WD external 1TB HD issue

[coolage79]

I have a similar problem with my 1tb wd ext HD. About a week ago I tried accessing files on it and it told me it needed to be formatted before the drive could work. So I did it against my will, loosing all 900GB of data I had on there.

But none the less it worked after that. a few days later MY comp wont recognize it but BIOS does, and in device manager the only thing I see that looks like ti could be the HD device is this "WD SES device" and there is a yellow bang or whatever its called next to it. The light on the HD comes on and stays lit. However it doesn't cycle up and down. It does that when the computer starts up. It flashes up and down then goes solid. When I plug it in the comp makes the typical usb plug in noise but still no E drive is found. I'm wondering if the fan may have stopped working and caused the HD to over heat and stop working. But I have tried everything and have had this HD for two years with no problems up til a week ago.

I hope someone can help me out, because I really need this HD.
Thanks
Randy

Also After looking through the device manager, I find in properties for the WD SES that the device is not working properly because windows cannot load the drivers required for this device and unfortunately the serial number is so small that I can't read it. What type of drivers would I need to fix this problem.

 

[Mark56]

I got this off another forum which sounds promising.

. Right Click on My Computer/Computer, Select Manage.

. On the New Screen, select Device Manager and then look on the WD SES drivers with yellow mark,

. Then Right Click on it, and select Update drivers.

. Now select WD Smartware and then select WD SES drivers under Extras.

I know its too late now, but for future reference if an external drive is removed from its case you can connect it internally to a desktop PC to retrieve the data.

 

[coolage79]

So how would one go about taking it out of the case to get it into the comp. Cuz I had read that in a few places today and I kinda figured that it would be a better option than keeping it external.

I tried the update driver software but it keeps saying that it cant update it, but the Hard drive is now working. I'm so confused by this.

 

[Mark56]

Can't say how to get it out of the case without having it in my hands. But once removed you should find it is just like an internal drive and can be connected in the normal way.

As it has now suddenly started to work I would run diagnostics on it as it may be failing, follow this guide. You can use diagnostics for windows instead of burning a disc and run it directly from the PC.

Identify the make of your hard drive and then use one of the links below to get the manufacturers diagnostic for ISO CD. Burn the image file to a CD, boot the PC with the disc in the drive and run the diagnostics. You first need to set the CD drive to 1st in the boot order in the Bios setup.

If you do not have an image burner use this free software to make the CD.

http://www.isoimageburner.com/


ExcelStor: http://www.excelstor.com/eng/support.php?sub_id=3

Hitachi/IBM: http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/

Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/downloads/support_in_es.html

Toshiba Fujitsu: http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=SoftwareUtilities#diagnostic

Seagate, Maxtor & Quantum:http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads

Western Digital:http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en

 

[coolage79]

So it turns out that I am extremely lucky. My hard drive has gone through quite a bit of wear and tear in the last two years. So after doing some research, I"m surprised it lasted as long as it did. So now it makes this scratching noise, kinda like a cd player trying to read a disc, I'm pretty sure the once or twice it was knocked over pry screwed it up somewhere. If the scratching isn't a bad thing and can be fixed that would be cool too, although everything I see suggest that I should just scrap it get a new one later on and try again, but this time keep the thing as safe as my child .

 

[Mark56]

When a hard drive starts getting noisy it is time to back up all the files to another drive or DVD's as it is likely to fail soon especially taking into account that it has already failed to operate for a while. Get it backed up soon before it stops working again or you may loose everything that is on it.

How did the diagnostics go?