Need help with Western Digital External Hardrive

[mk4fan]

Hello, wondering if anyone can help me? I have a Western Digital 500gb external hardrive that I have been using for 3 years now. Last night I was opening too many folders and I believe it froze, so I unplugged the usb. Now when I plug it back in I cannot see the external hard drive in my computer. I called wester digital and they told me to right click on my computer and see if it is in device manager which it is not. They told me to bring it to best buy, but best buy charges a minium of $250.00. They also suggested trying a new usb cable which I will go and buy one and try tonight.

If this does not work, is there any chance someone on this board is computer savy and can help me recover my data?

Thanks for your help!

 

[thirty5]

When you plug it in, does it do anything???? Do the lights flash on it? Do you hear it spin up?

Have you rebooted the computer?
Have you tried a different USB port?
Do other items work in that USB port?
Have you tried the drive in another computer?
If it does spin up, does it click? (abnormally) Drives should make noise but NOT CLICK!

All these are your basic troubleshooting.

I have recovered data from drives as long as the drive is not physically damaged.

 

[MatthewScars]

Opening 'too many folders' will not cause a HDD to crash.

3 years, it's totally possible that it's dead. Cool trick: put the harddrive in the freezer for an hour and then take it out and try plugging it in. No joke, this is documented to work, and ive used it successfully in the past.

But my money is on it's dead (if you've done all the troubleshooting mentioned). Do the freezer trick and get the info off it (if its not backed up). Then buy a new one.

BB charges you $250 to 'fix' it and a new one is far less money.

Hello, wondering if anyone can help me? I have a Western Digital 500gb external hardrive that I have been using for 3 years now. Last night I was opening too many folders and I believe it froze, so I unplugged the usb. Now when I plug it back in I cannot see the external hard drive in my computer. I called wester digital and they told me to right click on my computer and see if it is in device manager which it is not. They told me to bring it to best buy, but best buy charges a minium of $250.00. They also suggested trying a new usb cable which I will go and buy one and try tonight.

If this does not work, is there any chance someone on this board is computer savy and can help me recover my data?

Thanks for your help!

 

[mk4fan]

When you plug it in, does it do anything???? Do the lights flash on it? Do you hear it spin up? Yes it seems to be working normally. It lights up, I hear the disc spin.

Have you rebooted the computer? Yes no luck.
Have you tried a different USB port? Yes
Do other items work in that USB port? Yes
Have you tried the drive in another computer? Yes, two other laptops
If it does spin up, does it click? (abnormally) Drives should make noise but NOT CLICK! No click noise

All these are your basic troubleshooting.

I have recovered data from drives as long as the drive is not physically damaged.

Sending pm!

 

[mk4fan]

Opening 'too many folders' will not cause a HDD to crash.

3 years, it's totally possible that it's dead. Cool trick: put the harddrive in the freezer for an hour and then take it out and try plugging it in. No joke, this is documented to work, and ive used it successfully in the past.

But my money is on it's dead (if you've done all the troubleshooting mentioned). Do the freezer trick and get the info off it (if its not backed up). Then buy a new one.

BB charges you $250 to 'fix' it and a new one is far less money.

Yes but my problem is recovering our pics and videos stored in this hard drive.

 

[qy7400]

If the drives sinning up without the clicking I'll bet the controller went, if you have a PC (non notebook) you can open the case and attach the drive direct to pull the data off it.

 

[mk4fan]

If the drives sinning up without the clicking I'll bet the controller went, if you have a PC (non notebook) you can open the case and attach the drive direct to pull the data off it.

Do you know how to do this?

 

[MatthewScars]

Do you know how to do this?

Whats the exact model?

 

[qy7400]

pretty easy to do, just have to make sure the PC has the same drive interface (SATA or IDE). Only need a #0 or #1 Phillips, maybe T-10 torx, cables you cab borrow the ones connected to the CD/DVDROM drive.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

If the controller is bad you can get an external enclosure to put the drive in and try to save your data that way as well. I have been successful many times with this. You just need to know if it is a sata or ide drive.

 

[mk4fan]

If the controller is bad you can get an external enclosure to put the drive in and try to save your data that way as well. I have been successful many times with this. You just need to know if it is a sata or ide drive.

I just looked at the back of the drive and there is a female plug called eSATA. The model number is WD5000H032.

Thanks for all your replies, I am happy to hear that the data is retrievable and not deleted or destroyed. Now just have to get it out

This is what I get for not backing up the back up......... 5 years worth of family pics and videos.

 

[Widdy]

Is it a WD MyBook?

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Open-a-Western-Digital-MyBook-USB-Drive./

 

[thirty5]

It may be the actual enclosure that went or could be thbe circuit board on te actual drive. I have had both happen. As long as the drive itself is not damaged internally there is a good chance of fixing it. I learned my lesson long ago nd almost lost all my photos

Now I use MOZY online backup. Def worth the money!!

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[kidninja]

man.. that sucks! isnt it stupid that you need to make back ups.... of a freakin back up!?!?!

 

[MatthewScars]

man.. that sucks! isnt it stupid that you need to make back ups.... of a freakin back up!?!?!

TO THE CLOUD!

Just look into a FTP site and store it all remotely. check out www.bluehost.com they are pretty popular/cheap/reliable.

I use bluehost for webhosting also, I dont know about one trick pony online storage places.

 

[thirty5]

I would personally not use basic ftp site. You would need to have to set something to upload it

Mozy is great!! Just configure what folders and you are set. I have it backing up my entire 2.5 TB second drive. All my photos and such all goto that drive and then auto upload to mozy. And it is also compressed an encrypted. You can also access thefiles remotely!

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[lfsmarineguy]

It's not really a backup if the external is the only place you store the data. Another option is to just do 2 data drives in a raid format so you always have at least one good source for the data should any one of them fail.

 

[thirty5]

I think we are getting way over the head of most users! Raidsare great but most systems cannot handle raid. Need new controller and room for more harddrives a lot of people work on just laptops, no raid on laptops.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[Widdy]

I think we are getting way over the head of most users! Raidsare great but most systems cannot handle raid. Need new controller and room for more harddrives a lot of people work on just laptops, no raid on laptops.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

I agree with RAID being a bit out of scope for the average user. But if you have digital assets to protect, either Cloud backup (as mentioned already) is a set and forget solution, or if you want something more "local" or have trust issues with sending your private data across the wire (there's plenty of those people around), then a local solution/NAS like Drobo is relatively affordable in comparison to a total data loss; personally been there, done that, not pretty. Just another option...

http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo.php

 

[reefman]

i agree with 35. try opening up the case and connect the drive internally to the computer. if u hear no clicks n the drive spins, its probably the controller card. here's a video n detail info on how to open it. i've done it many times. note: u may damage the case, but if thats not a concern then try it.

open the case link