Hard Drive HELL (Unknown, Not Initialized)

Elephant Brick

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I had a WD 2TB external drive which I transferred successfully to a USB 3.0 enclosure months ago. Then I moved and the drive has been packed away in the trunk of my car since.

I just got it out as I need some files on it, and when I hooked it up it didn't work: the computer recognized it as a CD drive or something... in Computer it would not show up or show up as just a drive letter ... in disk management it said No Media. I tried it on another PC too to no avail.

After much research, the most likely solution looked to be to get a new enclosure. So I did, but the drive still isn't working, but in a different way.

When I first hooked it up, all looked well: the system tray showed correct recognition of the drive and enclosure type/brand and installed the drivers successfully.

But the drive no longer shows up in Computer at all, and in disk management it now prompts me to initialize the disk, and has it marked as Unknown, Not Initialized.

I have spent all day trying to fix this problem, and have read a million threads on different sites and tried everything, to no consequence. I need the files on the drive, and have tried all of the following:

- booting in ubuntu and knoppix via cd - drive is not recognized

- every major app for this type of problem i saw recommended: seagate seatools, partition wizard, wd data lifeguard diagnostics, power data recovery, find and mount, a bunch of stuff on hiren's boot cd, test disk, etc.

In most cases, the drive was not recognized at all. In a couple instances it was, but no scans were successful - they would instantly say failed, or complete instantly showing no results.

The drive sounds fine when it is turned on/hooked to the pc: it sounds normal, spins like it should, no weird noises.

I have no idea what to do. The only thing left that I'm aware of is to initialize it (against most of the advice I read) and hope it then at least gets recognized by some of the recovery apps.

But I don't want to lose my data and this seems like an absolute last resort.

Help!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 64bit
"...See page 38 "Unlocking the Drive with the WD Drive Unlock Utility" of this Smartware User Manual..." --Jumanji, w7forum
The page is no longer available.
That was what I also was looking for! Smartware's Drive Unlock -- this software cannot be altered, bypassed; and must be installed and active on each and every computer attempting to utilize the WD Passport HD in question.

Over in sevenforums.com, Jumanji explains why one should not change WD Passport HD's exterior/external enclosure -- I can't find the right words, the thing that now comes between computer and WD Passport HD. Based on that sevenforum's thread, put this WD Passport HD back exactly how you had it in the computer originally. Hopefully the software that came with the WD Passport HD will kick in. WD Passport HDs have an on-board circuit-board level encryption process that gets everything going onto and everything coming off of said WD Passport HD. Changing the physical interface and/or attempting to bypass the included software will bring much more grief than joy. I know, because I had to return such a WD Passport HD to Fry's Electronics because I interfered with the access-software of said WD Passport HD.

Let me reword what I learned from J over in 7-forum:
WD Passport HDs have an on-board circuit-board level encryption process that whatsoever going onto and whatsoever is coming off of said WD Passport HD must pass through the on-board/circuit-board level encryption process. Altering the included software and/or attempting to bypass this process, hardware-wise or software-wise -- will bring much more grief than joy.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Pro 64bit [MS blue-disk set]
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2 Acers & 1 Antec[?]
    CPU
    i7 in 2 Acers, i5 in desktop
    Motherboard
    Desktop w/Gigabyte
    Memory
    Two w/16GB, 1 w/8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Laptops GameWorthy; Desktop maybe GameWorthy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    flatscreens; 2 are BluRay worthy
    Screen Resolution
    1368x768; 1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB internals; 2 ext usb WD 1TB HDs
    PSU
    what's PSU?
    Cooling
    Regular plus external fans
    Keyboard
    desktio w/PS2
    Mouse
    desktop w/PS2
    Internet Speed
    DSL middle level [160?]
    Browser
    from Netscape 0.9 to FF 36
    Antivirus
    well-balanced, well-configured mult-layered defense is best
    Other Info
    From MS-DOS 3.3, MS-DOS 6.22, from Windows 3.1 to WFW 3.11 to Windows 95-98SE, now to Windows 7 Pro.
    Security for now: Windows 7 Firewall, Emsisoft AM, MSE [scan-only], SpywareBlaster, Ruiware/BillP combine
thanks for your response.

the drive in question is not a passport, it's an older wd (non "portable") drive.

it worked fine when i first put it into a third party usb 3.0 enclosure. only now, after months of inactivity, it's not working.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 64bit
Have you tried a different drive in the enclosure? That would eliminate that problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
Have you tried a different drive in the enclosure? That would eliminate that problem.

not sure what you mean. are you referring to the first replacement enclosure or the second/current one?

in either case, how would putting a different hard drive in it fix my problem?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 64bit
Sorry, I missed that you bought a second enclosure. You might consider asking for help at our sister sight Windows SevenForms. Just let them know your on Windows 8. There is a hard drive expert there that RolandJS mentioned above. Hopefully he'll pick up your post.

Windows 7 Help Forums
 
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
By swapping hard-drives, you rule in or rule out the enclosure being the problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Pro 64bit [MS blue-disk set]
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2 Acers & 1 Antec[?]
    CPU
    i7 in 2 Acers, i5 in desktop
    Motherboard
    Desktop w/Gigabyte
    Memory
    Two w/16GB, 1 w/8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Laptops GameWorthy; Desktop maybe GameWorthy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    flatscreens; 2 are BluRay worthy
    Screen Resolution
    1368x768; 1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB internals; 2 ext usb WD 1TB HDs
    PSU
    what's PSU?
    Cooling
    Regular plus external fans
    Keyboard
    desktio w/PS2
    Mouse
    desktop w/PS2
    Internet Speed
    DSL middle level [160?]
    Browser
    from Netscape 0.9 to FF 36
    Antivirus
    well-balanced, well-configured mult-layered defense is best
    Other Info
    From MS-DOS 3.3, MS-DOS 6.22, from Windows 3.1 to WFW 3.11 to Windows 95-98SE, now to Windows 7 Pro.
    Security for now: Windows 7 Firewall, Emsisoft AM, MSE [scan-only], SpywareBlaster, Ruiware/BillP combine
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