3tb Western Digital MyBook Essentials

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for Windows
1

Hi ,

My 3tb Western Digital MyBook Essentials is no longer repsonding. When i plug it it in spins up and then seems to stutter then spins up again and stutters and repeats like this. The computer no longer picks it up.

I have alot of data on this and i dont really want it replaced i would rather it be fixed. Or if it was to be replaced could the data be recovered and swtiched to a my replacement harddrive. Its well within warrtany as i only bought it 3 months ago.

Will

2

Hello,

I recommend that you try some basic troubleshooting:

1- Connect the power adapter to the wall directly.

2- If the computer is a desktop, connect it on the back USB port (directly to the PC, not through a hub).

3- Make sure you hear the connection sound windows makes when recognizes a USB device.

4- Go to "Disk Managementā€ to verify if the drive shows up there.

If the drive shows up in disk management but it is not seen on Computer, then it means the partition is corrupted and you will have to format it in order to use it again. Please note that formatting the drive will delete all data stored on it.

3

Hi,

I tried what you recommeneded but no luck. I get the beep that a USB device has been plugged in but the comuter doesnt pick anything up, not in disk managament nowhere.

It just spins up then stops anf repeats.

So if i send it back to be replaced will the data be reviocered on it and put on to my new drive or will WD just replace it and ill lose all my data

4

Hi,

I have some similar problems with my 3TB my Book that I got also 3 month ago. It is not listed in the explorer but if I check it in the device manager it is installed but with RAW filesystem and not NTFS. I havent done anything with it, nothing changed via software management or physically. Yesterday I have started a recovery tool and it shows some bad sectors but after 23 hours running it gave me an error that a recovery isnt possible. All my data since 10 or 12 years is stored on this device because it was sold as an backup device, really not that funny.

Now I would be happy about some hints how I can go on to rescue the data. Thanks in advance!

Cheers

5

So what we are asking is can we send our harddrives back to Western Digitial and will they recvover the data for us. If i bring it to any other data recovery company it will void my warranty.

To be honest if it has happened to a 3 month old hard drive i would rather have it replaced. I just dont want to lose the data

6

Hello,

It may be possible to still extract the data utilizing data recovery software. Western Digital does not provide data recovery software. However, there are several kinds of Data Recovery software available. If you do a web search for Data Recovery it will yield plenty of data recovery software options.

You may also check the link below for more information about data recovery.

How to recover data on a drive, obtain a circuit board, repair a drive, or find a list of WD data recovery partners

7

I have the exact issue.Ā  This is a brand new drive that I just purchased 5 days ago.Ā  I was consolidating several legacy drives onto my new 3TB model.Ā  I have been in and out of the 3TB drive all week.Ā  Last night I meant to copy the contents of one of my legacy drives, and instead I did a ā€˜moveā€™.Ā  It wouldnā€™t be a big deal except that that move was my entire portfolio for work.Ā  The 3TB and 2TB were going to be back up and working drives respectively.Ā  I did speak with a rep who was like "oh you donā€™t see it here in DMā€¦let me change it out.Ā  I was like okay, change it out, but where is my data.Ā  I have a very long history of a being a loyal Western Digital consumer, but at this point I have spent my entire day working on this, and for such a large drive, I am exceptionally disappointed in the lack of response protocal on behalf of WD other than ā€˜oh lets replace the driveā€™.Ā  I even went as far as trying SpinRite recovery software to no avail.Ā  It wonā€™t even recognize the drive.Ā  Consumers come to you for storage solutions, not storage failures.

My 2TB has had zero problems since I got it last month.

Starting this morning, after my ā€˜move folder of 180GBā€™ last night, my 3TB just has the annoying ā€˜blinkā€™ ā€˜blinkā€™ ā€˜blinkā€™ of the light consistently, and with out change, and is also not shown in ā€˜My Computerā€™.Ā  Disc management prompt to create a local disk manager by creating an MBR or GPT.Ā  When I tried MBR first, and later GPT I get the error ā€™ The request could not be performed because of an I/O error.ā€™Ā  The 3TB shows in disc manager as Disk 1 with a red down arrow and marked as unknown.

