External Hard Drive Problem

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khanorak

New Member
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Hi fellow members,

I am in desperate need of advice. It's regarding my External HDD.

I have a Western Digital My Passport 1 TB External Hard Drive.

It was working perfectly till my friend took it from me and he returned with the HDD being dead. Dead in the sense that nothing was being shown in My Computer, Nothing in Disk Management.

One thing that I'd like to mention is that before my friend took the HDD, it accidentally got dropped from my cupboard, but it was working flawlessly afterwards and transfer of data was as always it had been.

I came to the conclusions that my friend's PC had some kind of notorious virus. Hence HDD infected(?)

I resolved to revive the HDD, as I knew it was being detected. The small LED light lit up whenever I plugged it into the PC and the computer would make a USB connection sound too. So it was pretty much alive. Plus DISKPART listed it as Disk 1 but 0KB free 0KB used space.


Next, after many attempts to format the HDD somehow, I read about this HDD Regenerator v 1.71 software by Dimitriy Primochenko. It also detected the HDD by its name. I did the following:

1. Scan & Repair the HDD

A Message popped up saying "the MBR of the HDD is corrupted". Anyway after sometime, I cancelled it as it was getting protracted. To my surprise, the HDD appeared in My Computer and Disk Management.

In Disk Management however, I was not able to "Initialize" the HDD as it was giving two options of MBR and GPT, selecting either one would result in an error.

2. Regeneration of HDD



I started this process then, And I've got to admit my eyes popped out when I realized the time it would take to ZEROIZE all of the HDD. I cancelled it too after sometime.


Anyway, after these processes, I was able to format the HDD into NTFS and FAT32 as well but it took long time.

Data Transfer is non-existent now. But I can go into the Root of the Drive.

I used another Cable too. The process of Formatting/Regeneration was improved, yet no impact on data transfer.

The HDD has become useless for now and that is why I seek the community's help in this regard.

I hope to get some positive answers.

Thanks
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 5738G
    CPU
    Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T6600 @ 2.2 GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel
    Memory
    4 GB DDR2
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATi Radeon HD 4570
    Browser
    Firefox/Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Try with Easus Partition Master. What you need is to delete partition , do complete erase (zeroing) and then make new partition but you have to let whole process finish. This program is very flexible and will work on large spectrum of devices.There is also part that lets you check it properly. Never stop processes while they are running or they are sure to leave a moss of the corruption.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
@CountMike

Thanks for the reply. I'll try out Easeus software.

Please tell me whether the hard drive seems to be having a software problem or a hardware one.

Also would zeroing revive it?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 5738G
    CPU
    Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T6600 @ 2.2 GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel
    Memory
    4 GB DDR2
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATi Radeon HD 4570
    Browser
    Firefox/Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Could not tell you now if it is a hard or soft problem, If the software fix does not work, there is a possibility of a hardware or HDD firmware problem. Also would be nice if you could take the drive out of it's enclosure and connect it directly to a PC, just to eliminate possibility of the USB controller being at fault. Inside the enclosure should be just an ordinary SATA HDD with compatible connectors.
Zeroing it ( not low level format) is part of EPM, just do what I wrote in the same order. Pls. note that on EPM you have to activate and confirm every command you choose by clicking on apply button in the top left of the program. You should avoid "zeroing " it by Low level format as it is highly destructive, if you must do it, it is best to find a program for that from the manufacturer of the drive.
When you make a new partition it will ask you in which format, NTFS will be just fine as it will align the partition too.
Just take it nice and easy as some operations can take quite long time to finish, specially erasing part as it has to write zeros to every bit on the platter.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Any kind of partitioning and/or repair operations on a drive that large are going to take a long time -- HOURS if not a day or longer.

Interrupting these leaves the drive in a corrupted state.

You need to let the utility run its full length or you will continue to end up with a useless drive.
 

My Computer

System One

Mark Phelps said:
Any kind of partitioning and/or repair operations on a drive that large are going to take a long time -- HOURS if not a day or longer.

Interrupting these leaves the drive in a corrupted state.

You need to let the utility run its full length or you will continue to end up with a useless drive.
Click to expand...

Exactly, that's why I emphasized doing it in right order and let every process run it's full course.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Okay that's pretty clear now.

Thank you for the swift help. I'll try this out, let the process run and part the results.

Thanks again :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 5738G
    CPU
    Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T6600 @ 2.2 GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel
    Memory
    4 GB DDR2
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATi Radeon HD 4570
    Browser
    Firefox/Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
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