Hi, when I plug my MyBook 1TB drive into my PC, the PC hangs and I can’t access any files on the MyBook. Tried it on 2 other PCs, same symptoms. The unit has just come out of warranty (isn’t this always the case?) so I removed the drive from the case and installed into my PC. The Device Manager picks up the drive as does the WD Data Lifeguard Tool but I still cannot access the files, nor can I assign a drive letter to the drive in Windows 7. Aside from data recovery tools, does anyone have more suggestions how to fix?
Incidentally, I bought the WD Elements drive today as a replacement and I found it rather cheesy that the Western Digital company would include trial backup software with the drive. This is the kind of thing expected from cheap drive manufacturers…
If the drive is spinning and shows up in Disk Management (Windows), but cannot be accessed, then the drive’s partition table is most likely damaged or corrupted. It may be possible to still extract the data utilizing data recovery software.
At this moment 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.
If the drive does not show up in Disk Management (Windows), or Disk Utilities (Mac), and you have tried all the troubleshooting options relevant to your drive, then your drive has most likely failed and you will need to contact a data recovery company to retrieve your data. We have a list of recommended preferred data recovery partners that you can use for data recovery services.
The software you are describing is likely WD SmartWare Pro, which comes as trial with the WD Elements. However, the full version of the software is bundled with the WD Passport Ultra.
