Solve : Dead USB Hard Drive??

1.	Solve : Dead USB Hard Drive??
Answer» Hello, I have a WD "My Passport Ultra" and yesterday when I went to move some files onto it I couldn't find it listed on my computer. It still shows up in the devises and says that the drivers are up to date but I can't see the drive on my computer. I have Windows 7 on my computer, on the main hard drive. I have a backup hard drive that has Windows 10 and it shows up there and I can see the contents of the drive but when I go to open a file it STAYS there is an I/O error problem. So I was wondering if my USB hard drive is dead or since I can see it on the computer with the back up drive can I still get the files off it. Is there a way to fix I/O error problems or will I have to scrap the hard drive?Well while I am waiting I decided to try a trial version of "easeUS Data Recovery" software. It says I have a lost partition on that USB hard drive and it is scanning the drive right now for files. It's going to take about three hours. So now I am wondering if any one here has a recommendation for a good recovery software for about $60 or less. If it's just a bad partition I could move the files off, reformat and keep using the drive. This is from dictation. From what you have said, you certainly have reason for concern. The important issue has to do with the age of the hard drive. A few tetra byte Hargraves made a few years ago had a lot of trouble. And it was not just Western digital. If the drive was relatively new the problem could be just a quirk or, abnormality in the manufacture of the drive. Otherwise, the drive has a problem that cannot be fixed if it was one of the earlier drives that had premature failure. It was a very serious MANUFACTURING technique that cannot be easily repaired outside of the factory. Sorry for the pessimistic note. If you can get your backup drives off of the drive, consider yourself lucky. It is very unusual for a drive their to cause a complete loss of connectivity. One might suspect that there is some problem other than just the hard disk drive itself. That is to say not just the hard drive disk itself, but also the electronics and power supply that go with it. The drive may have a defective power supply in which case it's not cost effective to try to repair it. This is not intended as a criticism of Western Digital. products are top notch most the time. But failures to occur in this industry and sometimes there's no way to know ahead of time when it's going to happen. In addition to using an external hard drive, you might consider also using a cloud service However, cloud storage can be rather pricey if you have a lot of data to store. If you have all the original media used for your programs and your operating system, there is no need to save everything. In case of a failure you could just do a reinstallation of everything. The most important data to save is the personal stuff you have created yourself. Such would be documents, photos and videos and any music that you have created yourself. Usually this kind of material does not take up a lot of space, with the exception of video files. But video files, in my opinion, should be burned to DVDs where they can be kept as long as you like. If you check the current prices for external backup drives you'll see that the prices have come down somewhat and that the effort needed to try and repair the defective drive far outweighs the cost of just buying a new one. That is about all I have to say. Hope you are able to get your data back. Thanks Geek-9pm. I keep looking at the software trying to scan the faulty USB drive and it still says it will take about 2.5 hours, it's not looking good for that drive. I think I will get a new one. I don't think there is any really important files on that drive. Yes I like WD hard drives, have been using them for many years without a problem. I think i will get a new internal one and forget the USB part. Thanks again.An I/O error can be a connectiion/cable issue...and it sounds like it in this case you describe. Before giving up on it i would remove it from it's housing and either hook it up internally...or in another known good external enclosure... If neither works than you can assume it's the HDD. Quote Before giving up on it i would remove it from it's housing and either hook it up internally... I looked at the housing and can't figure out how to get it open. I can't find any screws that hold the case together. I took one of the foot pads off and there was no screw under that. The only thing I can think of but haven't tried is pealing the s/n label off the back and see if there are screws under it. In the mean time I bought a new WD internal hard drive and installed it, all seems well with it. I'll keep the USB drive for a while and see if I can do something with it. Quote pealing the s/n label off the back and see if there are screws under it. That is what you have to do.Those WD drives are clipped together rather than screws, the top should unclip if you are careful. That said, on those drives the USB connector is part of the hard drive itself, i.e. it doesn't contain a regular SATA hard drive with a converter board so you can't take the drive out and connect it to a PC directly over SATA.Here Ya Go... Quote That said, on those drives the USB connector is part of the hard drive itself, i.e. it doesn't contain a regular SATA hard drive with a converter board so you can't take the drive out and connect it to a PC directly over SATA. Interesting that they did away with the USB/SATA boards and made a special board pairing with hard drive to make the drive forever a USB external. Curious if my 4TB WD drive is one of this type, or if its only the ultra models that are slim. I replicate my data between multiple drives to avoid data loss, but interesting to learn about the possibility that my WD drive might be a forever USB type. I have one of these ( Western Digital My Book 4TB External USB 3.0 ) laying on its side so it wont topple over on my desk and use it as my primary external: http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=WDBFJK0040HBK&ref=PLA&omid=103&utm_source=GooglePLA&utm_medium=CSE&utm_item=WDBFJK0040HBK&CAWELAID=230005120000164967&catargetid=230005120001429944&cadevice=c&gclid=CKjOnu3n9tECFQm1wAod08UBEgThere's LIKELY a SATA adapter available which means it can connect internally....i didn't search for 1...Check *Here...* Dave....see Pic #4. Looks like the propietary connector is easily removed...Thanks Patio for that info, also interesting article in the fact that you buy an external as a means to upgrade computer and take old hard smaller hard drive and place into the clamshell case to make a small external for price of one external drive. Ive used external drives before for internal installation but never bought one as a drive upgrade to then have the case for a smaller external to be created. In drives that I have taken out of their external case and used as internal drives the drives are usually ones that are not high performance drives such as small 2MB drive Cache vs buying same capacity drive that would be intended for internal installation with 8MB Cache. *For me, the drives repurposed for internal installation was because the USB/SATA DAUGHTER board inside died and the drive was still good and so instead of buying a new external enclosure, I'd install it internally. At one time though a few years ago I did see a 1.5TB external drive for $20 cheaper than buying a bare internal installation drive though and so someone could have saved $20 and gotten a FREE external enclosure to stuff another drive into, however it may have been same capacity but different performing drive ( apples to oranges ) in performance but same storage at $20 difference when installed internally. Quote You may ask yourself, "Why would I want to buy a Passport external when I could just upgrade the HDD with an internal HDD?" Upgrading the HDD with a WD Passport allows you to install the original 80GB HDD into the Passport enclosure. Now you have a 250GB internal HDD and an 80GB external for the price of one. Thanks for all the info, I hadn't checked here in few days. I found out no screws when I took the label, looking on line and found a video that showed how to get it open and showed no SATA connector. So yesterday I ordered a new USB cord. I looked at pic #4 on that web site and that's not how mine is set up, you can't take the USB connector off the hard drive, it is soldered on. And I looked but didn't see an adapter fir it. So if the new cable doesn't work I guess the drive is done. This video shows what I mean, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFjF1x-Rj0o.The adapter is in my 1st link....at least it looks to be the correct one...

