Solved WD Ext HDD 1021 2TB Hard drive stopped working

[blindaussie]

I plugged it in and the software was installed successfully but it doesn't show up in the explorer with a drive letter. Now when I go to the device manager it does show up but I am not able to format it or give it a letter etc. It doesn't have a fat32 or NTFS File System. It shows as Disk 1 unknown 1863.01 GB not initialized.I tried to right click to initialize and it say the media is write protected can someone please help me with this i have been trying to fix this for last week with no success.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome blindaussie mate you can fix this drive with Partition Wizard or through a command prompt .
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

personally I get rid of any software these drives come with as they are more trouble than they are worth IMHO anyway.

Either way takes a fair while to do and you need to make sure the drive is formatted afterwards.

 

[jumanji]

Hi blindaussie,

Try what ICit2lol has suggested.( I do not know whether it will work or not.)

In case it does not work, Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt. Right click on it and Run as administrator.

In the Administrator: Command Prompt box against the command prompt type
each of these commands one at a time in this order (of course after each command press ENTER)
diskpart
list volume
select volume n (where n = the problem volume)
attributes disk clear readonly
attributes volume clear readonly

after each of the last two you should get the response that it was successful.

( Neither do I know that this will work. Why lol only? lol.)

 

[blindaussie]

thank you ICit2lol and jumanji but these solutions didn't fix my problem. I went to disk management as suggested I can see the hard drive it doesn't have a letter it just says Disk 1 unknown 1863.01 GB not initialized then in the box to the right it a black header and inside it has 1863.01 GB unallocated when i right click to initialize it tells me the disk is write protected .The same thing happens when i go to diskpart in clean all i t says diskpart has encountered an error:The media is write protected . See the system event log for more information. I hope this information will help find a solution for me I greatly appreciate your help

 

[jumanji]

You didn't say what happens when you go through diskpart, list volume, select volume n blah blah. Can you please elaborate?

 

[blindaussie]

I went into command prompts as administrator went to diskpart,list disks the disk showed up as disk 1 i went to select disk 1 then went clean all and the reply was error this disk is write protected

 

[jumanji]

My instructions was not for clean all but for clearing attributes.

select volume n (where n = the problem volume)
attributes disk clear readonly
attributes volume clear readonly

Naturally I am interested in knowing what happened on attributes clear readonly, and attributes volume clear readonly commands.

 

[blindaussie]

I went to diskpart entered list volume but it doesn't show any volume for the drive that I can't access. The list shows all the other volumes eg:volume 4 C NTFS 455 GB Healthy Boot,there are 3 drives other but not the one need to fix.

 

[jumanji]

You said "disk showed up as disk 1 i went to select disk 1 then went clean all and the reply was error this disk is write protected "

Now you are saying no volume is shown. Did you run diskpart with administrator privileges?

Please post a screenshot. A picture is worth more than a thousand words.

 

[blindaussie]

I have attached a screen shot as you con see when I list volume the disk isn't there when i list disks you can see the disk

 

[Layback Bear]

This Tutorial by Golden should help.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[jumanji]

Yep,blindaussie, now you know how to snip and post a screenshot. And let us start from the beginning.

Please remove all other external drives from your PC. Connect only your problem drive. Post a screenshot of how it looks like in Windows Disk Management. ( If it appears in Windows Disk Management, then it should also be listed by Diskpart. In one post you said diskpart listed the disk but responded that it was write protected to the clean all command. Next you say Disk part did not list the disk. So you could not carry out the clear attribute command. So there is a little confusion here. Let us see whether your problem disk has totally disappeared from the scene.)

 

[blindaussie]

I have attached the screen shot of disk managment

 

[Layback Bear]

We like to use the Forums methods. It is a safe way for other members. We do not have to off site to see things.

 

[jumanji]

Yep, blindaussie, I thought you would have seen Layback Bear's post #11 and act accordingly. Surprised to find you didn't. Please do that. The same tut gives ref on how to upload the saved jpg. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html
Please do it.

 

[blindaussie]

Sorry I'm new to this just trying to find a solution to my hard drive problem

 

[blindaussie]

i have just added the command prompt also

 

[jumanji]

That is good and easy on us.

Your problem disk is shown as Disk 2 "Unknown Not initialised Unallocated". Not a good sign. Though Windows Disk Manager does not show it online, Diskpart shows it online. ( I do not know why it is not being shown as Disk 1. Anyone can enlighten me on this.)

Right click on the Disk 2 ( the left Pane) and see whether you can bring it online. If the menu items are greyed out, start diskpart with admin privileges. Then

select Disk 2

clean all

Be aware that if clean all goes through you will lose all data on the drive. If you get an error message, then against diskpart type

attributes disk clear readonly

Let us see what happens.

 

[blindaussie]

I Have added the screen shots to show u the results thanks again for all your help I hope You can help me get the hard drive back

 

[blindaussie]

sorry i missed a step did it on this one