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General discussion

Need help with my 400GB WD hard disk

Oct 6, 2010 6:26AM PDT

Hi There
i have a 400GB WD external HDD that has failed to respond of copy files from it. I have tried to retrieve some data from it but most of it still sits there. I have been given a replacement drive from WD but i need to recover the files before the drive is sent back. The drive is behaving strangely, sometimes it says that it has an I/O drive error and cannot open particular files but i can see the files in there. Most of the bulk is digital pictures (30-50GB) and rest being pdf and MS office related files. i did try chkdsk feature but it kept telling me that the files are unreadable (I/O error). However, I have copied some pictures a meager fraction that i was able to move successfully but it took ages to do so. Can some one really suggest something intuitively that may prevent me from spending too much money to get the piece of junk workable.

ALSO WHEN I CONNECT THE DRIVE IT KEEPS ON SPINNING AND DOES NOT STOP AND I HAVE A HARD TIME EJECTING IT TOO.

ANY COMMENTS WOULD BE HIGHLY APPRECIATED.

Thx
MI

Discussion is locked

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Some tips...
Oct 7, 2010 1:55AM PDT

If you haven't already use a rear USB port. Since, a replacement HD is present, open the HD ext. case and reseat the connections found inside several times and retry again to access it. Check results, if OK, retrieve data ASAP. If not, then the HD is going south and no amount of fiddling will do. Since, you have success in whatever method to retrieve some data, repeat until done or at least until it really fails. You could also swap HDs with the replacement ext. case itself and if its a power issue. If nothing works, then google for data recovery s/w either free or paid for. if the data is that important, stop now and allow a recovery service to retrieve it. You could also, mount the ext. HD, removed from ext. case and mount int. to PC and check results, Again, if none of this helps or seems to get worse, data recovery service.

tada -----Willy Happy

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Feedback
Oct 7, 2010 4:31AM PDT

are there any softwares that could help fix this issue?

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If it's a hardware issue ...
Oct 7, 2010 4:37AM PDT

and it looks like that, software won't help. Only an (expensive) data-recovery company can get your data off then.

Did nobody ever tell you that you shouldn't store data on an external hard disk? It's useful to transport data between different PC's that aren't in a network, and it's useful as a quick backup. But surely not as primary and only storage of data. Much too unreliable for that.

Kees

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Rarely works for me, end-user s/w
Oct 8, 2010 12:36AM PDT

I have yet to get a 100% or reliable recovery rate with any s/w. No amount of playing gets it all done, though some files may have been recovered it seems its never the one critial one the user needs. Below is a google webpage:

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1_____enUS373US374&aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=data+recovery+s/w

http://www.pctools.com/file-recover/download/?ref=google_fr&gclid=CM2aw9y-w6QCFSExiQod8Ai2kQ

Robert, usually has a small listing he always posts, but I have no direct CNET link to it. I suggest you search here on forum for it, as data recovery is a hot topic too often associated with ext. HDs. The lesson here is also store data on CD/DVD discs as well for critial data as yet another storage source.

tada -----Willy Happy