Issues with WD My Passport Ultra USB disk

kgaup · May 22, 2014

Hi.

Would have taken the disk for broken if it wasnt for the fact that i can see all files and folders in BIOS flash utility. So it seems it is only in windows i cant access the drive.

- Drive has been used on ubunto machine by my girlfriend, she sad she some reinstall of her ubuntu and then the disc did not show up so she ran a NTFS Fix (ubuntu style) She dont know excatly what she did.. but she got it working again and copied alot of files to/from it on that machine while it was continoulsy connected, then she tried to use it on her windows laptop and it didnt work, brought it back to the ubuntu machine again and now she couldnt use it there either.

I checked it and i just can read/write to it in my windows 8 and any such attempt freezes the relevant windows software until it is unplugged again.

I tried ALOT of recovery programs booted as both linux, dos, windows but its always the same, disc is (partly?)seen, but impossible to read.

The reason i havent concluded with defective drive yet is that
A) Its not making any abormnal sounds or spin up/down behavior (as ive had many times before with ext. usd discs)
B) It connects normally and is allocated in device manager and ID is correct
C) I can acutally use my BIOS flash utitily to search the disc for BIOS update files and in there i can see ALL folders on the disc with no problem at all (but that utility can help me backup files from it sadly)

Any further ideas will be highly appriciated as shes got alot of work and pictures stored on there.

Se further pictures here

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152477402115996.1073741831.650040995&type=1&l=99547f915a

PCJoe · May 22, 2014

Back up your hard-drive.

Open CMD (after your EXTHD has been detected)
Type diskpart
Type List Disk
Type select disk # (The # is the number of your EXTHD on the list shown)
Type clean
Type format fs=ntfs

That should do the trick.

If it doesn't then try installing Windows XP on a partition of your HDD. See if XP detects your hard-drive. Check if the disk is READ-ONLY and that your have permission to access it (Right click on HD, properties)
/EDIT/ Also try reinstalling the device driver in DEVICE MANAGER (mmc.exe)

kgaup · May 22, 2014

PCJoe :

As i said diskpart will freeze when command "List volume" is initiated when the disc is connected. Then unplugging the disc will unfreeze and volumes will of course not show the disc as its disconnected now

Again, all such read attempts from windows shell (win/dos etc) will freeze.
It is ONLY in the BIOS FLASH UTILITY that i am able to access the disc and SEE whats on it, ie not able to copy from the disc in that utility.

PCJoe · May 22, 2014

Try reinstalling the driver.

kgaup · May 22, 2014

Disk is accesible from BIOS flash utility and all folders/files are ok, but can only bee seen here, not able to copy anything.

Disk showing in BIOS

Disk showing in BIOS boot choice with correct ID/name

Windows device manager assigned driver but name is only "removable storage" name "x:\"

Only ID here as "Drive letter"

Driver window ok

https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1.0-9/10291829_10152477405205996_5900516739725513814_n.jpg
R-studio, diskpart, disk manager and similar will freeze if starting with disc connected

Managed to get this info shown in R-Studio after freeze and unfreeze by disconneting the drive.

kgaup · May 22, 2014

Tried all WD drivers, also not really correct ones just in case, also tried firmware update on the disk, that came back with sucessfully executed but no change

PCJoe · May 22, 2014

Try going into device manager, completely DELETING the EXTHD's software driver, RESTARTING your computer and then plugging the EXTHD back in. Looking at the above information everything but the lack of a name seems normal and it seems to be picking it up as a camera, driver reinstallation should fix that. Also, something seems unclear... You used this hard-drive with Ubuntu at your Girlfriend's place and now, after that it is not working?

Someone Somewhere · May 22, 2014

Can you boot into linux, and post the result of running these from the command line:

Code:

df -h

This displays all mounted devices.

Code:

sudo parted -l

This displays all drives, partition tables, and partitions. It needs to be run as root, hence the sudo. You'll need to enter the password.

kgaup · May 22, 2014

Someone Somewhere :

Can you boot into linux, and post the result of running these from the command line:

Code:

df -h

This displays all mounted devices.

Code:

sudo parted -l

This displays all drives, partition tables, and partitions. It needs to be run as root, hence the sudo. You'll need to enter the password.

Results:

Again there was some freeze but after ca 10seconds PARTED gave this result.

> Model: WD My Passport 0741 (scsi)
> Disk /dev/sdf: 1000GB
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
> Partition Table: msdos
>
> Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
> 1 1049kB 1000GB 1000GB primary ntfs
>

Still it doesnt show up in Ubunto desktop..

How to proceed?

kgaup · May 22, 2014

PCJoe :

Tried this, deleted driver, cleaned, restart, reconnect drive, new windows driver assignment, same results.
Still IDed as "WD My Passport" by auto usb PnP assignment.

Someone Somewhere · May 22, 2014

Code:

sudo mkdir /media/WD
sudo mount /dev/sdf1 /media/WD

Makes a folder then attempts to mount the drive. If it doesn't work, at least we should get some errors.

kgaup · May 22, 2014

Someone Somewhere :

Code:

sudo mkdir /media/WD
sudo mount /dev/sdf1 /media/WD

Makes a folder then attempts to mount the drive. If it doesn't work, at least we should get some errors.

Thank you, you are taking this down the right path !

I used TESTDISK i ubuntu terminal and i got access to the disk and managed to copy the vital files so now the worst part seems over, next is correcting the disk error.

Disc partition structure show up as " 1 * HPFS - NTFS
That * i read as primary bootable.. it shouldnt be that..

I tried to mount it but came back with errors
"The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0).
"The file system wasnt safely closed on windows, fixing."

Then terminal execution then stops.

Someone Somewhere · May 22, 2014

When you say it stops, do you mean it just goes back to the terminal prompt, or does it sit there with a cursor? If it's the cursor, it may just be that it takes a while to fix.

Once that completes, try mounting again.

If you've got all the files you need, grab any partition editor and make a new MBR, then a new NTFS partition. That should fix anything but physical issues, though it will wipe anything on the drive. Make certain you're doing it to the right drive.

kgaup · May 22, 2014

Someone Somewhere :

It goes back to prompt.
Now im trying to use the ubuntu disk utility to format and re-partion the drive.
Here the disk shows up at 1TB of unallocated space, but i am not able to create new partition, it starts at 1048kb and gets nowhere until failure error apear.

Attempted both ext4 and NTFS, here is error dump for ext4 attempt;

"Error creating partition on /dev/sdf: Command-line `parted --align optimal --script "/dev/sdf" "mkpart primary ext2 1MiB 1000170586111b"' exited with non-zero exit status 1: Error: You requested a partition from 1049kB to 1000GB.
The closest location we can manage is 1048kB to 1048kB.
(udisks-error-quark, 0)"

Remember that in windows boot i couldnt even get the disk to show in diskpart etc to attempt such re-assignment.

Considering attempting to return it for a new one, since i now got the important files recovered, but of course im also intrigued by this strange failure and want to get to the bottom and both fix it and learn.

Someone Somewhere · May 23, 2014

Weird...

You should be able to make a new partition table (MBR), though.

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Issues with WD My Passport Ultra USB disk

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