Dead external hard drive

Forums › Desktop computing › Dead external hard drive

peejayw

1841 posts

Uber Geek

#223667 11-Oct-2017 12:56

I have a 2TB WD My Book hard drive that no longer connects to my computer. I can see a light inside the case and hear the drive spinning up when powered but thats all. There is data on the drive I would like to retrieve if possible without spending big dollars.

Any suggestions on things I could try?

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

timmmay

20591 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1881944 11-Oct-2017 13:26

Can you take it out of the case and see if it has a SATA or standard interface? If so plug it into your computer directly.

peejayw

1841 posts

Uber Geek

#1881949 11-Oct-2017 13:33

I had a good look at the case but I cant see any screws, maybe it just prises open?

However, since posting, I thought I would see if my Raspberry Pi could access it and Hey Presto, the Pi can see the drive and contents so I can transfer them to another drive. Now if I could just get my computer (windows 10 ) to see the drive too my day would be made :-)

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

wellygary

8336 posts

Uber Geek

#1881955 11-Oct-2017 13:41

peejayw:

I had a good look at the case but I cant see any screws, maybe it just prises open?

However, since posting, I thought I would see if my Raspberry Pi could access it and Hey Presto, the Pi can see the drive and contents so I can transfer them to another drive.

No, Transfer the data to two Distinct drives, either physical or otherwise....

Storage is so cheap these days there is no excuse for only having a single copy of anything without a backup somewhere,

Starscream122

568 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#1881956 11-Oct-2017 13:41

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5uKkGT8i4g

https://snapguide.com/guides/disassemble-a-wd-mybook-essential-hdd/

TLD

902 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1885226 17-Oct-2017 17:37

peejayw:

I had a good look at the case but I cant see any screws, maybe it just prises open?

However, since posting, I thought I would see if my Raspberry Pi could access it and Hey Presto, the Pi can see the drive and contents so I can transfer them to another drive. Now if I could just get my computer (windows 10 ) to see the drive too my day would be made :-)

I have lost three WD My Drives over the last five years or so. In two of those cases the extracted drives worked fine when connected via SATA, and in one case it it didn't. To extract the drive pull the wrap around plastic case outwards. It will pop, and the inner section can be removed. The USB3 and power board just unplugs. IIRC two of the extracted drives were blacks, and the other was a Green.

I was getting about 120Mb/s continuous with Crystal DiskMark with the WDMDs. I switched to Seagate Expansion USB3 externals because of the poor reliability of the WD units, and was pleased to find them giving 180Mb/s continuous. That was better than any of the SATA HDD internals I had at the time. I now have five Seagate Expansion units, and have not had one fail yet. (touch wood).

Come to think of it, one of the WD My Drives failed because of condensation eating the USB socket.

Trevor Dennis
Rapaura (near Blenheim)

richms

28192 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1885249 17-Oct-2017 18:35

If the pi works, then try it on a USB 2 port on the PC. I have had the 3.0 functionality of a bridge chip in an external dock die. Would just not connect to anything over USB3, but still worked on 2.0 - Just slow since 2.0 but will be faster than a pi since it will let you copy somewhere else on a different USB controller.

Richard rich.ms

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#1885687 18-Oct-2017 13:18

use a Linux based CD to recover your data, Paragon Rescue CD etc works really well.
Lin is far less fussy than win in reading HD's

Then throw it away.
Or take the risk & have it happen again

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

tripper1000

1618 posts

Uber Geek

#1885713 18-Oct-2017 13:53

At the risk of teaching you to suck egg's, have you checked the drives status in the windows disk manager?

I had a similar situation the other day due to windows simply not assigning the drive a drive letter. Once i manually assigned a drive letter, everything worked normally. This would explain why it works on one device and not another.

Have you tried it on another computer?

peejayw

1841 posts

Uber Geek

#1885714 18-Oct-2017 13:58

Yes I have tried it on another computer, no joy. I ended up accessing it on a linux system, recovering the data and binning the drive. Now looking for some 2gb drives to appear on special

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

timmmay

20591 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1885725 18-Oct-2017 14:15

peejayw:

Yes I have tried it on another computer, no joy. I ended up accessing it on a linux system, recovering the data and binning the drive. Now looking for some 2gb drives to appear on special

You probably want a 2TB or larger drive. I buy HGST from Amazon.com