Another Failing Hard Disk!

[rhythmworx]

Dude you were quick to throw it in the fridge.

did you try this solution for the same problem?

Hi ,

I faced this issue and tried a lot.......Find out one solution.......I hope it ll work for you.....Do give me a reply if it works.

Just follow the followoing steps :

1. Go to start button on windows.

2. Type "cmd" and right click on "cmd" and click "Run as Administrator"

3. C:\Windows\system32>

4. Now type : chkdsk <Your hard disk letter>: /f

For e.g If my hard disk is named "f" then just type ---------- chkdsk f: /f

Try it out...I guess it will work.

542 people found this helpful

-----------------------

Or any other of the solutions in this 9 page thread?

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-update/you-need-to-format-the-disk-in-drive-j-before-you/4e153784-3217-4425-9c39-48030af82a13?page=9

Your suggestion might help BUT ONLY IF THE HARD DISK IS RECOGNISED BY THE OPERATING SYSTEM !

Yes and it is recognized by the OS, hence the prompt to format drive K.

[johnatong]

Dude you were quick to throw it in the fridge.

did you try this solution for the same problem?

Hi ,

I faced this issue and tried a lot.......Find out one solution.......I hope it ll work for you.....Do give me a reply if it works.

Just follow the followoing steps :

1. Go to start button on windows.

2. Type "cmd" and right click on "cmd" and click "Run as Administrator"

3. C:\Windows\system32>

4. Now type : chkdsk <Your hard disk letter>: /f

For e.g If my hard disk is named "f" then just type ---------- chkdsk f: /f

Try it out...I guess it will work.

542 people found this helpful

-----------------------

Or any other of the solutions in this 9 page thread?

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-update/you-need-to-format-the-disk-in-drive-j-before-you/4e153784-3217-4425-9c39-48030af82a13?page=9

Your suggestion might help BUT ONLY IF THE HARD DISK IS RECOGNISED BY THE OPERATING SYSTEM !

Yes and it is recognized by the OS, hence the prompt to format drive K.

OK

Sorry, I missed the bit about the disk being recognised !

[Thaijack2014]

My answer is a bit late, but I have several external HD's and even though some disc's failed over the years (it is always a matter when do they die and not if they die), the biggest issues I had was with the casings and the connections. They failed most.

So in spite of all you did, one of the options I would take, before really corrupting all your files: get a working external HD, disassemble it (mostly a few screws) and exchange the drive for the faulty one.

Then plug it it. Chances are it will work.

And another tip for the future: don't buy these big TB...I'm used to store my movies as well, but nowadays the biggest size I use is 500 GB. These are the most reliable discs. 2 TB spread over 4 discs reduces the loss factor!!!

Concerning your poor internet connection... have you tried Wi from TOT??? We live also outside in the countryside and use this service. TOT places an antenna on your roof or next to your house and you can receive internet via air. Often the distribution of the signal comes from a big mast of a nearbye temple. Costs? 630 Baht a month for a whopping 9mbps! Unlimited... I know it's not the fastest connection, but fast enough for downloading, watching Youtube content etc.

Good luck with your drive!

[Dario]

I very much appreciate everyones help! Creating a picture of this disk is not an option for me as I would have to buy another 2TB HD. I have about 1,4TB used on the disk in question. TOT for Internet we have contacted so many times at their office in Tha Tum, but they don't move to install Winet. They want about 10 subscribers first. They're lazy b......s without vision!

The refridgerator brought nothing, everything still the same.

I will try rhytmworks' suggestion later today, right now I'm busy in the Thai stock market. Will update later.

[SoiBiker]

I guess it depends how much the data on the disk is worth to you.

[Daffy D]

As the drive is an external USB you could try this free program to fix install or driver problems:-

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html

It's helped me a couple of times when a USB drive failed to be recognized.

The list on the left shows all your USB devices, any with a yellow warning can be clicked on to get various options for fixing a problem.

