Alright, I have a couple 1TB 730 Passports holding data and whatnot. I’m a deployed soldier currently using the drives for morale sake since we don’t have much available to us. I’m lucky enough to have an internet connection, so don’t expect me to be able to walk down the street to a best buy or anything.
We’ll the first drive that came across this issue was rather peculiar, it has the 3.0 USB connector and not the 2.0. I had taken it to my work to play a few videos off of, so I connected it to a windows xp dell computer. I’ve done this multiple times before and no issues. Everything worked out fine. Come back to plug it into my personal computer, an Asus G51J with windows 7, and suddenly the drive is completely empty. The drive is recognized by the computer, no doubt about it. I even changed it’s partition letter multiple times and still the same issue. The drive showed, under my computer, that the files were still there. I did an error-check on the device and it came up green. Also tried a defrag, also good. Even went so far as to do a virus scan of the drive with mcaffee, which by the way noticed each and every file while scanning that I cannot view. But still no changes. Next day I took it back to the same computer with XP on it, hooked it up and all the files came up normal. That was curious. I went through a proper usb removal this time, despite the settings saying that it was capable of handling a quick unplug, and took it back to my personal computer. When I plugged it in, this time only about 60 direct files come up, but majority of the folders still do not. I can see the setup and WD Quick Formatter but I cannot open either due to missing files. But the other files, that are available, are capable of being played just fine. But as I mentioned before, I’m still missing a large portion of the drive. I know for a fact the drives are there and intact, but not accessible for whatever reasons.
At this point, I wasn’t too worried however another issue happened. To follow through, I was testing the same drive that has the issues on my personal computer, trying to find any way to resolve the issue. I had it connected to the usb drive and I pulled out my second hard drive. Mind you it is the exact same model and hasn’t touched any other computers but this one. I connect it to the second USB drive, while the first is still connected, and access the drive with no issues. I go through it and all the files are there, no big deal. Then after a minute or so, I watch as all the folders disappear on me almost instantly. WOW!! Same exact issue as first drive, just a different environment. This freaked me out, why and how would a second drive be affected by the other? Only difference is that I can’t get any files to show up at all, nothing.
Now, I have two more 1tb drives, one with the 3.0 cable and one wth a 2.0 cable. I tested both bad drives with the spare 3.0 cable and still no changes. Cable simply is not an issue, some of these drives have been with me only a few months since purchase. But I’m scared to plug in my third 3.0 cabled hard drive, in fear of this issue being spread to it as well. Now, Ive been able to connect my 2.0 cabled hard drive, while the others are disconnected, and have absolutely no issues accessing the files.
Currently, I’m running out of ideas here as to the reason for this issue. It doesn’t follow the typical issues that have been suggested multiple times on here so I’m hoping you might have a resolution for this or at least an explanation.
