I’ve had my external harddrive for at least 6 months now and at this time I’m unable to access the files I’ve put on it. It begin to give me slow access to the files leading to a lock up and now when I try to access it I get told it needs to be formatted to use the harddrive. I have the WD software installed and that doesn’t detect it either I’m not sure what to do. Any ideas folks?
Hi dude, you could try to use TestDisk to repair the file system / partition table of the drive and save your data. The program is free to use and download, so that would be step one.
I hope it helps!!
I have a (similar?) problem with occasional “new hardware found” & a missing drive in \My Computer, instead of the usual list of drives (including my 0.5TB & 1TB USB external MyBooks). Twice it has just as spontaneously healed itself after a week or so (because I crossed my fingers?) as I requested an RMA.
You might try warm or cold re-boots with different ports.
You might look at your Windows Configuration Manager.
I’ve given up trying to get WDAB to usefully backup a lot of critical information like email, bookmarks, installation settings, passwords, etc. in a way that is recoverable, so I just do a cascade file copy & exports.
Good luck
Backup & Security are a perpetual chore.
Have you tried different USB ports or cable? You can also try turning power adapter 180 deg in outlet. Some people have had problems with this lately.
