WD Passport Failure and Recovery Help

Hi. I need help with my WD My Passport. When plugged in the light turns on, the disc spins, but 9/10 times it won't be recognized by windows. it will ONLY be recognized by windows when it hasn't been connected for a long time. But the problem is once connected it will automatically disconnect itself after a few minutes and subsequent reconnections will not work until it has "rested," seemingly.

necessary facts:

1. windows 7.1
2. asus u31sd laptop
3. already disabled USB suspend settings in power management
4. already tried different cables
5. already tried different ports and computers
6. drive is approx 3 years old. 2 TB usb 3.0 but connected to usb 2 ports.

this is where i really messed up. on the advice found here i tried to update the firmware but the drive disconnected mid update and now when i manage to get the drive to connect to windows i'm prompted to format the drive. i should have known better.

so now, all i really care about is recovering the data from the drive. what should i do? what are my options.

 

quick update.

i managed to reconnect the drive temporarily and was no longer prompted to format and was briefly able to explore drive as normal before it disconnected, as it does.

thanks for the help guys

 

Run a Chkdsk - check both options -let it run an attempt to repair.

It will take a long time, depending on amount of data.

 

thanks for the suggestion but i can't keep the drive connected long enough to do much. it stays connected for maybe 2 mins.

i tried updating the drive's firmware but it got disrupted because of the random disconnect. i thought i destroyed it because next reconnect i was prompted to format, but likely i didn't have to.

what do you suppose is the reason why its having trouble connecting?

 

Can you try it on another comp?

Or in a different USB port?

 

I have tried different ports, cables, and computers. unfortunately none of them made a difference.

 

Does your Passport have enough power? Have you used a powered USB hub? I have a My Passport Slim 1TB attached to a powered USB 2 hub.

My device has a 3 year warranty so I assume your does too. Hopefully it is under warranty if it is failing.

 

If you still have no success, see if you can return it (as per Fuzzmanks).

Power it on and save any info to a different hdd.

In the future, to avoid this problem, create an image and you will always have important info.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/content/p...newreply&noquote=1&p=1900150&ss=2049j791027j7

The backup is compressed, so it will reduce the info to about 60%.
BTW- I would never trust an external hdd to save important info without a backup - they are much more prone to failure than an internal hdd -imho.

If you use it and create an image ( of os), and get hit with a virus, you will be back to clean image in minutes with no hassle.

May not be what you hoped for, but good luck anyway.:wave:wave

 

I also wouldn't use an external hdd as my primary source.

They are much more given to failure than an external hdd - IMHO.