Windows 8 External hard drive broken, help please!

SacredVolt · Sep 1, 2014

So my WD 'My Passport' (1Tb) died on me about 4 days due to a 'data cyclic redundancy error' or something along those lines. So I ran chkdsk, and just a few hours ago... My power tripped(of course).

Now, I can't even detect the drive to run chkdsk on it as it says "cannot open volume for direct access". So I googled it, was told to go to computer management, disk management, and look for it there. Well I found it, and it states the drive is uninitialized, so I tried to initialize it,and it fails due to an I/O error this time.

I'm just really lost and kinda panicy at this point. The data on it wasn't that important, but it will take forever(probably closer to months) to re-obtain everything I had and time is not something I have at this point in time (exams). So please, could someone help me get my data back?

patcooke · Sep 5, 2014

Disk check failed, you have cyclic redundancy check errors, the WD utility check failed, you have a 400 day estimate for scanning the disk. This all points to complete disk failure with many irrecoverable errors which explains the 400 day estimate - it is failing to access the drive at sector level and is making repeated tries on each and every sector on the drive. If, as you remarked in your first post, time is not something you have plenty of then I would not spend any more of it on this drive - I am convinced it is beyond all hope.

patcooke · Sep 1, 2014

Have a look at the WD utility software available for free download here:

Link Removed

SacredVolt · Sep 1, 2014

Thank you for the quick response. I've downloaded the drive utility software, and ran the quick scan. It was stuck at 90% for about 5mins so I just aborted it and started the complete scan. If the scan is successful, what should happen? I don't really know what the scan does.

patcooke · Sep 1, 2014

These utilities vary according to manufacturer but typically they should access the drive at a lower level than is done by the operating system and therefore can correct underlying problems which make the drive inaccessible to the op sys. Recovery chances depend very much on whether the CRC error which you initially referred to is a soft error which can be corrected by recalculating and rewriting the CRC values or a hard error generally meaning physical damage to the drive which is less likely to be recoverable.

Joe S · Sep 1, 2014

Something to keep in mind about these WD externals that if they came with Smartware they are hardware encrypted. That means you cannot remove the drive and connect as an internal or use in a third party enclosure. Also they may have a proprietary connector instead of a standard one. Try a different USB cable no longer than the one supplied and don't connect through a hub. On a desktop try a port on the back.
Joe

SacredVolt · Sep 2, 2014

I've connected it to my laptop directly, but there's no change, and I don't really have a different USB cable.

Also I've run the complete scan with the utility software, and it states that it failed. I'm currently re-trying the complete scan.

SacredVolt · Sep 2, 2014

The second complete scan has also failed.

kemical · Sep 2, 2014

Can you read any SMART values for the drive? You may have to enable this in the bios but it will tell you the health of the drive if you can access it. This link explains more:
http://superuser.com/questions/29240/how-can-i-read-my-hard-drives-smart-status-in-windows-7

SacredVolt · Sep 2, 2014

WD's drive utility software says that it's SMART status is passed.

kemical · Sep 2, 2014

It may have 'passed' but you need to look at the SMART data yourself. If you check the link it describes what can be seen.

Saltgrass · Sep 2, 2014

I suppose there could always be a problem with the controller on the unit and not the actual hard drive. Before you decide to trash it, you might try removing the drive from the enclosure and check it directly, assuming you have a place to plug it in.

Depending on how it turns out, you would know if you could replace the drive and recover the unit, or the unit was at fault.

SacredVolt · Sep 3, 2014

Both HD tune and Speedfan did not work for me, I'm going to try smartmontools.

And also an update: I've found that surprisingly my warranty is still active so I can get the drive replaced. The warranty doesn't cover data recovery however so if someone could advise me on how to do that it'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

kemical · Sep 3, 2014

When you say they didn't work have you made sure that the SMART feature is enabled in the bios? As for data recovery, there may be an app out there but usually it's a specialised process. Perhaps someone else knows better but I know you can pay a company to retrieve the data for you.

SacredVolt · Sep 3, 2014

I'm not exactly sure how to check if it's enabled, could you walk me through it?

kemical · Sep 3, 2014

To boot into the bios you need to press either delete or F2 (usually) when first booting up. Flick through the pages until you see the SMART enable switch. Remember to save your choices.

(sorry i'm in a rush, have to dash out to the doc's will be back later)

SacredVolt · Sep 3, 2014

Well I'm actually running data recovery software on my disk (has been going on for a few hours now) so I can't actually re-boot at the moment. Sorry for the late reply btw.

kemical · Sep 4, 2014

Ok cool..Keep us updated...

SacredVolt · Sep 5, 2014

How long does it usually take to run data recovery software? Cause it's been awhile and the estimated remaining time is stated to be "394.3 days"

kemical · Sep 5, 2014

I guess the time depends on the size of the drive but almost 400 days does sound a tad excessive. The most likely reason is that whatever is wrong with the drive is causing it to not work correctly. I could be wrong though.

patcooke · Sep 5, 2014

Disk check failed, you have cyclic redundancy check errors, the WD utility check failed, you have a 400 day estimate for scanning the disk. This all points to complete disk failure with many irrecoverable errors which explains the 400 day estimate - it is failing to access the drive at sector level and is making repeated tries on each and every sector on the drive. If, as you remarked in your first post, time is not something you have plenty of then I would not spend any more of it on this drive - I am convinced it is beyond all hope.

Windows 8 External hard drive broken, help please!

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