Hope this helps

Edited March 28, 2016 by Daffy D

[JaseTheBass]

Some people say it's an urban legend, but keeping the failed disk one night in a fridge (in the fruits/vegetable section, no need for super cold), properly wrapped in a sealed plastic bag with as little air inside as possible and plugging it back has allowed be to make it usable enough to recover my data twice.

Once fully and once very partially, to be honest.

These external hard disks, especially the cheap ones in plastic cases, suffer from very poor heat dissipation.

In tropical countries, this can mean much shortened life expectancy.

I've recovered data doing that before.

[Dario]

I have bought today another WD My Passport Ultra 2,5 in 2TB on Lazada, this time cheaper than the first one. I will have to wait until I get it maybe this week Friday or Saturday to make an image of the failed HD. I wanna follow some members advice to first create an image, so if anything happens during my recovery attempts, I'd probably be safe. I will then try to follow some of the suggestions some fellow members have written about in this thread. I will surely update on this thread, so others who might run into the same problem, can read here.

I wish to thank all of you so far for all your help, if there are more suggestions, please keep them coming.

Edited March 28, 2016 by Dario

[taotoo]

If not a laptop, don't know if it's worth taking the disk out of the enclosure and installing it in the pc itself.

[lostinisaan]

Hi

I had a passport to fully loaded with movies and I could not access it and I got the reformat message as well. I got peed off and threw it in a drawer and forgot about it for 3 months. I stumbled across it sitting in the drawer one day and plugged it in and it opened up and allowed me to access it. It functioned as normal. Also want to mention even though the computer would not open it in the beginning I was able to plug it into the USB port on my Samsung TV and access and watch the movies. WD warranties go for 3 or 5 years but they will only replace the drive all your info is lost.

Well, that's very encouraging. Thank you for mentioning this here. It might be hope for me. Maybe tomorrow put it in the fridge for about 12 hours, who knows if that might help.

I have stopped the disk scan, wrapped it in a plastic and placed it in the fridge in the fruit & vegetable section.

I see the same sign popping up from time to time at my 1 Tb Samsung Ext. HD.

I un and re plug it and it works again.BTW, have you ever tried another PC??????? Driver issues, a virus, many things could have gone wrong.

Edited March 28, 2016 by lostinisaan

[StefanBBK]

I supplement external drives with an internal one. Got myself a bay in the desktop that allows hot swapping of regular drives. Use WD black caviar. Very reliable and keep it backed up with external disks.

Essentially all data is in two places.

[Dario]

Hi

I had a passport to fully loaded with movies and I could not access it and I got the reformat message as well. I got peed off and threw it in a drawer and forgot about it for 3 months. I stumbled across it sitting in the drawer one day and plugged it in and it opened up and allowed me to access it. It functioned as normal. Also want to mention even though the computer would not open it in the beginning I was able to plug it into the USB port on my Samsung TV and access and watch the movies. WD warranties go for 3 or 5 years but they will only replace the drive all your info is lost.

Well, that's very encouraging. Thank you for mentioning this here. It might be hope for me. Maybe tomorrow put it in the fridge for about 12 hours, who knows if that might help.

I have stopped the disk scan, wrapped it in a plastic and placed it in the fridge in the fruit & vegetable section.

I see the same sign popping up from time to time at my 1 Tb Samsung Ext. HD.

I un and re plug it and it works again.BTW, have you ever tried another PC??????? Driver issues, a virus, many things could have gone wrong.

Yes, I have tried my daughter's PC and my laptop. Nada. Thanks for the suggestion.

[howto]

There is nothing wrong with the cable or enclosure,

or physically with the hard drive.

The disk spins and is seen by the OS,

It gets a drive letter,

which means everything is physically working.

There is a file system corruption,

perhaps the MBR or the MFT.

The disk is formatted NTFS.

Do not do anything that would write to that disk.