Answer»

Hello,
I have a WD "My Passport Ultra" and yesterday when I went to move some files onto it I couldn't find it listed on my computer. It still shows up in the devises and says that the drivers are up to date but I can't see the drive on my computer. I have Windows 7 on my computer, on the main hard drive. I have a backup hard drive that has Windows 10 and it shows up there and I can see the contents of the drive but when I go to open a file it STAYS there is an I/O error problem. So I was wondering if my USB hard drive is dead or since I can see it on the computer with the back up drive can I still get the files off it. Is there a way to fix I/O error problems or will I have to scrap the hard drive?Well while I am waiting I decided to try a trial version of "easeUS Data Recovery" software. It says I have a lost partition on that USB hard drive and it is scanning the drive right now for files. It's going to take about three hours. So now I am wondering if any one here has a recommendation for a good recovery software for about $60 or less. If it's just a bad partition I could move the files off, reformat and keep using the drive. This is from dictation.
From what you have said, you certainly have reason for concern. The important issue has to do with the age of the hard drive. A few tetra byte Hargraves made a few years ago had a lot of trouble. And it was not just Western digital. If the drive was relatively new the problem could be just a quirk or, abnormality in the manufacture of the drive. Otherwise, the drive has a problem that cannot be fixed if it was one of the earlier drives that had premature failure. It was a very serious MANUFACTURING technique that cannot be easily repaired outside of the factory.
Sorry for the pessimistic note. If you can get your backup drives off of the drive, consider yourself lucky. It is very unusual for a drive their to cause a complete loss of connectivity.
One might suspect that there is some problem other than just the hard disk drive itself. That is to say not just the hard drive disk itself, but also the electronics and power supply that go with it. The drive may have a defective power supply in which case it's not cost effective to try to repair it.
This is not intended as a criticism of Western Digital. products are top notch most the time. But failures to occur in this industry and sometimes there's no way to know ahead of time when it's going to happen.
In addition to using an external hard drive, you might consider also using a cloud service However, cloud storage can be rather pricey if you have a lot of data to store. If you have all the original media used for your programs and your operating system, there is no need to save everything. In case of a failure you could just do a reinstallation of everything.
The most important data to save is the personal stuff you have created yourself. Such would be documents, photos and videos and any music that you have created yourself. Usually this kind of material does not take up a lot of space, with the exception of video files. But video files, in my opinion, should be burned to DVDs where they can be kept as long as you like.
If you check the current prices for external backup drives you'll see that the prices have come down somewhat and that the effort needed to try and repair the defective drive far outweighs the cost of just buying a new one.
That is about all I have to say. Hope you are able to get your data back. Thanks Geek-9pm.