I am now in hour 14 of trying to resolve this issue.Ā  Tech support was simply useless.Ā  Didnā€™t even want to try to troubleshoot.Ā  Meanwhile, a decade of my work is floating in la la cyberland on this drive.Ā 

No updates were found for the drivers.Ā  Hopefully someone at WD online has a better ID than the call center.Ā  :angry:

8

Just a follow up on this.Ā  I attempted to use several recovery programs, all of which failed.Ā  At one point I was able to see the drive in disc management, and in DOS, but both showed the drive size to be zero.Ā  Also disc management was prompting me set a partition type of MBR or GPT.Ā  When I tried GPT, I received an I/O error on myt screen.Ā  It was at this point that I contacted WD support again, and advised them of the I/O error.Ā  DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING UNLESS DIRECTED TO BY WD.Ā  YOU WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY.Ā  The agent and I surmised that the drive board was bad, and I was directed to take the drive out of the case, and connect the drive directly to my motherboard via SATA cable.Ā  Sadly, I still was unable to access the drive contents.Ā  I was however able to get slightly further in DOS via DISKPART.Ā  I was able to select the disk, but again it showed zero bytes.Ā  After this, I went back to Windows, and again disc manager showed the drive there, but as inactive.Ā  I called WD back one more time to see if a new rep had any further ideas.Ā  This rep sent me to the link to download DLGDIAG from WD site.Ā  I ran DLG, and the drive was recognized.Ā  I ran both the short and extended tests.Ā  Both tests ran quite literally in less than 2 seconds.Ā  Both tests ironically showed both the tests had a PASS, but as other utilities showed, the data amount showed as zero.

I could rant again about my frustrations with WD, but at this point it seems pointless.Ā  I will just say that when I purchase a brand new drive, I do not expect it to fail the first time I use it.Ā  Now I have to spend another $200-$500 to a data recovery service to see if I can recover the bridal shoot photos I had loaded on the drive. Either way, until WD can develop a large capacity drive that doesnā€™t fail within the first year, let alone the first use, I will be going with another vendor.

9

The_Seal wrote:

Hi ,

 

My 3tb Western Digital MyBook Essentials is no longer repsonding. When i plug it it in spins up and then seems to stutter then spins up again and stutters and repeats like this. The computer no longer picks it up.

 

I have alot of data on this and i dont really want it replaced i would rather it be fixed. Or if it was to be replaced could the data be recovered and swtiched to a my replacement harddrive. Its well within warrtany as i only bought it 3 months ago.

 

Will

Well dude, iā€™d recommend not using the drive as that would make things worse. First thing is to get another power adapter from WD to confirm if the issue is the PA failing, and if you still have the problem then take it to a data recovery company if you need the data out. WD will destroy the drive and send you a clean replacement, they donā€™t recover data or move it over.

Next time, try to have a backup. All drives from all manufacturers can die and will die 10 minutes after filling them with data, and only a backup will prevent data loss.

10

Hi, ThePizzaMatrix,

If the ā€œbackup driveā€ = ā€œexternal driveā€Ā does not store data and crashes why have one in the first place. You talk about backing up data, where do you back it up? Isnā€™t an external drive meant to be used for backup? If it does lose stored or transferred data it will not hold a backup either. So, do you mean that one should have another external drive to backup the WD external drive?

I bought a 4T MyBook just a couple month ago and what I am reading here is very, very scary. I better get a LaCie, at least that one is reliable.

11

One copy is not a backup. If the drive with your backup went bad you should have still have the original source. Never trust important data to just one drive internal or external no matter who makes it.

Joe

1 Like
12

Annemarie wrote:

Hi, ThePizzaMatrix,

If the ā€œbackup driveā€ = ā€œexternal driveā€ does not store data and crashes why have one in the first place. You talk about backing up data, where do you back it up? Isnā€™t an external drive meant to be used for backup? If it does lose stored or transferred data it will not hold a backup either. So, do you mean that one should have another external drive to backup the WD external drive?

I bought a 4T MyBook just a couple month ago and what I am reading here is very, very scary. I better get a LaCie, at least that one is reliable.

A backup can be a DVD, another internal drive or an external drive as long as it is a secondary copy of the data available at the same time as the primary copy on a physically different location, any other definition is wrong. If you only have the data on your external drive and thatā€™s the only place where the data is, then that external drive is the primary (Only) source of the data, with no backup if those files are not avaialable somewhere else outside of that external drive.

If you have an external drive with data that is nowhere else, then that drive has no backup and is no backup; itā€™s the same as your internal drive on your PC, just outside.

If you need to erase files off your computer and move them over to your external drive (So they are only on your external drive) then you need at that point a second external drive so you can make sure the data on the first one is available somewhere else, usually drives from different brands for different performance.