You seem to be a noob,

ie you've never done this stuff,

and since that data is important to you,

send that disk to someone whom knows what they are doing.

Perhaps Phuket Data Masters, Greg Mozorof.

Best of luck.

[Pib]

Putting the drive in the frig was a bad move....it's another one of those urban computer myths. Putting a drive in the frig can cause condensation to form internally on the drive...and if put in the freezer even ice crystals.

Would recommend you try another cable as a defective cable can cause strange problems to occur such as not recognizing the drive properly although the drive powers up, intermittently recognizing the drive, slow transfer speeds (i.e., always operating at USB 1 or 2 speeds vs the USB 3 speed), etc.

And a bad cable on a smartphone/cable can work properly for data transfer but cause slow/low charging (like way less than 1000ma compared to around 2000ma which many chargers produce....has happened to me twice. Other strange/scratch-your-head problems can occur also. I even bought an inline USB cable ammeter tester with load to test USB cables...cheap off Ebay. The tester showed my two defective smartphone/table cables would only charge at around 750ma max...new cable 2000ma since the load was set to create a 2000ma draw. Replaced the cables...all is fine again.

But back to your WD Passport 2TB problem. Recently I bought an external USB 3 enclosure to put a spared hard drive (HDD) or SSD in. The enclosure came with a USB cable but it was about a meter long....I wanted a shorter one...say around 18 inches/30cm...and I wanted to ensure it was a quality cable as there are so many junk ones for sale. I wanted a quality cable that like comes with the WD Passport series....and a found some on Ebay....even came with the "SS USB 3.0 compatible with USB2.0 tag" that comes on WD Passport cables...or at the least the one that came with my Passport. I ordered two from this U.S. Ebay seller in Miami...they arrived a few weeks later.

OK, time to test the cables. I visually inspect the both cables to include the connectors in normal room light...they looks fine. Plug the first cable between the enclosure with SSD installed and computer....works fine.

Time to operationally test the 2nd cable (SSD in enclosure like during the first cable test), however, the enclosure drive will only appear for about a second in my File Explorer window, then disappears, I then get a Windows errors message for about two seconds. The drive then reappears in File Explorer, then disappears, and I get another Windows error message. This process just repeats and repeats. I try the first cable again...all is fine. I try the second cable again...error again.

OK, I replace the SSD in the enclosure with a HDD, try the 2nd cable again and it works fine...so does the first cable. I put the SSD back in the enclosure...first cable works fine, but the second cable shows the error again. Wow...this cable works with a HDD in the enclosure but not a SSD in the enclosure...strange...well, not really as I explain below.

I then do a closer examination of the bad cable in sunlight...I check both cable ends just with my eyeballs and I think I see a problem on the end with the big connection/the standard USB 3.0A connector. I then get my jewelers loupe and look in the cable end and in the back I see a bent pin...well, more like not properly made at the factory. After several tries in the just the right lighting and view angle I get a picture of the defective connector (image below), send it to the Ebay seller and he refunds my money. Yeap, brand new cable...still in factory packing...defective.

You will notice a bent pin/not formed properly at the factory in the first image below. Per a pin out diagram (image 2 below) this was "Pin 6 StdA__SSRX+"..this is one of the differential data pins on USB 3 cables/ports not used in USB 2 only cables/ports. Since HDD cannot approach/utilize USB 3 speeds they only use USB 2.0 speed which still far exceeds HDD speed and associated USB 3 connector/cable wires are not really needed. However, since a SSD can achieve near USB 3 speeds it does attempt" to utilize the "differential receive/transmit" cables/wires in a USB 3 cable/connector. So, that's why the cable would work with a HDD in the enclosure but not a SSD.

Yeap, strange problems USB cables can cause...various problems. Try another cable if you haven't tried already.

