Hard Disk not recognised; Unallocated; Lifeguard Test failed

sgshubham · 19 Jan 2015

My 2 TB WD MyPassport Ultra has stopped working. In disk management, it shows unallocated and when i try to initialize it, it says an I/O error has occured. This hard disk was bought only 20 days ago from amazon.

I tried inserting it on different computers, through different cables etc.

I read a lot of threads on this forum on similar(same) problems. I performed WD Lifeguard test, and my hard disk failed both quick test and extended test. What should I do?

The suspected cause is that it was being used on a computer when the system showed blue screen of death. It has not been working since then.

richc46 · 19 Jan 2015

If hope that you had a back up of your stuff or there was nothing important on that drive. You have to contact Amazon and get a replacement. The BSOD did not cause the problem, the problem caused the BSOD. There is a surprisingly large number of HDs that are corrupt when purchased. You should not have a problem trying to exchange it. I do wish you good luck and sorry about your situation.

ignatzatsonic · 19 Jan 2015

You should return it to either Amazon or WD, whichever is easiest.

I think Amazon generally has a 30 day return policy, with little or no argument, so that might be easiest. I don't know what type of proof of failure (if any) they might require. I wouldn't expect the average Amazon customer service agent to know anything about SMART or Data Lifeguard, but they will likely just accept it back regardless.

As far as I know, WD would accept failure of both of those tests as proof of failure. The only downside of returning it to WD is that it might be more complicated or take more time to get a replacement.

I wouldn't expect the blue screen of death to be relevant, unless WD or Amazon could somehow claim you were abusing the drive in some way. I doubt that.

sandravlado · 19 Jan 2015

It seems that HDD was dropped unfortunately, too many bad sectors.

Ask for a replacement.

jumanji · 19 Jan 2015

Amazon India fulfilled items as well as Seller fulfilled items need to be returned within 10 days a) if the product is defective and not functional on arrival and b) you have changed your mind and do not require the item. (In this case the item should not have been used at all and you are expected to return it in its original packing untampered..)

You have already missed the deadline and now you only have to contact Western Digital and ask for a replacement.

Data recovery? Forget about it. My Passport Ultra portable drive uses hardware encryption - unless you had installed the WD Security software and configured it disabling the hardware encryption.
External Portable Hard Drives Overview

So contact Western Digital and just tell them that the drive suddenly failed - even if you had dropped it as Sandravlado feels :)

CKWD · 19 Jan 2015

Hello sgshubham!

Unfortunately, as already stated, your drive can't be fixed. It's too damaged from the high number of bad sectors. It could have been an almost DOA or something happened to it. The only way you can RMA it with WD is through a serial number check.

First you need to check your warranty, if you get approved, you can be allowed to go for RMA. The check can be done through the WD official web site:

Support Answers

Go to Support → Warranty and RMA services. There, with the help of your wd My Passport's serial number, you could check your warranty status.

For more information, there also you can find the RMA policy.

Good luck!

CK_WD

sgshubham · 20 Jan 2015

Thanks a lot for timely response friends. I don't need my data back as I have other backups. I'll just try to get it replaced by wd online.