialize. When I try to right-click and select any options, (except for properties), an error message saying something to the effect of "cannot perform due to fatal hardware failure". When this happens, the drive will start beeping 9 3 3 again.
It's not a cable issue because I tried another cable, and it still gives the same issue. And I don't think it's a power issue because I have tried using a Y-USB cable (one end in the HDD, and two plugged into the laptop), but I was told by someone that that's not actually a powered USB cable. I don't know how reliable the cable I bought actually is.
I've had a couple of people who were more experienced than me take a look at it. One of them wasn't sure if it could be fixed, and wasn't able to help since the drive doesn't use a SATA port that a SATA-to-USB kit would normally be able to read. The port is attached to the PCB, and the only other feature on the PCB of note are some pins sticking out that don't look like anything that can transmit data (to my knowledge.
Another person suggested that the PCB might be damaged. I purchased a matching PCB on http://www.hddzone.com, but when I opened the enclosure and switched it out, the drive still makes the beeping 9 3 3, and I can't see the drive in Disk Management. Currently, the original PCB works better than the new one I bought.
Using WD DataLifeGuard, I was able to do a Quick Test and an Extended Test (with the original PCB). Both of them provide a "Pass" status for the drive, but will show 0.00GB, and will say "Not Available" for a SMART status. WD Disk Utilities (or whatever it's called) doesn't even seem to see the drive.
I have also tried plugging the drive into an older Mac Notebook (don't know the model), and have tried using a USB to boot Ubuntu and see if the drive will appear there. The drive doesn't appear in Ubuntu, but a coworker of mine suggested that maybe I need to mount the drive (I don't know the exact terminal commands for that. I am a novice at Unix/Linux at best).
Can anyone recommend what else to try? If I can get into the Elements drive, I can backup the data to two other External HDDs that I purchased after the Elements drive started to fail. I have also thought that maybe rolling back to Windows 7 might help, but unfortunately I can't do that since it's been so long after I upgraded to 10. Another suggestion I have read in other forums involves checking the drives BIOS, but I don't know how to do that. Does anyone have the exact procedure?
Thank you all for any help you can provide. As it currently stands, I am considering a Data Recovery service, but only as a last resort since costs are a factor.
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