Image 1....new cable with bent pin/manufacturing defect

Image 2...USB 3.0A connector pin out

[lostinisaan]

Putting the drive in the frig was a bad move....it's another one of those urban computer myths. Putting a drive in the frig can cause condensation to form internally on the drive...and if put in the freezer even ice crystals.

Would recommend you try another cable as a defective cable can cause strange problems to occur such as not recognizing the drive properly although the drive powers up, intermittently recognizing the drive, slow transfer speeds (i.e., always operating at USB 1 or 2 speeds vs the USB 3 speed), etc.

And a bad cable on a smartphone/cable can work properly for data transfer but cause slow/low charging (like way less than 1000ma compared to around 2000ma which many chargers produce....has happened to me twice. Other strange/scratch-your-head problems can occur also. I even bought an inline USB cable ammeter tester with load to test USB cables...cheap off Ebay. The tester showed my two defective smartphone/table cables would only charge at around 750ma max...new cable 2000ma since the load was set to create a 2000ma draw. Replaced the cables...all is fine again.

But back to your WD Passport 2TB problem. Recently I bought an external USB 3 enclosure to put a spared hard drive (HDD) or SSD in. The enclosure came with a USB cable but it was about a meter long....I wanted a shorter one...say around 18 inches/30cm...and I wanted to ensure it was a quality cable as there are so many junk ones for sale. I wanted a quality cable that like comes with the WD Passport series....and a found some on Ebay....even came with the "SS USB 3.0 compatible with USB2.0 tag" that comes on WD Passport cables...or at the least the one that came with my Passport. I ordered two from this U.S. Ebay seller in Miami...they arrived a few weeks later.

OK, time to test the cables. I visually inspect the both cables to include the connectors in normal room light...they looks fine. Plug the first cable between the enclosure with SSD installed and computer....works fine.

Time to operationally test the 2nd cable (SSD in enclosure like during the first cable test), however, the enclosure drive will only appear for about a second in my File Explorer window, then disappears, I then get a Windows errors message for about two seconds. The drive then reappears in File Explorer, then disappears, and I get another Windows error message. This process just repeats and repeats. I try the first cable again...all is fine. I try the second cable again...error again.

OK, I replace the SSD in the enclosure with a HDD, try the 2nd cable again and it works fine...so does the first cable. I put the SSD back in the enclosure...first cable works fine, but the second cable shows the error again. Wow...this cable works with a HDD in the enclosure but not a SSD in the enclosure...strange...well, not really as I explain below.

I then do a closer examination of the bad cable in sunlight...I check both cable ends just with my eyeballs and I think I see a problem on the end with the big connection/the standard USB 3.0A connector. I then get my jewelers loupe and look in the cable end and in the back I see a bent pin...well, more like not properly made at the factory. After several tries in the just the right lighting and view angle I get a picture of the defective connector (image below), send it to the Ebay seller and he refunds my money. Yeap, brand new cable...still in factory packing...defective.

You will notice a bent pin/not formed properly at the factory in the first image below. Per a pin out diagram (image 2 below) this was "Pin 6 StdA__SSRX+"..this is one of the differential data pins on USB 3 cables/ports not used in USB 2 only cables/ports. Since HDD cannot approach/utilize USB 3 speeds they only use USB 2.0 speed which still far exceeds HDD speed and associated USB 3 connector/cable wires are not really needed. However, since a SSD can achieve near USB 3 speeds it does attempt" to utilize the "differential receive/transmit" cables/wires in a USB 3 cable/connector. So, that's why the cable would work with a HDD in the enclosure but not a SSD.

Yeap, strange problems USB cables can cause...various problems. Try another cable if you haven't tried already.

Image 1....new cable with bent pin/manufacturing defect

DefectiveUSBCable.JPG

Image 2...USB 3.0A connector pin out

Capture_USB3A pin out.JPG

I'm also amazed that the OP didn't even try another cable, no other case. The only things that should be in a fridge is beer !!!

