Christmas Miracle Time! Help Me Get My External HDD Working!

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Christmas Miracle Time! Help Me Get My External HDD Working!

Postby ad_hominem on Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:24 am

Hey guys, I've got a bit of a problem I'm hoping some of you brainy types might be able to help with. My Western Digital 1TB My Book Essential has recently failed me (through a combination of my leaving it unattended in my room, two brothers who wanted to watch a film, and a father who doesn't look where he's walking). My internet trawling has come up dry, other than doomsayers claiming that the drive is utterly fucked. Anyway, I've come here as a last ditch attempt to try to fix it for free, before throwing my money at it.

The Problem:

The Drive letter associated with the External HDD is not being shown in My Computer.

However:
  • The Drive is being recognised by the computer as a USB Mass Storage Device.
  • The Device Manager shows the HDD as working properly.
  • The HDD itself seems to be working from the flashing blue light on the front.

But:
  • The device takes longer than usual to be recognised by the PC.
  • The name of the drive has changed from 'My Book' to a generic 'WD'.
  • The properties of the drive claim that the HDD has no storage space at all, used or otherwise.
  • The drive is apparently 'Not Initialized', and when I try to initialize it, it gives an error saying 'Incorrect Function'.
  • Data recovery programs show the drive, but similarly show that there is no partition/volume/whatever for files to be recovered from.

So, is it fucked?
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Re: Christmas Miracle Time! Help Me Get My External HDD Working!

Postby The Trooper on Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:43 am

Now it sounds to me that the drive got fucked around with when your dad or who ever stepped on it. If you can for if its fucked that bad, open it up and see if there are any wires pulled out or something. I'm no hardware tech but that's all I can come up with. From a software look at it I'd say its fucked though.
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Re: Christmas Miracle Time! Help Me Get My External HDD Working!

Postby ad_hominem on Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:47 am

I've taken it apart and it all looks fine, just like a regular hard drive. I'm beginning to suspect that it's fucked, and unless anyone can offer me a better solution I'm going to try freezing it to obtain enough time to get my Uni notes from the last year and a half back, at least.
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Re: Christmas Miracle Time! Help Me Get My External HDD Working!

Postby Zipfinator on Sun Dec 27, 2009 1:21 am

Sorry but I don't know much about your problem or how you could fix it. I know that there are people you can send failed hard drives to and they'll try to fix it or recover the information at least. People who put their hard drives through worse things than you got their info back, so if you can't get it to work or you can't get the information back yourself you should send it to one of them. They can get a bit expensive for their services though, but if you really need the notes and such it'll be worth it.
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Re: Christmas Miracle Time! Help Me Get My External HDD Working!

Postby Major Banter on Sun Dec 27, 2009 1:36 am

You've got my problem. I smacked my laptop pretty fucking hard and did something to the discs. It's unfixable, as the core drivers that make it readable are corrupted by one or two failed dll's.

So I replaced the HDD and bought this.

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/8700408/Branded-HD-HDOCK01-SATA-2-5-3-5-USB-2-0-Hard-Drive-Dock/Product.html

Remove the HDD from its casing and pop it in. If it doesn't work then it's still £18 well spent in my opinion, I use it as a very untidy mass storage.

I'm really not sure about whether it'll work or not - external HDDs are rigged rather weirdly and technically in an identical way. Whether or not taking it out of all the stupid shite that comes with it will make a difference or not I don't know - it might be the equivalent of the horrific c0000135 error where a vital boot file buggers off, or just be so out of alignment that it won't run.

I recommend against recovering though, unless your uni stuff is on there.
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Re: Christmas Miracle Time! Help Me Get My External HDD Working!

Postby zombie@computer on Sun Dec 27, 2009 9:45 am

pull the hdd out and connect it directly to your computer (sata or pata or whatever). Makes it a lot easier to recognise.

See if it works okay, and if it doesnt, use hdd test tools (western digital has em on their site). If you can get the hdd back to work, you can put it back in the WD case. if it worked straight out but doesnt when putting it back in the WD case, the case is shit and needs to be replaced.
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Re: Christmas Miracle Time! Help Me Get My External HDD Working!

Postby ad_hominem on Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:49 pm

Unfortunately, I've only brought my old laptop back with me for Xmas, and my parents' computer is from the days before SATA, so I'll have to find a friend who has a suitable computer, or wait until I go back home. Thanks for your help so far guys, to be honest I don't give a shit about making the HDD reliable again, I just need to get the important files off there so that I'm slightly prepared for the exam period coming up.
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Re: Christmas Miracle Time! Help Me Get My External HDD Working!

Postby zombie@computer on Sun Dec 27, 2009 1:08 pm

ad_hominem wrote:Unfortunately, I've only brought my old laptop back with me for Xmas, and my parents' computer is from the days before SATA, so I'll have to find a friend who has a suitable computer, or wait until I go back home. Thanks for your help so far guys, to be honest I don't give a shit about making the HDD reliable again, I just need to get the important files off there so that I'm slightly prepared for the exam period coming up.

serioulsy, its worth the wait. Dont do anything with that hdd untill you tried a direct SATA connection.
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Re: Christmas Miracle Time! Help Me Get My External HDD Working!

Postby Major Banter on Sun Dec 27, 2009 1:22 pm

The man speaks the truth.
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