WD EXTERNAL HARD DISK 1TB suddenly "unallocated" and "not initialized"

The problem is we don't know exactly what caused the drive to acquire the Read only configuration.

My own guess is that a surge during the sudden power failure or sudden switch on when power resumed could have done some damage to the electronics.

If it were so, then you can't reverse that status by any means.

Apart from PhotoRec, is there anything else one can try that would maintain the file/folder structure and recover data as it was?

The answer is may be but one has to experiment. Personally I won't experiment before I get the data in some form and so I would stick to PhotoRec which we know for sure is not going to manipulate the drive in any way to make things worse.:)

And yes, I am not averse to experimenting but will do that only on a cloned drive - if I can successfully clone the drive.

So my own prescription - Get data first in any form ( you can always restructure the data and restore the folder/file structure reasonably well, I presume) and then experiment whatever you want with no holds barred.

I would also advise you to stick to one Windows 7 PC - I am least prepared to deal with any surprises that Windows 8 may throw.:)

The only other thing I may want you to try - till you get another drive - is using WinRAR to check whether it can see your problem drive and show the data in it. If your Windows 7 is 64bit download and run 64 bit version of WinRAR and navigate to the problem drive if it can. If it shows the data in it, you can copy. Most probably this may not work since there is no file system. But who knows? Sometimes miracles do happen.

Hello guys. So i'm back. I finally figured why did the PW showed my disk as an offline. Apparently the USB cable i attached to my work PC is not compatible for USB 3.0 thus it ejecting the disk automatically in about 3 minutes when I try to scan. Also, it was on Windows 8.

So I tried on the 3.0 USB port available on my friend's pc (thank you to that youtube video, for showing the difference between USB 2.0 and 3.0 - the color blue) and I tried to scan for another partition recovery, hoping this would solve the problem. But it takes so long, it has been on 3 days straight and still 2% (UGH!). It could be the bad sectors etc so I really wanna solve this without further damage to my external drive, and my friend advice me to clone the hard disk into another one, so that I get the data image and I can work on the recovery there. - But Im not sure if it's gonna take the same amount of time though. Will it gonna be the same? 100000+ hours left will break my computer (and my friend's laptop)

I havent tried the PhotoRec since I notice that the computer I'm using has only one port of USB 3.0 and I worry about the data transfer will be interrupted during the super time consuming process, and thus decreasing my chance to get the file back.

So i'm opted with working on the image file on a new external drive, since i believe it's safer. And also I notice that the external hard disk making some tiny scratching sound (really tiny sound, but noticeable enough when no one's in the room). That's the sign of the hardware problem right?

Cloning the hard drive and performing data recovery on a cloned drive is indeed a good idea and should work if your drive is failing because of some physical damage.

In your case, the overwhelming evidence - the sudden power failure - ,to my thinking, has made the electronics fail.

Nonetheless I wouldn't stop you from cloning the drive for I can be wrong. Who knows?

Here is the best cloning method. ( Do not clone with conventional imaging software that is principally designed for back-up.)

Tool: ddrescue Source: SystemRescueCD

1. Download the SystemRescueCD from Download - SystemRescueCd systemrescuecd-x86-4.2.0.iso 380MB and create a bootable pen drive with that ISO using Rufus Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

2. Boot your computer with that pen drive with your source disk (your current problem disk) and a destination disk (formatted empty disk of capacity not less than that of your source disk) plugged in.

3.Against the command prompt type: fdisk -l [ENTER] This will list all your drives. Note the nomenclature of your source disk(1 TB faulty drive) and destination disk ( 1TB or greater empty drive). The option is lower case L = l and not one 1

4. Next against the command prompt type: ddrescue -r3 -n -v /dev/sdb /dev/sdc recovery.log [ENTER]
( Note: ddrescue[space]-r3[space]-n[space]-v[space]/dev/sdb[space]/dev/sdc[space]recovery.log

Note: Replace sdb and sdc with the correct device nomenclature of Source disk and Destination disk as obtained in step 3.

Make doubly sure that you replace sdb with the correct nomenclature of your 1TB faulty drive (source drive), and sdc with the correct nomenclature of the 1 TB or greater empty drive (destination drive)

5. Sit back and relax. The cloning process may take hours/days depending upon how bad your Source disk is. The saving grace is you can stop the process any time with Ctrl -C and then restart. It will take the cue from the log file and start from where it left

Once the cloning is over, reboot, and check how the drives looks like in Windows Disk Management.

Now you can perform any data recovery operation on the cloned disk.

EDIT: Please read all documentation on System Rescue CD http://www.sysresccd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage

You may also read this thread Best method/tool for cloning a failing HDD for Data Recovery?

DDRescue unable to read my faulty hard drive when I boot from the pendrive. Damn. What hope do I have now? (

Did it detect the good external drive?

I was also thinking that he should try whatever he does on a Windows 7 machine with adequate USB 2 ports. Any USB 3 device will work with USB 2. So I also see no problem in it. In fact he should stick to USB 2 ports.

I don't mind OP removing the read only flag with a Windows 8 machine or even doing everything on a Windows 8 machine short of writing any recovery onto Windows 8 machine. The blinkernate story is working in my mind, though I could not understand what exactly happened.

EDIt: GetDataBack for NTFS - Yes, Anshad had recommended it to Shokan2 Disk structure is corrupt and unreadable and we are waiting for any report from him.

Im considering to send my Hard drive to the specialist though. Ugh it's so expensive, but I dont know what i want to do
Few questions
What does "bad disk" mean? does it mean my HD is dead? It's still spinning for all I know. No clicking sound.
I stumbled upon an article that mention about bad sector on 1st sector which cause all of this happen, and the recommended software was HDD regenerator. Any review about this product? From this point im considering everything to get my precious hard disk back.
Some videos showed that it could be because of the head platter. But there's no weird sound like clicking, beeping, only the tiny screeching once in a while.