P.S. I bought a new cable at Advice, around 30 cm long/short for 180 baht. Good quality and works well.

There's a program called Aomei Partition assistant. Here's a free trial version: Please try it and report back: http://download.cnet.com/AOMEI-Partition-Assistant-Professional-Edition/3000-2248_4-75115723.html

P.S. This program has helped me when Windows didn't recognize a hard drive that was installed.

Edited March 29, 2016 by lostinisaan

[howto]

My bad,

his name is Gregory Morozov

the business is

Phuket Data Wizards Co., Ltd.

He actually was the first to reply on this thread!!!

See post #2

SEND HIM A PM.

Per Pib's suggestion,

try a new cable. Who knows, might work.

I doubt it.

Please do ignore lostinisaan's suggestion,

do not do anything that will write to that disk.

That includes chkdsk.

(no insult intended lostinisaan)

Again read my previous post #43.

And no, Toshiba drives are not the best.

The best (better) are...

Hitachi GST

Seagate (depends on the model)

WD (depends on the model)

Toshiba

Note there are no Samsung spinners.

They sold that division some time back. Pre-Flood.

Samsung does far and away have the best SSD's

Just send the unit to someone whom knows what to do.

Please stop messing around, get some pro to save your data.

Daffy D, thank you,

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html

For a week, I have been re-looking for this.

Excellent stand-alone app. Used it for years.

//

I have bought today another WD My Passport Ultra 2,5 in 2TB on Lazada, this time cheaper than the first one. I will have to wait until I get it maybe this week Friday or Saturday to make an image of the failed HD. I wanna follow some members advice to first create an image, so if anything happens during my recovery attempts, I'd probably be safe. I will then try to follow some of the suggestions some fellow members have written about in this thread. I will surely update on this thread, so others who might run into the same problem, can read here.

I wish to thank all of you so far for all your help, if there are more suggestions, please keep them coming.

Yoo will have problems transferring data 'tween the drives...

Any drive larger than 2TB will use a GPT file table by default.

Up to 2TB will use a MBR/MFT.

You are NOT qualifed to do any data recovery.

Just stop it.

Darn it just pay to have it done by a pro,

and that means not your local Thai Tech.

Do it or lose the data, cause you will likely screw it up.

Men go where angles fear to tread.

Edited March 29, 2016 by howto

[55Jay]

<snip>

I then do a closer examination of the bad cable in sunlight...I check both cable ends just with my eyeballs and I think I see a problem on the end with the big connection/the standard USB 3.0A connector. I then get my jewelers loupe and look in the cable end and in the back I see a bent pin...well, more like not properly made at the factory. After several tries in the just the right lighting and view angle I get a picture of the defective connector (image below), send it to the Ebay seller and he refunds my money. Yeap, brand new cable...still in factory packing...defective.

You will notice a bent pin/not formed properly at the factory in the first image below. Per a pin out diagram (image 2 below) this was "Pin 6 StdA__SSRX+"..this is one of the differential data pins on USB 3 cables/ports not used in USB 2 only cables/ports. Since HDD cannot approach/utilize USB 3 speeds they only use USB 2.0 speed which still far exceeds HDD speed and associated USB 3 connector/cable wires are not really needed. However, since a SSD can achieve near USB 3 speeds it does attempt" to utilize the "differential receive/transmit" cables/wires in a USB 3 cable/connector. So, that's why the cable would work with a HDD in the enclosure but not a SSD.

Yeap, strange problems USB cables can cause...various problems. Try another cable if you haven't tried already.

Awesome post/photos, Pib. Digging out my magnifying glass.....

[B1TcoinLife]

There's an only saying among programmers something like :data doesn't exist unless it's at least two separate locations, and If it's in any way valuable 3+ copies would be better

Sorry if this has already been said, but you should have another all this on another drive, you get a new one free on warranty and just copy it back over ... Painless but nobody thinks of terabyte drives can call until they do...

