Hard Drive spins up, isn't selectable

[lhul5ley]

My wife has a Western Digital hard drive. We are located in Italy currently. I was moving some files around on it to take to another computer and after I disconnected, the next computer couldn't pull anything up. Back to the original PC and the drive spins up and sounds fine, but I when I go to computer, it usually says my passport and it now says nothing, and the hard drive won't load up.

When I click the bottom right menu, it gives me the option to disconnect the passport, after a few seconds of reluctance. Help?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
You might try this to see what it sees on the drive,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/287439-emergency-kit-save-your-files-dead-os.html

 

[lhul5ley]

Everything I try with the hard drive connected, freezes. Disk Management, any recovery programs, ANYTHING. Nothing works, it all freezes if it is doing ANYTHING with the hard drive. It seems the data is uncorrupted, something is just keeping it from booting. This is the screencap of the frozen Western Digital Lifeguard Diagnostics program, just after I removed the hard drive from my PC. I plugged it back in, and attempted a scan, and the program froze.

 

[lhul5ley]

On top of this, when I plug the hard drive in, I get this option.

When I click view files, however, it just loads and loads and loads.. Nothing actually works.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
No kidding did you test with Linux or not ?

 

[CKWD]

Hello Ihul5ley!

So the initial system sees and works fine with the drive, but the second one doesn't?

I would suggest you switching ports, and even trying through a USB hub with a new USB cable. If the drive works on the first PC check it with the WD DLG there, perform both Quick and Extended tests and post the SMART values here.

If the drive passes and the first PC sees it, the problem could be connected to some kind of privacy/permissions settings of the files themselves and/or the first PC.

Move the data from the external My Passport, leave it empty, does the same happen again with the second PC? Do other USB 3.0 devices work correctly with it?

Post back!

CK_WD

 

[lhul5ley]

Hey guys, Thrash, no I have not tried any Linux testing. I am not familiar at all with Linux, not even in the slightest.

CKWD, the hard drive now doesn't work on any system. I have tried 3 laptops and have been unsuccessful with all 3 machines. I plugged it into my surround sound system and it isn't recognized there either

 

[GokAy]

So not even the original PC that you mentioned in the first post can see it?

Did you try changing the cable?

 

[lhul5ley]

The computer knows that the drive is there. The hard drive spins up, the light comes on. It just bogs everything down that tries to access it in any way. Disk management won't even pull up with the hard drive connected. Any programs, such as a diagnostic, bog down and stop responding when they try to access the drive.

 

[GokAy]

Hi,
No kidding did you test with Linux or not ?

I would try with Linux as well. It may behave differently.

 

[lhul5ley]

With zero knowledge, how does one 'try with linux' lol

 

[GokAy]

You have been given a tutorial in post #2.

 

[jumanji]

OK, ThrashZone gave you a very good suggestion to try and see whether Linux could see the drive. I shall go with it but in my own way - with what I am familiar with to some extent..

Don't worry if you don't know anything about Linux - neither me knows much about it. But we all use it to recover files when with the drive Windows plays truant .

Please read this post http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...ly-unrecognisable-hard-drive.html#post2936753.

Prepare your Lucid Puppy Pendrive using Rufus. https://rufus.akeo.ie/ (If you have any data on the pendrive back it up elsewhere since all data in it will be lost when Rufus formats the pendrive and writes Lucid Puppy in it.)

Read this and try to familiarise yourself on how to use Lucid Puppy. http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198909-lucid-puppy-way-recover-files-non-bootable-computer.html In your case it will be the non-responding external drive.

With your WD external drive plugged in and the Lucid Puppy pen drive plugged in, boot your PC. Use the onetime boot menu to boot Lucid Puppy from the pendrive.

Also answer this question: Did you install Smartware on your PC? Just answer yes or no and do not install it.

If it is a problem with Smartware, CKWD will be the best WD man. So I request CKWD to standby. So also ThrashZone and GoKay to retrieve me in any difficult situation.

No need to be in a hurry. Do it all in a calm and composed manner. Take your time. ( I generally do not come in if it is a WD drive since these have some special problems associated with Smartware and Hardware encryption and if it comes to that I may hand you over to CKWD . Let us see how it goes with Lucid Puppy.)

 

[CKWD]

I support Jumanji and TrashZone to try with Linux.

Briefly again, the idea here is to boot temporarily to another OS, one of Linux or Ubuntu even. You do that by creating a bootable flash drive, like already explained how, and installing the iso for that OS on it, again explained. When you are finished with these keep the flash drive connected, reboot, go to BIOS, set as Boot priority 1 the flash rive and it will start booting from the Linux/Ubuntu on it. These are much simpler and use simpler and lighter algorithms than Windows, thus it is often easier to access problematic drives. Try this and post back!

Do also change the cable. I wouldn't believe this to be a Smartware issue, though, as the drive has been connected to numerous PCs with the same unsuccessful result. If the above mentioned don't work I would say there is some kind of damage to the enclosure. :/ I hope this is not the case!

Good luck!

CK_WD