Corrupted Files on my 500GB Western Digital - My Passport?

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andrewduong77

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May 25, 2015
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I think I corrupted the files on my external 500GB WD Passport hard drive.

I haven't touch my external or connected my external to my computer in the past 4-5 months because I was busy with the spring semester at my school. It worked perfectly fine the last time I used it. Today, I tried connecting it to my computer and it took a while to recognize even though the driver is still there as I connected it 4-5 months ago. Though I had to my move my laptop to a different location, so I got impatient. I tried 'Safely Remove My External' by going to the task bar and right-clicking..."Safely Remove" process, it took forever and I got a little more impatient and I just decide to pull the USB connector out. After that, every time I reconnect my external and I tried to access the files in my external, my windows explorer keeps loading and stops responding like below.



It looks like I may have corrupted the files on my external from ejecting it from my computer without safely removing it.

I tried new things like creating a new folder in the external drive and deleting it and I noticed it takes a long time delete it and to delete it from the recycle bin. It seems like everything takes really long now and I'm still not able to access my files it would keep loading and then my windows explorer stops working. What type of symptom this is? I know a lot about computers, but this is a really strange situation... I have no idea if my external hard drive failed or the files I have on there or corrupted and I haven't figured out anything yet.



 
Solution
SuperSoph_WD
Welcome to Tom's Hardware, Andrew!

I'm truly sorry to hear about your WD My Passport drive. :( I'd suggest you to back up as much data from the drive as you can and test it using WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics utility. Running the QUICK and EXTENDED test will tell us what's the HDD's health and SMART status. Here's a link to the tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=pu7WvK

I'd also recommend checking the warranty of your WD My Passport here: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=gBKec3

Keep me posted with the results!
SuperSoph_WD

P.S. Thanks, @IntelTurtleFan! :)
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Welcome to Tom's Hardware, Andrew!

I'm truly sorry to hear about your WD My Passport drive. :( I'd suggest you to back up as much data from the drive as you can and test it using WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics utility. Running the QUICK and EXTENDED test will tell us what's the HDD's health and SMART status. Here's a link to the tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=pu7WvK

I'd also recommend checking the warranty of your WD My Passport here: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=gBKec3

Keep me posted with the results!
SuperSoph_WD

P.S. Thanks, @IntelTurtleFan! :)
 
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Solution
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andrewduong77

Honorable
May 25, 2015
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10,510
My passport is out of warranty, it shows me when I registered my device yesterday to WD online portal. Thus, I still have my receipt and box and I purchased it on February 27, 2013, so I figured my 2-year warranty expired months ago.
 
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andrewduong77

Honorable
May 25, 2015
6
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10,510
I'm not sure if this is normal, it seems like it's stuck on sector 307455. I will wait to see if anything different happens.







It seems like that's the issue I have with my WD Passport now, every task I try to perform on it just goes on forever. Whether I tried opening a folder in it, copy a file from it, or run any type of disk check or disk cleanup, it keeps going on and on. I also tried to run a disk check through Command Prompt and it said the drive was inaccessible. What symptom is this?

UPDATE (5/25/15 11:02 PM): I'm attempting to cancel the disk scan (may unplug the passport or force a shutdown then unplug it). I have two weeks left before summer class starts. I was going to back up new materials to my external during this three week break, so that I can do a factory restoration of my PC (it's due for one with a lot of problems). Now, I found out I broke my passport. So, my last resort is to see what I can squeeze whatever my files one-by-one onto the new 32 GB flash drive I bought a couple one or two months ago (thank god!) and transfer some files to my mom's desktop, so I can perform a system recovery to factory setup. Unfortunately, I found no use of my WD passport which I had planned to use to store my files while I'm planning to perform a system recovery to factory setup.

I haven't plan much for tomorrow, please let me know what I can do next with my passport. After that, I'll put my WD passport back into my pouch and store it back in my drawer with a note to remind myself it's broken the next time I pulled it out. I'll move on to restoring my PC to factory setup and reinstall all the needed software and my come back to see if I can do anything to either restoring the data or salvaging my WD passport if I have time before class starts. Otherwise, I have thoughts of smashing or microwaving my WD passport to destroy (possible potential information) and then take it back to Best Buy to recycle it (sadly). Well I hope I won't go that way... :(

Thus, I have planned to buy either a 500GB or 1TB Hitachi external hard drive off Amazon as suggested by my friend if I ended up really needing another working external to back my files if I do needed more back-up storage in the future. Could be either a temporary replacement or permanent replacement of my broken WD passport if I decide to destroy and recycle it.

I will try further to attempt to fix it tonight and possibly tomorrow and will keep you guys up to date before I decided I have to restore my computer soon.
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

Glorious
Jul 30, 2014
6,758
3
45,960
I'm truly sorry about that, andrewduong77! :( It does seem like your WD My Passport is damaged.
However, I'd suggest you to check the warranty of the HDD on our website first, instead of micro-waving it: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=iRFvuD

If it's still covered, you should contact our customer support and let them know about the failure of the diagnostic test. You should be able to RMA it and get a replacement product.
WD Support contacts: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=lCZ9pY
How to RMA your WD My Passport: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=sr309L

Again, sorry to hear about it! Hope I was helpful though!
Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD
 
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