Hard Drive Failure, Clicking and Slowing Computer

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Zatheyll

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I have a really big problem with my external hard drive. It is a WD Passport 2TB. It started slowing down recently and just today it stopped working and crashed my Windows. When I restarted my computer the hard drive showed as there but didn't let me access it, it wanted me to reformat it and showed an I/O error. It also started clicking randomly and the flashing color would go solid and sometimes turn off. It also slowed down the entire computer when plugged in, such as my browser not properly loading, taking forever to load my hard drives on "Computer", and not letting me access Properties for the hard drive.

I have a lot of important stuff on there so I do not want to wipe it. I tried chkdsk /f and 80% of the time it said it could not load the hard drive to do so, and the other 20% it asked to restart to do it, and when I restarted (had to force restart because it got stuck at Restarting) it would only check my C: disk with Windows installed on it before booting up and nothing would be fixed.

Is there any way to fix this? It's becoming a massive trouble and I would like to do whatever I can to fix the problem before paying to salvage it and get a new hard drive.
 
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digitaldoc

digitaldoc

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It really sounds like your hard drive is limping along on its last legs. You can use CrystalDiskInfo to get a look at the SMART Data to confirm this.

I would get all the data off ASAP as this is an impending failure about to happen. I prefer to do this by mounting it externally if this is possible on another working machine.

Depending on the age, you may be able to get a warranty exchange for this drive.
 
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Zatheyll

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I'm just not sure how to get all the data off, since I can't even access the hard drive. I plugged it into a different computer (Windows 8 laptop, I'm currently on a Windows 7 Desktop) and the same issues happened.

I can't even open up the casing, as there are no screws. I would have to pry it open and I'm scared it would break everything inside.
 
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Zatheyll

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It does show up on the computer, but it's blank and asks for me to reformat it. Should I bring it in to try and get a professional to get the data off before trying to reformat it?
 
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digitaldoc

digitaldoc

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If you reformat all the data will be gone, and I am not sure this will work anyway. From the sounds you describe, the drive sounds like it no longer works.

If the data is really important, you can try a data recovery service, but they charge serious money for this, and there are no guarantees.

For future reference, an external USB drive, with continuous data backup can be invaluable to prevent this situation. I use a WD Passport for this.
 
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Zatheyll

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I was able to fix it by running a CHKDSK F: /f on cmd. Took about half an hour to run, but it let me access and use all of my files. Just saying it here in case the problem happens to anyone else. Still going to get a new hard drive asap.
 
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