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Western Digital External HDD Problem

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2 replies

by effiem

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Hi,
I have a WD external 2.5" HDD FAT32 (160GB), and I've been
experiencing the following problems.
First of all, I've been connecting this to both a MacBook (MacOSX
10.4) and a PC (Windows XP Prof). Sometimes when moving data to
the disk from the PC, I was getting the following message: "cannot
copy filename, sector not found). Then a couple of days ago, I was
connecting it to my PC, and even though the device was recognised
(WD external mass storage device found), the PC was not assigning it
a drive letter. I went to disk manager, and it was not at all visible.
I've connected the HDD to a USB directly connected to the
motherboard, and the light on the casing is on.
Has anyone seen this problem before? I would appreciate any help
(P.S I rang WD and they told me that they can replace the disk, but I
lose my data. I would really like to avoid this). Thanks.

2 replies

by hal 9000

If you really need the data off the drive WD will honour their warranty if you send it to a Data recovery House like On Track who will supply documented proof that the drive was faulty and WD will accept this.

I don't know if this applies to other Data Recovery Companies but with the amount of money that you will be spending on the Data Recovery the cost of a HDD is insignificant in comparison to the costs of recovering the data.

If you can open the USB Caddy it may be possible to place the HDD in a different Caddy as the Caddy could be at fault as well. These things are not designed to be used Full Time but only for short duration so that they don't get so hot to damage the HDD. So it's better to run in short spells than long uninterrupted spells.

Also if there are 2 USB Plugs on the cable both should be plugged into the Computer so that the drive has enough power to run properly.

I've seen this with HDD that where run for long periods of time and again with HDD's that didn't get enough power and they where eventually destroyed along with the USB Interface.

Col

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