My Book 3TB - file system gone, shows up on Win Explorer etc., but not on WD DLG

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for Windows
1

I have been using this My Book 3TB drive for several months without problems. I use it as a data backup drive.  Some time back I got a series of Windows delayed write errors for the drive, including errors on $Mft and $Directory.  (I assume that $Mft is the master file table.)   The drive was idle at the time.  I restarted the system and the drive seemed fine. Windows didn’t report any further errors.  The next time I went to use it the drive would not respond properly.   The file system appears to be gone.  I’m running Windows XP will all current updates.

Symptoms:

  • Appears as a drive under Windows Explorer
  • Is listed on Computer Management - Device Manager - Disk Drives as “WD My Book 1130 USB Device”
  • Drive properties shows Type = Local Disk.  File System = RAW.  Capacity = 0 bytes.
  • Properties state that the drive is working correctly.   Volume tab show no volumes on the drive.
  • WD Data Lifeguard Diags: Drive does not appear in the physical drives window (the other My Book does).  Faulty drive’s drive letter shows up in the logocal drives window.
  • When connected to another Windows XP computer the drive will appear to install correctly and reports ready to use, however everything is the same (i.e. no file system).

Is there any way to reset or revive the drive?  I own 4 WD external drives and haven’t had any problems until now.

Cal

2

It sounds like the drive got corrupt. Maybe EaseUS Disk Wizard will help http://www.easeus.com/resource/repair-raw-disk.htm If you give up on the data use DLG to write zeroes to the drive. If you are using on XP you will probably need the WD format tool to make it work with XP. XP normally doesn’t recognize drives above 2T. Drives larger than 2T need to be formated GPT instead of MRB.

Joe

3

I reformatted the drive using XP when I put it into service.  No problems accessing more than 2TB.  I had about 2.5TB on the drive when it went south.

The problem here is that Data Lifeguard does not recognize the drive as a physical drive.  The drive is still communicating via USB, so how do I get DLG to recognize it?

Cal