Uh Oh, looks like my WD Passport has died.

[Daffy D]

3 minutes ago, transam said:

I have different make drives, it recognises and even prints its name on screen....

Yes I am aware of how HDD checkers work.

 

I got the impression from reading the OP that the drive is not seen by the computer so I doubt any HDD checker program would work. Until the drive gets recognized there's very little that can be done 

 

Could try a program called HDD Regenerator or SpinRite, might get lucky that the drive would be recognized.

[giddyup]

14 minutes ago, transam said:

I have different make drives, it recognises and even prints its name on screen....

If the external hard drive doesn't show up on the PC how can the program check it?

[giddyup]

Just now, Daffy D said:

Yes I am aware of how HDD checkers work.

 

I got the impression from reading the OP that the drive is not seen by the computer so I doubt any HDD checker program would work. Until the drive gets recognized there's very little that can be done 

 

Could try a program called HDD Regenerator or SpinRite, might get lucky that the drive would be recognized.

I've ordered a new cable from Lazada, just in case the old one has been broken inside due to all the flexing.

[transam]

1 minute ago, Daffy D said:

Yes I am aware of how HDD checkers work.

 

I got the impression from reading the OP that the drive is not seen by the computer so I doubt any HDD checker program would work. Until the drive gets recognized there's very little that can be done 

 

Could try a program called HDD Regenerator or SpinRite, might get lucky that the drive would be recognized.

I have a new SSD and a HDD of different brands, the Seagate download checks them out and gives a pass or fail mark, can't remember the rest it does, but both mine come up 100%, and the HDD is quite a few years old. Takes a couple of minutes to download and let it test things out..

[transam]

4 minutes ago, giddyup said:

If the external hard drive doesn't show up on the PC how can the program check it?

As I said, give it a try. If it doesn't recognise it then at least a five minute test is no ploblem..????

[Metropolitian]

16 hours ago, rvaviator said:

16 hours ago, giddyup said:

it does make some noise when first plugged in, but then stops.

A long shot ... maybe your USB port 5V is not good .. problem with the USB computer power source to the drive ...  Try a different computer if you can .. Is it used with a laptop or desktop ?

Also try another usb cable.

 

I have a few WD passports here, and the cable of one of them failed after a while making me stressed as I used that harddisk as backup and was thinking the harddisk itself was dying on me.

Same with another Samsung harddisk (mini usb era), changing with another usb cable and it's still there, the symptom with this one was the same as yours.

 

[Metropolitian]

16 hours ago, stubuzz said:

17 hours ago, giddyup said:

A few years, why will that help fix it?

Hard drives have a life span, so It gives a good indication of its condition. I believe the WD passport has a 3 year limited warranty.

There are a few sorts of 'life spans' , the most important are the guaranteed hours of use (mileage) which is at least 100.000 hours of use.

This is called MTBF, Mean Time Between Failure.

I found that for consumer graded harddisk the 'age' , when used continuously, is one-third of the 100.000 which is around 3-5 years.

 

Warranty is not a lifespan but you can say the company knows the MTBF and also use the one-third rule hence can 'promise' the 3 years warranty.

 

Another life spans is the durability of the materials, which is much longer, 10 years at least.

 

Then there is another 'lifespan' which writes them off after 3 years, even when they are still working fine. They get replaced to avoid errors. This is done with servers.

 

I'm using harddisk which all exceeded the ''warranty life time''.  Some of them 10 years already.

Few of them are type red (nas drives) , most of them blue (normal use) and no 'greenies'.

These coloring are used with WD harddisks, other brands have naming for the purposes.

 

 

 

For those who want to know what the coloring of WD harddisk means:

Quote

 

WD Blue HDDs are mainly used for general purpose storage, they are great all-rounders, and an average user can’t go wrong with Blue.

WD Green is basically same as Blue, but it lacks a bit of performance. However, it is the most eco-friendly HDD, and it’s quite cheap.

WD Blacks are for pure performance including gaming, media, and content creation. Also one of the most expensive HDDs.

WD Red is a NAS drive. It’s optimized for NAS systems.

WD Purple is for surveillance. Advised for 24/7 operation.

WD Gold, probably the most premium of all. Made for a multitude of Datacenter-specific applications.

 

^{copy-n-pasted from wd.com community.}

[Metropolitian]

43 minutes ago, transam said:

50 minutes ago, giddyup said:

If the external hard drive doesn't show up on the PC how can the program check it?

As I said, give it a try. If it doesn't recognise it then at least a five minute test is no ploblem..

True thing. Always check if the harddisk are really gone or not.

Windows doesn't see non-windows partitions and when the windows partition table went wrong, no drives is showing up in the PC.

 

Only partitions that windows recognize are mounted as 'drives' , eg. H:\  I:\ ..

Windows Disk Management however can see the real drives, not only the partitions.

You can start Disk Management by going to the start and in the 'search/run field' write down diskmgmt.msc and enter to execute.

If you don't have the 'search/run field' , then press [WINDOWS] + [R] to open the 'run/open' dialog and execute diskmgmt.msc from here.

 

If the harddisk was found by windows, it would show up as Disk 1, or 2, and so on.

 

If not in the list, then it's a harddisk or cabling issue.

 

Becareful though in this application, don't try to do anything with Disk 0 which is your main operating system harddisk.

