External HD not accessible. What could have gone wrong?

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shubham_2206

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Sep 20, 2014
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I have a WD My Passport 1 TB HD which I purchased around an year ago. Two days ago, I copied a few files from my laptop (running Win 8.1) to this hard disk and then ejected it safely. I gave it a friend of mine and he returned it back saying it is not working. When I plug it in my laptop, it gets detected but the drive does not appear. I opened Disk Management, but it gave an error that the disk must be initialized first. When I click on OK, it gives an error The request failed due to a fatal device hardware error.. The status of this disk is Not Initialized and Unallocated.

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I tried to recover the partition usin MiniTool Partition. But it ran for hours and didn't fix anything. Even tried Easeus Partition Manager, but still nothing. So today I ran Ubuntu and tried GParted, but it does not even detect this disk.

What could be wrong ? What can I do to troubleshoot this ?

The data inside is not too important but I'd really like to try more methods to fix this before getting a replacement (still under warranty).

Thanks for all your help in advance!
 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hi there shubham_2206,

Sorry that you are facing issues with your WD My Passport. I would suggest you to try connecting the device with another USB cable and to another USB port. It is strange that some of the software programs can't even detect it.
As the data is not that important, you can chkdsk (drive letter): /F in the Command Prompt. The cause of your issue might be a file system error, so this command may fix it. Keep in mind that it is possible to lose some of the with this command. Just use it if nothing else works.

In case nothing helps, I would advice you to test the device with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool and check out the HDD's health.

WD DLG tool: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=810&lang=en

Hope this will help,
D_Know_WD
 
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shubham_2206

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Sep 20, 2014
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Thanks for your reply. I will try to connect it with another cable and update the result here. Meanwhile, I tried running WD DLG tool but it doesn't even detect my hard disk.
 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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My suggestion would be: connect the device with another cable and see whether the recovery partition software will recover something.
If again nothing happens and you can't even initialize the drive, I would suggest you to contract the WD's Tech Support either by email or phone and eventually RMA the drive.

WD Support: http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?lang=en
RMA: http://support.wdc.com/warranty/

Cheers,
D_Know_WD
 
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shubham_2206

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Sep 20, 2014
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Tried with another USB cable. Same result. Will go for a replacement.
 
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praks001

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Jul 8, 2015
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I am amused how this problem has become inherent in every WD hard disk and specifically in India. I myself faced the same problem 3 times. While WD were generous enough to replace the original and the next replacement, the second replacement isn't lucky enough as the warranty has expired.
Please explain me this scam, how do you guys so smartly dump every faulty batch of products in India just by repackaging them?

 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

Judicious
Jul 30, 2014
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I'm really sorry that you had such a bad experience with WD. :(
I can assure you, there is no way that WD sends faulty products to India on purpose. It is highly unlikely to get three faulty drives in a row.
I see that you've posted your issue in another thread as well. We'll be really happy to help you if there's anything that we can do.

Again, sorry about your experience with WD. :(

D_Know_WD
 
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praks001

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Jul 8, 2015
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If you don't believe me, I can show you my RMA history-

Each time i faced the same problem "fatal device hardware error" once it went undetected suddenly. The latest replacement I received 15 months ago also has the same issue. But now its out of warranty.

 
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