Below are some more fun Q&A about hard drive recovery. I have given what I think is the best solution to these problems. As always please leave a comment if you have a question or contact me directly at 727-345-9665 ext 236.
Question:
I have a 1TB Western Digital My book Hard drive. When I plug it in to either the USB or FireWire ports the computer detects and the instillation wizard pops up.
I follow the wizard steps and it says “successfully installed” but I cannot find my hard drive.
-My USB drives all work and I have other hard drives on the computer
-It says “you may safely remove hardware” in the task bar
-I’ve tried it on a different computer and had the same result
Answer:
So this gets a little tricky because just because “My Computer” isn’t seeing the drive it does not mean the computer is not seeing the drive. You would need to go to disk management and then see if it is reporting as a mass storage device in the machine. If it is then it is likely that the drives problem is a MBR (master boot record/partition record) problem that can easily be fixed with something like a remote recovery. The other option is to run data recovery software on it and you should be able to tree the hard drive, move the files off, repartition/reformat, and move the data back. If it is not being seen in disk management then it is likely a communication problem with the USB enclosure (box holding the hard drive) and the computer. Usually popping the enclosure open and then slaving it or putting it in a new enclosure fixes that problem.
Question:
I bought a Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 1TB External Hard Drive in July ’09. I moved ALL my music, photos and personal files onto this hard drive. My CD-ROM drives quit working right before I got this….so I had not gotten around to “backing them up” on discs. STUPID-I KNOW!!!!
2 weeks ago it just quit working. I used it in the morning and in the afternoon, it wouldn’t work. It appears that it isn’t getting any (sufficient) power. It does not show up as an available drive when it’s plugged in.
Is there ANY POSSIBLE way for me to get my files off of this thing? I plan on sending it in to get it warranted-but I want to recover my files first.
Answer:
Ok, so like the above user he eludes to the face that it just isn’t showing up. it really could be all of the above fixes. My guess would be that if he wanted to get permission from Western Digital to pop open the enclosure he would be able to rule out the insufficient power problem. My guess would again be that the chassis has gone bad since this a very common problem. I always say that a My Book is a good product but only if you are going to plug it in just to back up and then leave it off most times. If you want an external device you can run all the time the best course of action would be to buy a high end USB enclosure and a hard drive in the size you want and build your own. This will give you the option to install fans in it as well as be sure it has good power to the hard drive. Heat is one of the major causes of hard drive recovery.
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Like the earlier question… I have a 1TB Western Digital My book Hard drive and when I plug it in to the USB port the computer detects and the instillation wizard pops up saying that it has been “successfully installed” but I cannot find my hard drive. However when going into disk management it is still not being seen there. I also pulled the drive out and put it into a new external enclosure however it is doing the same thing.. Any suggestions?
I have a LaCie 1TB extreme w/triple interface less than 2 years old. It was working fine the last time I used it (several months ago). Now I can not see an icon with either of my two computers (powerbook and macbook). Neither Disk Warrior or Disk Utilities see it either. I ordered a new power cord from LaCie which did not help. I have tried accessing it using USB and Firewire. Neither work. The light comes on, it never goes to solid — just flickers) and I hear spinning but no scary noises. Any suggestions? I’m feeling desperate!
Thanks
Hi, I’m Mr. Luca from Italy. I have a WD MyBookWE 1Tb. The unit suddenly stopped working. I opended it and I realized the disk is a 2199Mb unallocated disk. Do you think it is possible to recover my files? I runned TestDisk for ten days, quick and deep scan, no partition was found… Thanks a lot, Luca!
Hello, I first want to say that this is a great site. Im sure y’all help out a lot of people. Great Job!!! I also want to ask a question. Okay I hope I can explain this right….. I turned off my computer last night and I try to start it up today. Well as soon as it starts to boot Windows XP PROFESSIONAL will not load. I get a prompt that say:windows\system32\config\system missing or corrupt . I try to get it going in safe mode but it gives me the same prompt. Now i understand that its missing a file so it cant go further but What I I dotn know is how did i lose this file. Most importantly I need to get the data off my C DRIVE. I stupidly didnt back up my data and now I m loosing my mind. Can you please tell me how I can get windows up and runing and more importantly how can i retrieve my data. PLEASE HELP!!! Thanks for ur time-michelle
Hi! Similar to the first two questions I have 2 WD My Book USB external hard drives, a 500 GB and a 1 TB. When I plug them in the Driver Softward Installation runs and tells me it successfully installed the software drivers, but it installs USB Mass Storage Device and “WD”. It used to install USB Mass Storage Device and something like My Book with some numbers. My Computer doesn’t “see” the drive, Disk Manager tells me the drive needs to be initialized but when I try to initialize I get the error message “Incorrect Function”. I don’t have any data on the drives I can not afford to loose. WD tells me the “drive interface” has failed on both drives, at the same time!
