External WD Hard Drive 1TB

[vivka]

I got this WD hard drive from my friend but there seems to be a problem with the format and it shows that it's empty. Can you tell me if it's dead or there's something I can do about it?
I tried with regedit and cmd but nothing helped to make it NTFS. I only managed to remove the readonly.

 

[vivka]

I can also delete the partition in disk management and make a new one but it still doesn't format. Can you help?

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Did the diagnostics indicate anything?

Similar problem discussed here: https://www.techspot.com/community/...-appearing-or-formatting.222525/#post-1516640

WD advice: http://support.wdc.com/KnowledgeBase/answer.aspx?ID=1331

 

[vivka]

Thank you for the reply but the diagnostics doesn't run and it's the same on other computers. It just doesn't format I tried everything. What might be the problem?

 

[Cycloid Torus]

The problem could be multi-variant. Since you say you have already tried running the WD diagnostic with Administrator privilege from several different computers, then the problem is probably with the drive, its connectors, or its cable. Since the WD diagnostic screenshot shows that it is seeing the drive (and giving us its Serial Number), then we know some of the electronics are 'ok'. The key is to get diagnostics to tell us more about the drive or, failing that, getting the WD utility to wipe and format the drive. As I recall, the Windows Drive Management does not perform low level format so setting partition with Windows Drive Management may not be effective. The original format is FAT32 and it may still be. There may be encryption on this drive. These might prevent Windows Drive Management from doing anything effective.

WD provides advice for doing a low level format at: http://support.wdc.com/KnowledgeBase/answer.aspx?ID=1211

WD states in the manual for this device, "Most technical support questions can be answered through our knowledge base or e-mail support service at support.wdc.com." If you are still not making progress, then you may wish to try contacting WD directly.