WD Elements external hard drive not showing in 'My computer'

plindsay1985 · Sep 17, 2015

Hi everyone.
I've looked through the forum and found people having similar problems to me. I tried all the solutions however and none worked.
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit.

My hard drive never suffered any impact or damage. Yesterday, I was transferring some files across to it from the PC, when the file transfer suddenly stopped. The system appeared to crash, so I restarted the PC. Windows wouldn't boot up at all unless I disconnected the hard drive. It is still doing the same now.

When I connect the drive to the PC after it has started up, the machine makes the USB connection noise but no drive shows in 'My computer'. When I connect it to other computers, they install the drivers automatically but the drive does not show in 'My computer' on those machines either.

I have tried the following:

Device manager, changing label - I can see it in my device manager but cannot change name or label. When trying to initialize, I get a 'cyclic redundancy check error'

CHKDSK/F - I tried to run this command after checking the drive. I received the following message;
Cannot lock current drive.
Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? <Y/N>

'EaseUS Partition manager' - This did not work.

Help

I have many important documents on the drive, so I am really worried.

SuperSoph_WD · Sep 18, 2015

Welcome to the community, plindsay1985!

I'm sorry to hear about your WD Elements external drive causing such issues!

I'm afraid that the PC crash and the sudden reboot might have damaged the file system of your HDD. I'd recommend you to go to Disk Management ( http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ht/disk-management-windows-7.htm ) and check how the drive appears there.
I'd advise you also to run the QUICK and EXTENDED tests from the WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostic utility. This will help you determine the health and S.M.A.R.T. status of the WD Elements, so here's a link to the software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=yi561z

Keep me posted with the status of the drive in Disk Management and what the test results show!
Hope it helps.
SuperSoph_WD

plindsay1985 · Sep 18, 2015

Hi there

Here is a screenshot of the computer management page. Disk 3 is the hard drive.

Here is the WD testpage.

And the error message

SuperSoph_WD · Sep 18, 2015

Unfortunately, plindsay1985, it seems like your WD Elements has failed.

You could try using third-party data recovery tools but I wouldn't risk it since the diagnostic test has failed. I'd strongly recommend you to consider contacting a data recovery company for assistance. You can check WD's Data Recovery Partners worldwide here: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=VLvQ6P
In the future, I'd advise you keep at least two copies of your data stored in different storage devices. This is the best way to have a backup and avoid the headaches of data loss.
After the data recovery, I'd also recommend you to check the warranty of your WD elements here: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=I8xM1i
If it's still covered, you can contact our Customer support and send out your RMA request. I'm sure they will provide you with a replacement HDD soon enough.
WD Support contacts: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=eZSjAU
How to RMA your WD drive: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=1K06O8

Best of luck! Hope I was helpful!
SuperSoph_WD

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WD Elements external hard drive not showing in 'My computer'

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