External WD 2TB Hard Drive Problem (corrupted)

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  1. jumanji
    Posts : 7,055
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
       New #11

    @maxseven, that won't work rather it can't be made to work.

    a. WD My Passport is hardware encrypted and decrypted by the electronics inside the enclosure. If the drive is taken out and tried and assuming that the HDD itself is OK, what all you will get is the encrypted data which will be absolutely useless garbage.

    b. In most of the WD external drives the SATA to USB bridge ( that incidentally includes the encryption and decryption chip) is integrated with the hard drive and hence the HDD itself may be inseperable.They are bonded together, live together and die together - as for as the user is concerned. :).

    In case of failure of the electronics inside the enclosure, only WD authorised - patronised - data recovery partners can recover the data since only they have the knowhow to decrypt.

    In case the electronics has not failed, then any data recovery attempt has to be made without separating the electronics from the drive to be able to get the decrypted data.
    Last edited by jumanji; 03 Mar 2016 at 00:01.
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  3. maxseven
    Posts : 880
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit
       New #12

    jumanji said:
    @maxseven, that won't work rather it can't be made to work.

    a. WD My Passport is hardware encrypted and decrypted by the electronics inside the enclosure. If the drive is taken out and tried and assuming that the HDD itself is OK, what all you will get is the encrypted data which will be absolutely useless garbage.

    b. In most of the WD external drives the SATA to USB bridge ( that incidentally includes the encryption and decryption chip) is integrated with the hard drive and hence the HDD itself may be inseperable.They are bonded together, live together and die together - as for as the user is concerned. :).

    In case of failure of the electronics inside the enclosure, only WD authorised - patronised - data recovery agencies can recover the data since only they have the knowhow to decrypt.

    In case the electronics has not failed, then any data recovery attempt has to be made without separating the electronics from the drive to be able to get the decrypted data.
    I didn't know any of that about the WD Passport; hopefully the OP knows this too, or sees your post before tearing the thing apart.

    If it's anything like some of the products I have, it's next to impossible to disassemble them without breaking something. Why oh why do mfrs do this to us...

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  4. sgn15
    Posts : 6
    Windows 10 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       New #13

    The symptoms changed:

    In device manager:
    still seeing it under Disk Drives

    In Disk Management:
    I can see the disk now but it says it is uninitiated
    - tried initiating it but it says fatal hardware error

    In My Computer/This PC
    I cannot see it anymore (it used to show Disk G with no volume or no bytes used/free)

    Any ideas?
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  6. sgn15
    Posts : 6
    Windows 10 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       New #14

    Urgent:
    I try different data recovery softwares on my hard drive and they all scan for a maximum of 2 secs and they show no files searched/found and my external HDD is listed as o bytes and start sector is 0 (I forgot but it wasn't 0 before or it shouldn't be 0). Is this raw or what issue?

    EDIT:
    I am not a techy guy but from what I have searched. The Master Boot Record somehow got ruined on this already corrupted hard drive? That's why the symptoms changed and (I think) it got worse?


    It somehow retained the hanging the other programs symptom and can't even run TestDisk (it is stuck forever at Please wait after I select create a log)

    Any ideas please?
    Last edited by sgn15; 08 Mar 2016 at 10:28.
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  7. maxseven
    Posts : 880
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit
       New #15

    sgn15 said:
    I try different data recovery softwares on my hard drive and they all scan for a maximum of 2 secs and they show no files searched/found and my external HDD is listed as o bytes
    Your drive has failed and the recovery software can't even see the data on the drive.

    Your only recourse to possibly recover any data at this point might be one of the specialty data recovery services.
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  8. CKWD
    Posts : 408
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       New #16

    sgn15 said:
    it says fatal hardware error
    sgn15 said:
    they all scan for a maximum of 2 secs and they show no files searched/found and my external HDD is listed as o bytes and start sector is 0
    Your external drive has been damaged too severely and trying data recovery software on it on your own could potentially make it completely unresponsive, due to the degree of damage it has endured.

    Safest route would be to use professional data recovery help and/or check the drive for RMA. I have pasted some links in my first post, I hope they can help, here they are:

    WD data recovery partners:
    Support Answers

    WD Warranty check:
    Support Answers

    WD Warranty Policy:
    Support Answers

    Best of luck!

    CK_WD
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