External Hd Question: Has anyone had a WD My Book fail? I had a 500 gig that died a few years ago. Perhaps I should have switched brands after that, but I didn't. I bought a 1 TB 3 or...

Billbobboy42 Loc: Center of Delmarva

Has anyone had a WD My Book fail? I had a 500 gig that died a few years ago. Perhaps I should have switched brands after that, but I didn't. I bought a 1 TB 3 or 4 years ago and that just died. In both cases, the same apparent cause - Windows cannot recognize the drive. I checked Disk Manager and it was not there. Fortunately, I had it backed up.

Unless one of you here have some magic to try on it, it's going to be knighted with a large hammer prior to disposal.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Billbobboy42 wrote:

Has anyone had a WD My Book fail? I had a 500 gig that died a few years ago. Perhaps I should have switched brands after that, but I didn't. I bought a 1 TB 3 or 4 years ago and that just died. In both cases, the same apparent cause - Windows cannot recognize the drive. I checked Disk Manager and it was not there. Fortunately, I had it backed up.

Unless one of you here have some magic to try on it, it's going to be knighted with a large hammer prior to disposal.

All hard drives fail at some point, they are mechanical devices.... eventually wear and tear get to all of them.

Western Digital is a top brand.

The problem could be that it is a Windows problem - usb driver issue, or a power issue on the drive.

Lots of reasons Windows suddenly won't see a USB drive. Have you tried a different port perhaps? A different cable?

If the drive powers up and spins - put it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer overnight, then pull it out and try it one last time - if it works you have a limited time to get any data you want off it then trash it.

SSam Loc: Sierra Vista, AZ

This week I took one of my USB 'thumb drives' to photo club. It would not recognize it (even though three other members had shown their 'challenge' through that same computer port. Our chairman just plugged into to another USB port on that same computer and it worked. Maybe try each of your computer ports or even another computer's ports before you smash it.

Allen Hirsch Loc: Oakland, CA

I had an HP laptop with Windows 8. Eventually all the USB ports became nonfunctional, and even tech gurus couldn't fix it.

So I second that it could be the computer, not the external HD.

Billbobboy42 Loc: Center of Delmarva

SSam wrote:

This week I took one of my USB 'thumb drives' to photo club. It would not recognize it (even though three other members had shown their 'challenge' through that same computer port. Our chairman just plugged into to another USB port on that same computer and it worked. Maybe try each of your computer ports or even another computer's ports before you smash it.

Sam, you are a genius. It worked. I unplugged the usb from the back of the cpu and plugged it in to a port on the front. Now I have to decide whether to keep it or trash it, since it is backed up.

Billbobboy42 Loc: Center of Delmarva

Allen Hirsch wrote:

I had an HP laptop with Windows 8. Eventually all the USB ports became nonfunctional, and even tech gurus couldn't fix it.

So I second that it could be the computer, not the external HD.

Allen, I sure do hope that's not the case with me. My PC is two months old, running Windows 8.1. Not thrilled with Win8, but am getting used to it.

Allen Hirsch Loc: Oakland, CA

Billbobboy42 wrote:

Allen, I sure do hope that's not the case with me. My PC is two months old, running Windows 8.1. Not thrilled with Win8, but am getting used to it.

Mine lasted less than two years. Had a hard drive fail less than a year in, then the OS got so slow as to be nonfunctional. When that was cleared up (sort of), it wouldn't recognize anything plugged into USB except sporadically.

Ditched it for a MacBook Pro 3 months ago.

Allen Hirsch Loc: Oakland, CA

Billbobboy42 wrote:

Allen, I sure do hope that's not the case with me. My PC is two months old, running Windows 8.1. Not thrilled with Win8, but am getting used to it.

Mine lasted less than two years. Had a hard drive fail less than a year in, then the OS got so slow as to be nonfunctional. When that was cleared up (sort of), it wouldn't recognize anything plugged into USB except sporadically.

Ditched it for a MacBook Pro 3 months ago.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Billbobboy42 wrote:

Sam, you are a genius. It worked. I unplugged the usb from the back of the cpu and plugged it in to a port on the front. Now I have to decide whether to keep it or trash it, since it is backed up.

Good old winblows.... ;)

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Allen Hirsch wrote:

Mine lasted less than two years. Had a hard drive fail less than a year in, then the OS got so slow as to be nonfunctional. When that was cleared up (sort of), it wouldn't recognize anything plugged into USB except sporadically.

Ditched it for a MacBook Pro 3 months ago.

Smart move ;)

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Bobbee

Dngallagher wrote:

All hard drives fail at some point, they are mecha... (show quote)

Never heard the freezer suggestion before. Interesting.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Billbobboy42 wrote:

Has anyone had a WD My Book fail? I had a 500 gig that died a few years ago. Perhaps I should have switched brands after that, but I didn't. I bought a 1 TB 3 or 4 years ago and that just died. In both cases, the same apparent cause - Windows cannot recognize the drive. I checked Disk Manager and it was not there. Fortunately, I had it backed up.

Unless one of you here have some magic to try on it, it's going to be knighted with a large hammer prior to disposal.

The only hard drive I've had fail - since 1980 - was a WD external that fell on the floor while it was backing up.

WD is a good brand, but they have various models. Black is very good, and that's what I've been buying. Then I learned about "Enterprise" drives. This is a class of drive certified to run 24/7, and the price isn't much higher than Black.

brian43053 Loc: Buffalo, NY

Allen Hirsch wrote:

Mine lasted less than two years. Had a hard drive fail less than a year in, then the OS got so slow as to be nonfunctional. When that was cleared up (sort of), it wouldn't recognize anything plugged into USB except sporadically.

Ditched it for a MacBook Pro 3 months ago.

Excellent choice

alandg46 Loc: Boerne, Texas

Generally the enclosure on an external drive can be removed and then connected either internally or via a HDD docking device. The controller in a dedicated external tends to die before the actual HDD. For this reason I use regular internal HDD's for externals and WD enterprise rated drives.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Bobbee wrote:

Never heard the freezer suggestion before. Interesting.

I heard that more than a fe years back and tried it at least once that allowed me to get a drive working long enough to recover data where I was working.

Can be a handy trick, but don't count on it ;)