Western Digital MyBook Issue

[adamjedgar]

Hi guys,
I know there have been a number of questions about this drive but im not sure if mine is same.

I have a Western Digital My Book 1230 External HDD (firmware Version - 1050)

It is still covered by limited warranty until 2017 (according to WD serial number check on their website)

I got up yesterday morning, to find the drive letter missing in windows...well it had changed from mybook to another letter. When i clicked on the drive letter i got an error in windows.

Strangely enough...it still shows up in windows device manager as "Mybook".

I ran windows troubleshooter and it reset the device...however this has appeared to have no effect.

I have also used the WD utlities software in an attempt to sort the problem out and after running the tests i note the following

drive passes both quick and extended tests however,
drive capacity is "0"
SMART is "?unknown"

the Western Digital Smartware software Home tab says "No writable partition found" for Mybook.

In my windows task bar (down on bottom rhs of screen), i note that the Western Digital icon is flashing grey and green. When i hover over this icon with mouse i see the following;

WD Quick View = "Drive discovering"
Drive Name, [Volumes], Used = Mybook, USB, 0%

I have pulled the drive out of its plastic stand and installed it directly to my computer motherboard (just in case the issue is the USB connection and/or USB circut board on the device)...no fix.

Drive sounds normal...ie when i plug it in and connect to pc, i can hear it spin up and it makes all the usual startup click sounds exactly the same as all mechanical hard drives do.

My pc is a Windows 10 machine and I note that Windows 10 has had updates in the last few days.
I have tried the drive on a second Windows 10 machine (which unfortunately also updated before i realised this drive was playing up).

The drive is visible in Computer Management/Disk Management...however it says Disk 1 Unknown "not initialised" (my primary disk is Disk 0 btw). I also have another Seagate external HDD which is Disk 2 that is working flawlessly at present.

Right clicking on the WD drive in disk management shows

General Tab - "this device is working properly"
Volumes Tab - Type unkown, Status Unitialised, Partition style Not applicable, capacity 0MB, etc.

I have tried to update driver but windows says the latest driver is already installed although it is dated 2006.

I am going to completely remove all WD software off my system, do a restart and see if reinstalling from scratch fixes the problem. Personally, i have my doubts as i would have thought that by manually connecting the drive directly to my motherboard SATA ports i would have bypassed this kind of issue...but one never knows i guess.

Will update this thread after a restart and reinstall.

*UPDATE*

I tried removing and reinstalling all WD software (including starting from scratch on a laptop), all to no avail.

I ran the Approved Australian Data recovery agent for WD and got the shock of my life when they quoted me min $600 max $1500 to recover the data off the drive (if its possible).

I am lost for words???

What would happen if i were to simply get another identical drive, remove the plates out of this one and install them into the new one? Would that allow me to read the data contained on it?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @Adam!

I'm really sorry to hear about your WD My Book failure! You have done a great job with the troubleshooting so far, but I'd definitely not advise you to take the HDD out of the enclosure as it voids the warranty status of the product and mostly because the WD My Book incorporates a hardware-based encryption that prevents you from accessing your files without the original external enclosure. If you suspect that the issue could be caused by the enclosure, you could definitely try buying an identical one and check if you will be able to access your files then. However, tampering with the HDD physically is highly dangerous and could further corrupt the contents on the drive.
You mentioned that the SMART status was not available when you tried running the QUICK and EXTENDED tests, however, I'd still recommend you check if you will be able to run the tests successfully from another computer. Either way, capacity 0 mb is pretty concerning as it could actually mean that the HDD is damaged beyond repair.

I believe using the assistance of a professional data recovery company is your best bet right now at retrieving your files. Any DIY attempts are very risky for your data.

In the future, I'd strongly recommend you backup your files to multiple locations! Always remember that "backup" means that you have your data stored in at least two (2) locations. Moving data from your system drive to an external hard drive is not a backup, unless there is already a duplicate of the file on a different drive. This is the surest way to prevent such data-loss headaches ever again!

Hope this was helpful. Keep me posted if you need further assistance.
Best of luck! Keeping my fingers crossed for a successful data recovery of your files!
SuperSoph_WD