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General discussion

External WD HD - slow, freezing, error messages..

Jan 26, 2011 3:20AM PST

Okay so a few years ago my brother bought me the WD 250GB My Book Essential Edition External hard Drive. I have had it hooked up to my desktop and usually keep it on most of the time. It is currently about 70% full with all my school documents, photos, music, movies, downloads, etc.
A couple months ago it started making a whirring noise (previously nearly silent) which was most noticeable upon start-up, it also got a bit slower. I decided not to keep it on all the time any more and started shutting it iff when i didnt need it. In December I had made a sizeable power point presentation for one of my classes and when i went to edit it the file was frozen; i could not open, copy, move, delete, or do anything to the file..the entire drive would freeze, explorer would crash and i would have to restart my computer. After this happening 3 times i abandoned the file and started from scratch, I still have not tried to open it. I took all the files i needed and unhooked the drive for 3 weeks (2 of which it spent in my trunk)
This is also when i decided i could no longer rely on the drive and purchased a WD 2TB Elements External Hard Drive. It came a few days ago and I immediately partitioned 200GB for backups. I want to transfer the contents of my old external to the other partition but have been having some trouble.
In order to ensure i did not loose any important data i started copying things to my internal drive and deleting thing i didnt need. I have all my documents safe and sound, but when i went to copy my photos it got increasingly difficult. I have nearly 40 gigs of photos all together, and was only able to get about 30 photos after hours of trying, rebooting the drive and computer, and using my laptop too. I am fearful that I may not ever be able to get them back, and i had not backed them up because the drive was acting up and i didnt want to over-tax it.
My documents are safe, my music can be re-ripped, my downloads can be re-downloaded, but my photos cannot be retaken, these are the ones i am most concerned with.
I have heard that putting it in the freezer may help it keep going long enough to get my files. I really only need it to function long enough to get my photos off and in a safe place.
Any advice or suggestions is very greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
SS

p.s. i cannot defreg it because i get a corruption error message, i have also gotten time-out and i/o device errors while trying to copy my photos to the new drive..

Discussion is locked

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Can you try to remove the drive from the enclosure
Jan 26, 2011 5:04AM PST

and see if it will attach directly to your motherboard? If you can but still have errors, you could try the WD diagnostics utility available from their web site. It can test the drive in a non-destructive manner and tell you if the drive is physically healthy. If not, you will need to consider alternatives such as professional services. They don't work cheap.

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I doubt it
Jan 26, 2011 5:27AM PST

I do not think I can remove it since then I would have to break the seal and WD would no longer support it.

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update
Jan 26, 2011 5:25AM PST

Using MiniTool Partition Wizard's __ function I ran Check and Fix which told me one file was "entirely unreadable" and was removed. It also said it repaired 25 files. While attempting to close MiniTool and open My Computer the explorer.exe froze (as it often does while trying to access the drive) and I had to unplug the drive. Upon plugging it back in I found it is no longer called "My Book" as WD had names it, but it is now "Local Disk" and will not open. Did I just ruin my chances of recovering the 1 gig of photos i had left to copy? What else can I do to recover these files?
Please help!

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hidden folders
Jan 26, 2011 5:31AM PST

i cant seem to find the edit post option..
i forgot to mention before that the function i used is called "Check File System"
and that it also told me there is a large number of hidden filed and folders..
when i look at the properties for the drive it shows ~7gigs of used storage, but the photos folder is only about 1 gig, could these hidden folders account for the missing 5-6 gigs and how can i see what is in them/get rid of them?
any help is appreciated..