mborn Loc: Massachusetts

knock on wood I use 2 WD Passport HD when traveling to download and backup my files from the laptop then back home upload the files to my main computer which is also backed up. So far no HD failures

katawny

did you try plugging it into another comp....pc or the like?

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Just curious, on the ones that failed, did you leave them plugged into the usb port all the time? I've had mine many years and I only plug it in to back up images then properly eject it so that its disk isn't constantly spinning when I don't need it. I know that it will probably fail someday, so everything worthwhile is backed up in the cloud and on computer hard drive. Another thing to consider is that thumb drives have come way down in price and have no moving parts. In Sam's club I saw two Lexar 138GB apiece for $ 20 for both!

Revet Loc: Fairview Park, Ohio

3 Years ago I lost both my hard drive and my WD My Passport external hard drive at the same time. The only thing I was worried about was the photos. I took the drive to a few computer places and they gave my quotes of $1000 or more. I was getting ready to fork out the money when someone told me to put the external hard drive in the freezer overnight and try plugging it back in. That didn't work which didn't surprise me but for the heck of it I put it back in the freezer. About 6 months later I was rooting around in the freezer and saw the drive. I plugged it back in and low and behold, all my files were visible!!!! I quickly copied them on my new hard drive and I have all my photos back!!!! If all else fails, it can't hurt anything to try this method out. I assume this would work for only certain types of drive failures.

HOHIMER

I have heard putting it in the freezer might help to get it going again. I have not tried this.
Good luck!

edhjr Loc: Needham, MA

Have used My Passports around the world for 15+ years without a failure BUT always carry a pair and download all photos to EACH hard drive EVERY day. I carry one, wife carries one. A little more time and a little more money to avoid a lot of pain.

SqBear Loc: Kansas, (South Central)

This brings up many, many questions.....
I too have a WD-Passport that is OLD!!
Trust is not there anymore and I use thumb drives for the vast majority of my work; I teach at a local CC.
All of my school "stuff" is on the thumb drives, HOWEVER, I had a failure of the thumb drive and only recovered about 40% of the data.

My question is would a better brand of thumb drives work better than a Passport type drive?
I do all of the lesson's at home and transport the drive to the school computer(s) that I cannot save any thing on for future use.
What would be a "reliable" drive to work on and transport back and forth to school?

The rebuilding of the lost files will take hours, hours and days, days. Lesson plans are not fun to re-build!

Thanks and looking forward to the answers.
Dave

chaman

Actually no. I used it occasionally and disconnected when not in use. One day it went bad out of the blue. The second one is indeed connected most of the time....that one has lasted longer.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I have a number of drives that I use for backups. In all the time I've been doing backups, about 15 years, the only drive that has failed was a WD passport drive. I've avoided them ever since that failure.
--Bob

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I don't have a good solution for recovery but WD might (or some of the 3rd party data recovery outfits) but it won't be cheap so you need to decide what data on there is worth the price of recovery. This is one reason that I use multiple high capacity USB3 drives for my backups (mainly) and rotate them every Mon. Wed. Friday for backups and keep the oldest of the 3 in the safe deposit vault of my bank. (note, the newest backup goes into a fireproof box under the bed, next oldest into a fireproof box in the garage and the oldest to the bank. I rotate them every Mon Wed Fri which means I get the "visit" the bank every 3 days or so. This is just my solution but it spreads the risk of a drive failure over 3 drives. and as they fill up, I retire them to either a larger drive or an additional drive. Right now, the drives are all 4tb WD USB 3 drives (and yes, I have 6 usb3 sockets on my computer).

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Wow, that is the exact opposite of what I would have expected.

Vanderpix Loc: New Jersey

I have two Passport ultras, one is the main drive for photos, the other the off site back up. I also back up on a WD My book at home. So far so good, but backing up is the key given how much external hard drives have come down in price.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

Same here.
When traveling, I use a WD My Passport Wireless. So far, no failures. To backup, I insert my SD card into the My Passport Wireless which automatically copies the SD's files into its hard drive. Then, make a second copy to a USB flash drive, which is inserted into the My Passport Wireless. I now have three copies stored in three different places. Parts needed: SD card from camera, My Passport Wireless, Flash Drive, iPhone to control copying to the flash drive.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

In my time as a computer systems engineer, I learned (through experience and observation) that the hardest thing on hard drives and most other mechanical devices is starting and stopping. Typically, as I was taught in Physics, object placed in motion tend to stay in motion. The most power needed by a drive or any other mechanical device, is starting the drive from a stationary position. This is typically when they fail. I've had hard drives work continuously for years and fail when the server (Unix servers require very little down time unlike Windows servers) was brought down for some non-related repair, the drive would fail on restart. I've experience the same thing with USB hard drives (note: non-mechanical drives, like flash drives SDD drives, memory cards, etc. are not included in this and they fail for other reasons). Most of my server drives get replaced because I am upgrading to larger drives and not because the older drives are failing (though I typically save the older drive as a means of preserving the data until I get my first verified series of backups on the new drive).

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

Appreciate all your comments on this. I am back in town and going to start the process today following you suggestions and others. Last resort, send it in to a data recovery service, but hopefully, because of the cost, that will be the last resort. The freezer option seems incredible, but, who knows. What ever works, right!