I keep looking at the software trying to scan the faulty USB drive and it still says it will take about 2.5 hours, it's not looking good for that drive. I think I will get a new one. I don't think there is any really important files on that drive. Yes I like WD hard drives, have been using them for many years without a problem. I think i will get a new internal one and forget the USB part. Thanks again.An I/O error can be a connectiion/cable issue...and it sounds like it in this case you describe.

Before giving up on it i would remove it from it's housing and either hook it up internally...or in another known good external enclosure...
If neither works than you can assume it's the HDD. Quote

Before giving up on it i would remove it from it's housing and either hook it up internally...

I looked at the housing and can't figure out how to get it open. I can't find any screws that hold the case together. I took one of the foot pads off and there was no screw under that. The only thing I can think of but haven't tried is pealing the s/n label off the back and see if there are screws under it.

In the mean time I bought a new WD internal hard drive and installed it, all seems well with it.

I'll keep the USB drive for a while and see if I can do something with it. Quote

pealing the s/n label off the back and see if there are screws under it.

That is what you have to do.Those WD drives are clipped together rather than screws, the top should unclip if you are careful. That said, on those drives the USB connector is part of the hard drive itself, i.e. it doesn't contain a regular SATA hard drive with a converter board so you can't take the drive out and connect it to a PC directly over SATA.Here Ya Go... Quote

That said, on those drives the USB connector is part of the hard drive itself, i.e. it doesn't contain a regular SATA hard drive with a converter board so you can't take the drive out and connect it to a PC directly over SATA.

Interesting that they did away with the USB/SATA boards and made a special board pairing with hard drive to make the drive forever a USB external.

Curious if my 4TB WD drive is one of this type, or if its only the ultra models that are slim. I replicate my data between multiple drives to avoid data loss, but interesting to learn about the possibility that my WD drive might be a forever USB type.

I have one of these ( Western Digital My Book 4TB External USB 3.0 ) laying on its side so it wont topple over on my desk and use it as my primary external: http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=WDBFJK0040HBK&ref=PLA&omid=103&utm_source=GooglePLA&utm_medium=CSE&utm_item=WDBFJK0040HBK&CAWELAID=230005120000164967&catargetid=230005120001429944&cadevice=c&gclid=CKjOnu3n9tECFQm1wAod08UBEgThere's LIKELY a SATA adapter available which means it can connect internally....i didn't search for 1...Check Here... Dave....see Pic #4.

Looks like the propietary connector is easily removed...Thanks Patio for that info, also interesting article in the fact that you buy an external as a means to upgrade computer and take old hard smaller hard drive and place into the clamshell case to make a small external for price of one external drive. Ive used external drives before for internal installation but never bought one as a drive upgrade to then have the case for a smaller external to be created. In drives that I have taken out of their external case and used as internal drives the drives are usually ones that are not high performance drives such as small 2MB drive Cache vs buying same capacity drive that would be intended for internal installation with 8MB Cache. *For me, the drives repurposed for internal installation was because the USB/SATA DAUGHTER board inside died and the drive was still good and so instead of buying a new external enclosure, I'd install it internally.

At one time though a few years ago I did see a 1.5TB external drive for $20 cheaper than buying a bare internal installation drive though and so someone could have saved $20 and gotten a FREE external enclosure to stuff another drive into, however it may have been same capacity but different performing drive ( apples to oranges ) in performance but same storage at $20 difference when installed internally.

Quote

You may ask yourself, "Why would I want to buy a Passport external when I could just upgrade the HDD with an internal HDD?" Upgrading the HDD with a WD Passport allows you to install the original 80GB HDD into the Passport enclosure. Now you have a 250GB internal HDD and an 80GB external for the price of one.

Thanks for all the info, I hadn't checked here in few days. I found out no screws when I took the label, looking on line and found a video that showed how to get it open and showed no SATA connector. So yesterday I ordered a new USB cord. I looked at pic #4 on that web site and that's not how mine is set up, you can't take the USB connector off the hard drive, it is soldered on. And I looked but didn't see an adapter fir it. So if the new cable doesn't work I guess the drive is done. This video shows what I mean, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFjF1x-Rj0o.The adapter is in my 1st link....at least it looks to be the correct one...

Solve : Dead USB Hard Drive??

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