My suggestion would be too raid the next one so you have two mirror images, prevents forgetfulness to copy from one to the other etc

[manarak]

Failing HDD are not uncommon at all.

If you need to backup important data, please do so on at least 2 separate storage devices.

I found my life to be a lot easier using an external RAID-1 HDD enclosure. That way, when one disk fails you can just replace it and carry on as nothing happened. Don't forget the second backup.

[B1TcoinLife]

Why would you want to use an expensive SSD as a backup drive?

because it is not expensive anymore(150$ today it was 250$ last year)

SSD do not have moving parts,it is electronic chip,nothing mechanic.

I know what an SSD is. I also they cost 10 times the price of an equivalent HDD, offer no advantage when it comes to use as a backup drive, and are no more reliable either.

Plus a failing HDD is often recoverable. SSDs tend to just die completely taking all your data with them.

Suggesting one as a backup solution is terrible advice.

Actually Data centers have moved to ssds years ago, they get more man hours and Peta bytes than spinners for the money and this has been proven for at least 3 years now ....

I still use spinners myself because they're cheap but I think next time I replace one it will be worth it to go ssd...

[SoiBiker]

RAID is convenient, but I wouldn't consider two disks that are in the same system to be an adequate backup for precious data - it's too easy for them both to get taken out by the same power spike, fire or other calamity.

[B1TcoinLife]

RAID is convenient, but I wouldn't consider two disks that are in the same system to be an adequate backup for precious data - it's too easy for them both to get taken out by the same power spike, fire or other calamity.

I use raid+cloud but I have near unlimited bandwidth, I understand bandwidth is tight for the op

What if there's a fire and the place burns down etc... An off-site copy makes the only sense taking into account power surges and voltage fires etc but I think I would feel safe enough with 2 external drives on raid and one you plug in weekly or monthly etc..... Even that's not bulletproof but it sounds ok...

[SoiBiker]

RAID is convenient, but I wouldn't consider two disks that are in the same system to be an adequate backup for precious data - it's too easy for them both to get taken out by the same power spike, fire or other calamity.

I use raid+cloud but I have near unlimited bandwidth, I understand bandwidth is tight for the op

What if there's a fire and the place burns down etc... An off-site copy makes the only sense taking into account power surges and voltage fires etc but I think I would feel safe enough with 2 external drives on raid and one you plug in weekly or monthly etc..... Even that's not bulletproof but it sounds ok...

Yeah, there's always a risk I agree - what if your cloud server gets nuked by terrorists?

I like to do automated backups to external drives, then swap them out periodically and stash them elsewhere.

[Dario]

Putting the drive in the frig was a bad move....it's another one of those urban computer myths. Putting a drive in the frig can cause condensation to form internally on the drive...and if put in the freezer even ice crystals.

Would recommend you try another cable as a defective cable can cause strange problems to occur such as not recognizing the drive properly although the drive powers up, intermittently recognizing the drive, slow transfer speeds (i.e., always operating at USB 1 or 2 speeds vs the USB 3 speed), etc.

And a bad cable on a smartphone/cable can work properly for data transfer but cause slow/low charging (like way less than 1000ma compared to around 2000ma which many chargers produce....has happened to me twice. Other strange/scratch-your-head problems can occur also. I even bought an inline USB cable ammeter tester with load to test USB cables...cheap off Ebay. The tester showed my two defective smartphone/table cables would only charge at around 750ma max...new cable 2000ma since the load was set to create a 2000ma draw. Replaced the cables...all is fine again.

But back to your WD Passport 2TB problem. Recently I bought an external USB 3 enclosure to put a spared hard drive (HDD) or SSD in. The enclosure came with a USB cable but it was about a meter long....I wanted a shorter one...say around 18 inches/30cm...and I wanted to ensure it was a quality cable as there are so many junk ones for sale. I wanted a quality cable that like comes with the WD Passport series....and a found some on Ebay....even came with the "SS USB 3.0 compatible with USB2.0 tag" that comes on WD Passport cables...or at the least the one that came with my Passport. I ordered two from this U.S. Ebay seller in Miami...they arrived a few weeks later.

