1TWD external hard disk unknown,not initialized,unallocated,i/o error

jumanji said:

Do those encrypt even if you don't use that pesky Smartware? Even if one does not password protect?

I have a number of WD My Book Essentials and they apply hardware encryption which you can do nothing about. This has nothing to do with Smartware software or any voluntary password protection. It's built into the WD interface so if this fails you cannot decrypt your data by plugging the internal sata drive into your PC. You need to check that your external HDD does NOT contain a hardware encryption chip.
It adds nothing to the security. If someone steals or you lose your HDD the chip will happily decrypt the data if it's plugged into another PC unless you have applied additional software encryption or password protection you have no security. As I've said if the interface and encryption chip gets fried kiss goodbye to your data.
So I am now using standard sata (WD green 2TB) drives for backup and docking stations. I admit it may be a bit physically untidy. If I want something a bit more portable I will buy a simple usb3 enclosure. Also both options allow a solid usb 3 connector and not the unreliable small USB 3.0 Micro-B plug.

If things have changed then let me know.

If you`ve tried everything else......

I would contact the manufacturer.

If they will not help you, demand they send you a new drive :)

There`s nothing you can do for the drive in the bios.

Who put the password on the bios ?

Take the drive to an expert, if they can`t fix it for you, chuck it in the trash.

Welcome to SevenForums.

1. Stop taxing your HDD any further. Remove it safely and keep it aside till you are ready to clone it to another 1.5 TB HDD
2. Your HDD is already afflicted with too many bad sectors and data in those bad sectors is already lost.If you continue to use it you will only lose more data.
3. Partition Wizard shows your two partitions are lost. That means the most important MBR sector, sector 0 has gone bad. We cannot rejuvenate it in the present condition to recover the partitions.
4. Your only hope now is to clone your HDD to another 1.5TB HDD using ddrescue and perform data recovery operations on the cloned drive.
5. ddrescue will try to read the bad sectors multiple times and extract as much data as possible.
6. Read this Best method/tool for cloning a failing HDD for Data Recovery? and prepare yourself.

Yes, bad sectors showing up means your HDD has started failing and it can die any moment now. The more you keep it spinning, the faster it will race to its grave.

Your case is a worst case in which the first sector itself has gone bad. You won't be able to initialise and format it since the MBR code and partition table can no longer be written into that bad sector.( You already got an error message while trying to initialise it. That error message will not go even if you reboot your PC 100 times as ordained by it. :)) That is why I am not going ahead with partition recovery even though Partition Wizard has found the two partition start points - which are still good and has the volume boot sector intact.. It won't be able to write the partition table into the first sector, which in HDD parlance is sector 0. You have to scrap that HDD.

We can do that - Partition Recovery with Partition Wizard - if you are able to successfully clone the drive, wherein the new drive will have good sector 0 into which the MBR code and partition table can be written..

Again ddrescue may take days/weeks/ and even months to completely scan the drive depending upon the number and extent of severity of the bad sectors it has to tackle and may even stop dead if it is overwhelmed.. But that is the only thing you can try now hoping it wouldn't be that worst.

On a positive lookout, there are atleast three members in this forum who have successfully retrieved most of the data using ddrescue. The threads are mentioned in the reference I had given " The best method for cloning......." Fish them out and read those threads also. Also google and read all about using ddrescue. Take your own time. Do not do this in a hurry.But keep your bad drive under rest till you are all set to do this task. (Do not keep it plugged into the system)

Good luck. ( My circadian rhythm also hasn't yet returned normal after my return from Spain and I am also sleeping off at odd times, often missing my lunch by hours. My brain cells still remain confused.)

Note: If you want to try the cloning buy a 1.5TB HDD. If you buy a 1TB drive there are chances of cloning failing, if the new HDD has even just one sector short of the total number of sectors in the drive being cloned. Don't take that chance.