Is the “drive interface” something that can be replaced or repaired by putting the drives in a new box with a new USB connector, or are my drives toast?
Thanks,
Roy
I have a WD MyBookWE 1Tb. The unit suddenly stopped working. this happen only if i’m transfering large files. any idia
I had similar issue..
Try turning DMA on for the drive and use a software such as Tera copy…
Hope it works
Here’s another drive that won’t show up. WD told me that it was insufficient power and will send me a new power plug. The tech lady also told me that i SHOULD (yes) plug my hard drive power directly into the wall outlet in the future and not use any surge protectors or backup supply. I thought I was being pranked or something.
I bought a new case and dropped it in. It says that it installed new software, but won’t let me install any drivers because it doesn’t see the drive. Has anyone had any luck with finding a solution?
I bought a WD 1Tb My Book and it worked fine until I upgrader my computer to win7 64bit. The drive slows the system down until it lieratly stops. Used 100% of processor and I have to unplug the drive and hard boot my machine to get it going again. I’ve tried WD tech support – it was uner warrenty after all, but they are useless, actually less than useless.
Any ideas?
Try to use the drive without installing the software Smartware or somthing..
See how it goes..
If you have installed it disable it from msconfig.exe
I’m unable to retrieve the information I saved on to my WD My Book Essential Edition (WD5000P032) 500GB several months ago! When plugged in, it doesn’t power up at all! No blue (power) light! No sound! NOTHING! I plugged it in to various other outlets to ensure that it wasn’t the power source, but the same results! Nothing comes on, at all! All I want is to retrieve the information I saved on it…pictures, documents! Thereafter, it can be recycled!…Ironically, I’ve always heard that it’s important to have a “backup” (External drive) of all important files, etc. When steps were taken to do exactly that,…now the External Drive “acts ups”!…The most I’ve done in terms of “recovery attempts” has been plugging the cord into various outlets only to get the same result…NOTHING!!!
ANY assistance you can provide me to help me retrieve my information is greatly appreciated, in advance!
Sincerely, EDEEZ
Open and remove the harddrives. If you are comfortable you my open your desktop and directly connect the harddrive, or buy ‘SATA IDE USB Converter ‘ device and then connec the harddrive to your computer through USB. you can access all your files
worked fine, 3 months old, formatted my PC and hooked it back on, ran the setup “WD SmartWare”\r\nthis works, my pc shows Drive L, but can not read it. (AT all)
Tried to format it in : My comp. > Manage > Disk Management
Here it shows as RAW (all the other drives as NTFS) tried to format but it won’t. Tried quick format, but it won’t. Tried it in Partition Magic to format, but it won’t. Tried it in My computer, click L drive and it asks for format, but it won’t.
What has happened to my drive, I am a Professional photographer and it has ALL!!!! my photos on it of the last 3 months. (Yes I do have a copy of these on my internal HDD and one more I just want my files back before sending it off to warrantee)
(made back up to this disk, before formatting HDD)
Please help
Joyce, Let’s thank the heavens you were not able to format the drive! Your data is still there, but the partition (or boot record) has been shot. We have software called Recover It All that can recover your files. The trick is going to be in getting the software to see the drive. You may have to take it out of the case and hook it up directly. Here is a link to Recover It All
Here is how to slave a hard drive
You can call me as well +1-727-251-2058 or email me michael @ dtidata.com
We can do this remotely as well.
I had a1 tb my book essential which i bought from a store it worked fine the day i bought it and then i move my data into it and then i turned it off, after a few days i tried to start it again with no luck the drive wont just boot up .well i got a replacement for the drive after waiting for 2 months but today as i received the new hard drive i was shocked to see that the new hard drive wont boot up too , i checked the adapter too and everything is fine …. im really pissed and don’t know what to do will they provide me a replacement again
Boot Up?
Could you clarify..like there is no Lights at all…
WD must be connected to power and USB at same time to get it powered
I had a WD external My BOOK 1 TB now the SATA USB controller on that had gone bad so I opened it and installed the drive directly to my Computer.
Problem is I had a large 930 GB partion of FAT 32 on that which was accessible through USB interface but when I am connecting it to SATA the drive shows in Device Manager but not in my COmputer.
