1.0TB WD External hard drive failing?

Silver79 · Jan 4, 2016

Alright so here the situation. About 4-5 years ago I got an external HDD with the size of 1 TB. Worked flawlessly and perfect up until these past few days. I noticed it being a bit buggy and I would get Fatal Error reports from it. I would just unplug and re plug it and it would be fine again. Yesterday they became much more frequent and my computer had problems even reading it when plugging it back in. Today the heart monitor just stopped. It will not read. I took the casing off everything seems to be fine with the power connector for the external part of it. When plugged it light shows up and everything that it has power and I hear what I assume is a normal spinning up of the drive for a few brief seconds. My desktop which is what I used it on will not read it. I just recently tried my laptop that will not read it either. Here's the catcher, I absolutely need this drive to work. I have many graphic designs and projects on there that I need (not to mention I'm already broke and my siblings busted a brand new TV I got, and my Monitor died the same week)
Please help!

The desktop is running

Windows 8.1 64bit
Geforce GTX980Ti
2 HDD's
AMD FX 8350

The laptop is a HP Probook 6550b

Forgot the HDD, the inside of the External is this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136317

USAFRet · Jan 4, 2016

Here's the catcher, I absolutely need this drive to work. I have many graphic designs and projects on there that I need

This is what backups are for.

I noticed it being a bit buggy and I would get Fatal Error reports from it.

It was telling you it was dying. May be the drive, may just be the external case circuitry.

Open the external case, and connect that drive internally in your desktop.
This may or may not work.

SuperSoph_WD · Jan 5, 2016

Happy New Year, Silver79!

Unfortunately, you shouldn't have taken the HDD out of the enclosure before checking its warranty!

Can you please tell us the model of your WD external drive? If it's a WD My Passport or My Book external drive, you won't be able to access your HDD data without the enclosure, due to the hardware encryption that these models incorporate. I'd suggest you to try testing it inside the case again, just try using a different USB cable. The Fatal Error is most probably indicating that the drive is failing.

If that's so, I'd recommend you to consider contacting one of our Data Recovery Partners: http://support.wdc.com/Warranty/dataRecovery.aspx?lang=en
A professional assistance is your best bet at getting the most of your data back. I'd second what @USAFRet mentioned and recommend you to keep regular backups in the future, this way you'd avoid any potential data-loss headaches.

Hope this was helpful. Keep us posted.
SuperSoph_WD

Silver79 · Jan 5, 2016

SuperSoph_WD :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AJ1JD9678 This would be the model I have. I also do not have another USB cable that fits it.

I also noticed something today, When plugged in my pc shows this http://prntscr.com/9mbygz . Removable dick G - J was never there before. G was also what the external hard drive was.

SuperSoph_WD · Jan 5, 2016

Hey there again, Silver79!

I'd suggest you to try the HDD in another computer and see how it will get recognized there. Hopefully, you'd be able to access your data. Since it's an old WD Elements, you most probably didn't void the warranty and it doesn't incorporate any hardware encryption, so there might be a chance for you to access the data without the enclosure but this really depends on the type of HDD damage.
Windows detects the drive in Device Manager according to your screenshot, so I'd recommend you to go to Disk Management and check the HDD's status there. (posting a screenshot again would be helpful)

I'd also strongly recommend you to check the drive's health and SMART status using WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows. Make sure you run both the QUICK and the EXTENDED tests, here's a link to the WD software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=zF7gs4

Keep us posted with the results.
SuperSoph_WD

Silver79 · Jan 5, 2016

SuperSoph_WD :

Here is a picture of the LifeGuard, http://prntscr.com/9meft3 The bottom one is the external. I ran a quick test first and got an error http://prntscr.com/9mehb7 so I'm assuming that's a problem. I ran the extended test next and received this error message immediately http://prntscr.com/9mehrn . As for the trying a different computer, I tried my laptop the drivers installed successfully however it did not show up at all. I did the disk management and these are the results http://prntscr.com/9mek7n . It did ask me to install disk 6 which I have no clue what that would be so I declined it for now. I'm also pretty sure there no more warranty on it due to the fact it was purchased around 5 years ago

SuperSoph_WD · Jan 6, 2016

This is very unfortunate, Silver79!

It seems like your WD Elements has failed. Since it cannot even pass the diagnostic tests, I'd definitely not advise you to do any data recovery attempts by yourself. Despite being pricey, the best chance at getting any of your important files back is a professional data recovery company. You can find the link to WD's data recovery partners worldwide in my first post.

In the future, I'd strongly recommend you to have at least two copies of your files stored in different storage locations (offsite/onsite). This is the surest way to avoid data-loss headaches, in case, your system or your HDD fails again.

Good luck with the data recovery! Keeping my fingers crossed for your graphic design projects!
SuperSoph_WD

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