1TB WD external hard disk not initialized

I have an WD 1TB hard disk which failed to initialize recently. It gives me an I/O error message. I found a few old threads here with similar problem and tried out the suggested steps. I ran WD diagnostic tool and passed the Quick test and Extended test(Screenshot attached). I would like to avoid the zero test and formatting of my data if possible. The hard disk is almost full and recovering them after formatting would be really painful. I would be really grateful if someone could please help me out?

Is you have a empty hard drive kicking about or somewhere to store you data, move it all to there.
Then format you drive, see if that works.

Hi kaufmann,

For some reason sometimes a drive may lose it's drive letter? I've had this issue a few times with my WD Passport drive at times. Anyway....

- Can you see it in Disk Management?

- If so, does it have a drive letter assigned?

- If not, right click the drive and assign a letter to it.

- Is it working now?

You might also try swapping cables, or if possible, use a shorter one.

Let us know.

Hi guys.. Thank you for your replies! I really appreciate it!!!

As for my issue, the hard disk does not get initialized. It appears as an virtual CD in My computer(screenshot attached). When i try to initialize it, I get an I/O error(screenshot attached).

To find the problem, I ran the WD diagnostic tool and it passed both the tests, as you may have noticed from the screenshot of my earlier post.

I am not sure what the problem is... Any suggestions?

1. What is the exact model Number of your Western Digital Passport?

2. Did it come with Smartware and did you install it?

3. Have you at anytime used a virtual CDROM drive? If so when and for what purpose?

4. From when did this problem crop up?

5. Can you recollect anything that you did to your PC after which this problem cropped up? - such as installing a new software, playing a new Game etc.,

Hi Jumanji...

1. The exact model number is 0748
2. Yes, it did come with an smartware and I did install it.
3. I use virtual CDROM to install games using Daemon tools Lite. I guess the last time I used it was probably last month.
4. From last Sunday.
5. The last thing I did was transfer a few files to my friend's laptop. It worked fine. Ever since then, it's not detecting either in my laptop or any other laptop.

I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers from disk management, it was of no use.

Also, I tried updating the WD firmware, but it fails and gives me an error.

I tried it on my friend's laptop too... It's the same result.
And yes... It's the same P/N code. It is USB 3.0.

OK. Now do the following.

1. Get into Daemon Tools Settings. Some where in the Settings, there may be a means to disable virtual drives. Disable creation of Virtual drives. Done? leave it at that till your HDD problem is resolved.

2. Remove all external drives/ pen drives/ card readers/USB hubs etc., from your PC.

3. Do a drive cleanup to remove all non-present devices, drive letters and registry entries associated with those.

Download v 0.8.1 of the drivecleanup.zip from Drive Tools for Windows.

Unzip it to a folder, say drivecleanup.

You will have two folders Win32 and x64 each containing DriveCleanup.exe for 32 bit and 64 bit respectively.

Remove all USB storage devices from your system (except your Keyboard and mouse) and reboot.

Right click on the DriveCleanup.exe and run as administrator. (Use the *.exe file appropriate for your bit version of Windows.).

After the clean up act, reboot.

Now connect your 1TB external drive. The drivers will be loaded afresh.

Check whether your drive shows up. If not post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management - Full screen including CD/DVD ROM drives. Also check and tell whether any virtual CDROM drive is present in My Computer.

Now further questions: Are you using Smartware? Are you using a Password? Have you changed the settings in it recently? ( Unfortunately I don't know much about Smartware except that it has always been problematic.)