In disk mangement it shows as Unallocated space, I know formating it will show the drive but I want to save the precious data on drive.
So How ??
Any solution.
Quick thought, If i connect it through a casing that are available in market of Sata to USb will it work? as it will be same interface again
hi, i have a 1 TB external usb data storage, before i had gateway lap top with win vista and it was working very good with that computer . around three months ago i bought dell laptop with win 7 , and the data storage was working good at first month but after that the data storage start to stop working alot and everytime it gives me the messag ” format disk ” and now everytime i plug in the data storage to my computer always gives the same message and i cannot open it at all. so please help me if you can to get my data of that drive because i have important data on it .
thank you
Adam,
This is a common problem with external hard drives. All I can tell you to try is maybe take it out of the enclosure and try putting in a new one. If this does not work maybe try running recovery software on it.
I bought a 1tb Western Digital external hard drive almost a year ago (July I think). I put a password on it that only I would know.
In february the usb port broke, then I recently purchased an enclosure case as well as SATA/IDE adapter, hoping that would solver my problem. However my hard drive showed up as unallocated data. I went to Best Buy where the genius there initialized my hard drive.
Two questions: 1) Is there any way I can get into my hard drive like decrypting the password I have on it?
2) Would there be any software that I could get full versions of for free to recover the data on my hard drive? Please let me know cause I’d really love to have my hard drive back. Thanks.
Someone,
We do have the technology here to get that hard drive decrypted. It is not a feat easily accomplished. There is not “software” option for this because that would defeat the purpose of the encryption.
Hi,
I have a WD 1TB My Book and it suddently stopped working after having for over a year. I can see it in my computer and I can’t see it in the disk management area. I have taken the enclosure off and still nothing. How do I run recovery software on it if I can’t see it? I have all my photos and documents on it. Can someone help please.
Desperate!
Thanks Eva
Sorry – I cannot see it in my computer.
I bought my WD My Book for Mac a little over a month ago. It’s been working great, but for some reason today it stopped working. I had the hard drive completely unplugged and when I plugged everything in like I always do the device did not show up on my computer. Usually it shows immediately on my screen, but I can’t find it anywhere, even if I specifically look on Disk Utility. When I initially plug everything in I can hear it configuring and working, but eventually it goes silent. The power/activity light blinks rapidly, faster than each second. So… I don’t understand why it isn’t showing up. It must have something to do with the USB, but I’m not sure what to do. Any ideas/solutions? Please and thank you.
P.S. What is the warranty on it? Can I send it to the manufacturer and get it replaced for free? What do I need to do?
I have a WD 500 GB external drive and am haveing many of the same problems as others. I finally managed to get my computer to recognize the drive by switching the firewire port I plug into and then bought a new external drive to switch everything over to. My problem now is that when i try to transfer data off the drive it starts the transfer then stalls and just sits there with windows saying its still transfering but really nothing is happening ie no change in how much data has been transfered after an hour. Any suggestions?
Wyatt,
It sounds like you may have a “degrading” head. I would try doing smaller amounts of data on the transfers. Another thing you might want to try is taking the hard drive out of the enclosure to help deal with any heat issues you may be having.
So I have a Mybook 1TB (one of the earlier ones) . . . although it seems to spin up, it’s wasn’t recognized by Win7 or OSX. So, I dismantled the unit (it’s 2 500gb drives, of course) and plugged the drives in to the SATA slots left on my desktop. DiskManagement now sees them but how do I (software) duplicate whatever arrangement that originally made these “look” like a single 1TB drive?
Here’s the reading I get off Disk Management
Disk 1: 200mb Healthy (EFI System Partition), 931.2 GB Healthy (primary partition)
Disk 2: 465.76GB Unallocated
Art,
It is a RAID 0 configuration. You will need to know the stripe size and off set in order to rebuild the array.
Stupid WD Mybook essential 1 TB it is now the second time the unit has all of a sudden when it is connected to the PC it can not be seen by the Pc’s USB port. When you pull the drive apart and connect it to Via Sata connector you will find the Master boot record has been corrupted and the drive is seen as unalicated. I have had to use file recovery program (GetDataBack for NTFS) to recover my data . I suspect and hope it is the Sata to USB connector causing the issue as it also seem to have software on the unit. Contact WD and their are useless tried to redirect me to 3rd party recovery companies and hundred of $ to pay for a fix
James,
Are you always “safely disconnecting” the essential before you unplug it?