OK, time to test the cables. I visually inspect the both cables to include the connectors in normal room light...they looks fine. Plug the first cable between the enclosure with SSD installed and computer....works fine.

Time to operationally test the 2nd cable (SSD in enclosure like during the first cable test), however, the enclosure drive will only appear for about a second in my File Explorer window, then disappears, I then get a Windows errors message for about two seconds. The drive then reappears in File Explorer, then disappears, and I get another Windows error message. This process just repeats and repeats. I try the first cable again...all is fine. I try the second cable again...error again.

OK, I replace the SSD in the enclosure with a HDD, try the 2nd cable again and it works fine...so does the first cable. I put the SSD back in the enclosure...first cable works fine, but the second cable shows the error again. Wow...this cable works with a HDD in the enclosure but not a SSD in the enclosure...strange...well, not really as I explain below.

I then do a closer examination of the bad cable in sunlight...I check both cable ends just with my eyeballs and I think I see a problem on the end with the big connection/the standard USB 3.0A connector. I then get my jewelers loupe and look in the cable end and in the back I see a bent pin...well, more like not properly made at the factory. After several tries in the just the right lighting and view angle I get a picture of the defective connector (image below), send it to the Ebay seller and he refunds my money. Yeap, brand new cable...still in factory packing...defective.

You will notice a bent pin/not formed properly at the factory in the first image below. Per a pin out diagram (image 2 below) this was "Pin 6 StdA__SSRX+"..this is one of the differential data pins on USB 3 cables/ports not used in USB 2 only cables/ports. Since HDD cannot approach/utilize USB 3 speeds they only use USB 2.0 speed which still far exceeds HDD speed and associated USB 3 connector/cable wires are not really needed. However, since a SSD can achieve near USB 3 speeds it does attempt" to utilize the "differential receive/transmit" cables/wires in a USB 3 cable/connector. So, that's why the cable would work with a HDD in the enclosure but not a SSD.

Yeap, strange problems USB cables can cause...various problems. Try another cable if you haven't tried already.

Image 1....new cable with bent pin/manufacturing defect

DefectiveUSBCable.JPG

Image 2...USB 3.0A connector pin out

Capture_USB3A pin out.JPG

Thank you, Pib. When I get the new HDD, I will try the cable from the new one. I will see very quickly.

[Dario]

There is nothing wrong with the cable or enclosure,

or physically with the hard drive.

The disk spins and is seen by the OS,

It gets a drive letter,

which means everything is physically working.

There is a file system corruption,

perhaps the MBR or the MFT.

The disk is formatted NTFS.

Do not do anything that would write to that disk.

You seem to be a noob,

ie you've never done this stuff,

and since that data is important to you,

send that disk to someone whom knows what they are doing.

Perhaps Phuket Data Masters, Greg Mozorof.

Best of luck.

Do you have an address or phone number of Phuket Data Masters? I can't find neither Phuket Data Masters nor Greg Mozorof on the net. Would that move be better than send it to WD? Anyway, if an outsider works on it, the warranty will be void. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

BTW, making an image of the disc, would that write to the failing disk, I don't think so?

Update: just found him, he's running Phuket Data Wizards.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Dario

[speedtripler]

RAID is convenient, but I wouldn't consider two disks that are in the same system to be an adequate backup for precious data - it's too easy for them both to get taken out by the same power spike, fire or other calamity.

buy a surge protector and put it in between the wall and a multiplug extension and plug all your drives and tech into that -problem solved

[rhythmworx]

WD will not touch your drive, if it faulty and under guarantee they will replace it and you lose all your data.

Did you run the chkdsk /r on it yet?