Western Digital "my passport" drive failure
Dec 12, 2016 09:20:37 #
I think this may have been operator error, but my Western Digital "my passport" drive has failed. I have a Mac and it shows up in Disk Utility, however when trying to repair, the message is that the drive can not be repaired. Have been doing some research and there are apparently steps to take to try to recover the data which I will try once I return home, but if any of you out there have had this happen and were able to recover the data without going thru the expensive venture of sending it in to data recovery experts, I would love to hear about it. The obvious question: "Did I backup this drive?" Please don't ask.
Dec 12, 2016 09:23:00 #
Dec 12, 2016 09:26:25 #
Basically all those drives will fail. Its not a matter of "if" but of "when". Ive has 2 Passports fail. The first, all was lost. With the 2nd I had it backed up in a cloud service. Lesson learned.
Dec 12, 2016 09:29:44 #
bobove
Loc: Maple Grove, MN
Hi,
I had a My Passport Ultra that went belly up, could not read from a mac or PC. Must have unplugged while reading or writing. Called WD service and they sent out a new one within a few days, sent back the original, no problems. However, all data lost on original! Good luck.
I had a My Passport Ultra that went belly up, could not read from a mac or PC. Must have unplugged while reading or writing. Called WD service and they sent out a new one within a few days, sent back the original, no problems. However, all data lost on original! Good luck.
Dec 12, 2016 09:36:37 #
Depends on which Passport it is. If it's a Passport for Mac and formatted with an HFS file system, you won't be able to read it on a Windows machine without a 3rd party tool such as hfsexplorer ( http://www.catacombae.org/hfsexplorer/ ) On the other hand, if it's formatted with an exFAT file system, then either will read it. BTW, doe the drive spin up at all (can you feel it)?
I hope you had nothing important/irreplaceable on the drive as a recovery service will charge you considerably more than an enterprise-class drive would have cost. It's almost criminal that they sell them - you just cannot build a high quality 1TB drive + enclosure + interface for $49, which is the going price.
I hope you had nothing important/irreplaceable on the drive as a recovery service will charge you considerably more than an enterprise-class drive would have cost. It's almost criminal that they sell them - you just cannot build a high quality 1TB drive + enclosure + interface for $49, which is the going price.
Dec 12, 2016 09:43:20 #
Dec 12, 2016 11:18:26 #
Nalu wrote:
I think this may have been operator error, but my ... (show quote)
I suggest that (if you haven't already) you get an estimate for data recovery. Maybe it's not as expensive as you think. And call several for competitive pricing. >Alan
Dec 12, 2016 11:30:12 #
One quote gotten by our IT guy was anywhere between 700 to 2K. Alternatives come first.
aellman wrote:
I suggest that (if you haven't already) you get an estimate for data recovery. Maybe it's not as expensive as you think. And call several for competitive pricing. >Alan
Dec 12, 2016 11:57:17 #
wmontgomery
Loc: Louisiana
SpinRite is about $90 with money back if not satisfied. I recovered a friend's hard drive after she spent about $1000 with no luck. If you can hear the drive spinning try SpinRite. However, SpinRite only runs on a Windows or Linux machine.
Dec 12, 2016 13:28:16 #
wmontgomery wrote:
SpinRite is about $90 with money back if not satisfied. I recovered a friend's hard drive after she spent about $1000 with no luck. If you can hear the drive spinning try SpinRite. However, SpinRite only runs on a Windows or Linux machine.
Whether the drive is spinning is the key point (you can tell by either listening to or feeling the drive). The next issue is whether the head will seek (heads physically move - you can hear/feel that also). If the drive will work mechanically and it's a file system/file corruption issue, then recovery SW may work, but if the mechanics aren't there, then the only hope (unless you can get the drive to spin up) is for a recovery service to remove the platter (in a clean room) and read it on another drive or perhaps replace the controller board. Is the drive spinning?
Dec 12, 2016 13:33:13 #
chaman wrote:
Basically all those drives will fail. Its not a matter of "if" but of "when". Ive has 2 Passports fail. The first, all was lost. With the 2nd I had it backed up in a cloud service. Lesson learned.
So obvious that one wonders why people have difficulty accepting this inevitability and planning to avoid it. But then again, this is UHH.
Dec 12, 2016 18:20:31 #
Always a good idea to use your Mac's Time Machine utility to keep everything backed up, but you know that now.
My Mac's internal hard drive did something similar and Disk Utility indicated it was not repairable. The Apple tech suggested reformatting the drive and restore from backup, which worked.
My Mac's internal hard drive did something similar and Disk Utility indicated it was not repairable. The Apple tech suggested reformatting the drive and restore from backup, which worked.
Dec 13, 2016 05:31:30 #
Dec 13, 2016 05:47:50 #
Nalu wrote:
I think this may have been operator error, but my ... (show quote)
I don't like hard drives that come in a case. Companies go to a lot of trouble designing attractive cases - irrelevant. Although I have several small self-contained hard drives, I prefer to buy a 3.5" internal drive (HGST) and put it in a case of my own. I got a Seagate GoFlex 2 TB drive in 2012. It came in a nice black plastic case, but it is starting to go bad, so I'll put an HGST into that case.
Dec 13, 2016 05:57:53 #
Nalu wrote:
I think this may have been operator error, but my ... (show quote)
I hate the Passports. I've had one fail for no reason, not a long time owning and no abuse but lost a lot of important stuff on it.
I've heard horror stories about these.
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