 

[giddyup]

I'll probably buy a new one anyway and see this one on Lazada for 890 baht when most of them are around 2-5000 baht. 500gb is more than big enough for my needs, the old WD is the same. https://www.lazada.co.th//products/i737474661-s2800950665.html?urlFlag=true

[stouricks]

13 minutes ago, giddyup said:

I'll probably buy a new one anyway and see this one on Lazada for 890 baht when most of them are around 2-5000 baht. 500gb is more than big enough for my needs, the old WD is the same. https://www.lazada.co.th//products/i737474661-s2800950665.html?urlFlag=true

It's ONLY 890 Bht because IT IS an HDD. Get an SSD, put it in a caddy, job done.

[giddyup]

Just now, stouricks said:

It's ONLY 890 Bht because IT IS an HDD. Get an SSD, put it in a caddy, job done.

What's the benefit and what's a caddy for?

[Andrew Dwyer]

23 minutes ago, giddyup said:

I'll probably buy a new one anyway and see this one on Lazada for 890 baht when most of them are around 2-5000 baht. 500gb is more than big enough for my needs, the old WD is the same. https://www.lazada.co.th//products/i737474661-s2800950665.html?urlFlag=true

I bought a 2tb WD for 1,390 baht at Big C yesterday on sale, the 1tb was 1,090 baht .

[giddyup]

16 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I bought a 2tb WD for 1,390 baht at Big C yesterday on sale, the 1tb was 1,090 baht .

Is that a HDD, and was it just Big C or Big C Extra?

[transam]

1 minute ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I bought a 2tb WD for 1,390 baht at Big C yesterday on sale, the 1tb was 1,090 baht .

What brand...? I hope not MG............????

[giddyup]

13 minutes ago, transam said:

What brand...? I hope not MG............????

Think he said WD.

[transam]

3 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Think he said WD.

Advice sell those, so must be OK....

https://www.advice.co.th/product/hard-disk-external/hard-disk-external-2-5-1-tb-/1-tb-ext-hdd-2-5-wd-my-passport-black-wdbyvg0010bbk-

[stouricks]

56 minutes ago, giddyup said:

What's the benefit and what's a caddy for?

A caddy, apart from someone who carries your golf clubs, is an enclosure for a HDD or SSD with a USB port so you can connect to any PC, like the WD you have.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, Metropolitian said:

There are a few sorts of 'life spans' , the most important are the guaranteed hours of use (mileage) which is at least 100.000 hours of use.

This is called MTBF, Mean Time Between Failure.

I found that for consumer graded harddisk the 'age' , when used continuously, is one-third of the 100.000 which is around 3-5 years.

 

Warranty is not a lifespan but you can say the company knows the MTBF and also use the one-third rule hence can 'promise' the 3 years warranty.

 

Another life spans is the durability of the materials, which is much longer, 10 years at least.

 

Then there is another 'lifespan' which writes them off after 3 years, even when they are still working fine. They get replaced to avoid errors. This is done with servers.

 

I'm using harddisk which all exceeded the ''warranty life time''.  Some of them 10 years already.

Few of them are type red (nas drives) , most of them blue (normal use) and no 'greenies'.

These coloring are used with WD harddisks, other brands have naming for the purposes.

A log time ago I read a big book about server administration.

 

One of the first sentences was: "Hard disks will fail - it's just a question of when."

And then it was repeated one more time: "Hard disks will fail - it's just a question of when."

I still remember that sentence and it's importance. They all will fail eventually... 

[Andrew Dwyer]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

Is that a HDD, and was it just Big C or Big C Extra?

HDD, a Big C Supercenter (?)

 

[KC 71]

Mine stopped too .I had 24000 tunes downloaded !

never again i say.

[giddyup]

1 hour ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

HDD, a Big C Supercenter (?)

 

Not in Pattaya then?

[Andrew Dwyer]

20 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Not in Pattaya then?

Nope.

[johng]

18 hours ago, KC 71 said:

Mine stopped too .I had 24000 tunes downloaded !

never again i say.

Backup, backup and backup  hard drives fail.

[giddyup]

36 minutes ago, johng said:

Backup, backup and backup  hard drives fail.

Backup on what?

[johng]

Just now, giddyup said:

Backup on what?

Backup on a different hard drive..though you could use 5 Inch floppies if you where feeling masochistic ????

[giddyup]

1 minute ago, johng said:

Backup on a different hard drive..though you could use 5 Inch floppies if you where feeling masochistic ????

So you need several external hard drives just to be safe? Yeah right.

[robblok]

6 minutes ago, giddyup said:

So you need several external hard drives just to be safe? Yeah right.

Either that or a NAS drive in raid. If you put your stuff on one place then you are never safe. You always need to have a copy somewhere. 

[maxpower]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

So you need several external hard drives just to be safe? Yeah right.

Yes, unless you don't care about losing the files or like spending time trying to recover from failed drives.

 

Photos and personal videos often can't be replaced which is why people buy redundant backup.

[chrisinth]

21 hours ago, giddyup said:

So you need several external hard drives just to be safe? Yeah right.

If 500GB meets your needs, use the cloud as an alternative backup location.

 

One Drive/DropBox/Google Drive/Box/Sync.com, etc. To name but a few.

 

And don't believe the hype that they are unsafe; if that were the case all web based email, Office 365, etc would fall into this category as well. These sort of backups (cloud) have saved my a$$ more times than I should be admitting.

 

Never forget, if your data is only in one place then it is not backed up. Huge oversight when using external drives as a storage and not a backup.

[ballpoint]

It is important to remember that a backup is only a backup if the original files are still located, and accessible, elsewhere.  In such a case, unless both drives crashed at the same time, you would still have a full set of data on the drive that didn't crash (which is the whole point of a backup).  If, however, a drive is being use to store files which are no longer on the original drive - usually due to size, then it is not a backup, but itself becomes the original drive.  in this case, if the files are important, then an additional drive should be bought and the files backed up to it.