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General discussion

WD external hard drive went to RAW

Feb 20, 2011 9:58PM PST

MY WD external hard drive, after a re-start went to RAW file system, and I cannot format this drive anymore, I keep getting an error message "windows was unable to format this drive". It's a 2TB hard drive and I have about 18GB of data on it. Can anyone suggest what i can do to make this drive accessible and recover my data without having to pay over $100 to geek squad?
Thanks

Discussion is locked

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Re: data recovery
Feb 20, 2011 10:03PM PST
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data recover
Feb 20, 2011 10:10PM PST

That was my backup, That was my external drive that I use to back up all my pictures and videos. I am a photographer. So the Ubuntu will recover the data? I bought this hard drive only a few months ago, might still be under warranty, do you think they'll be able to do anything better?
Thanks

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ReL recovering
Feb 21, 2011 3:21AM PST

I didn't mention Ubuntu. I was thinking programs like Getdataback, Zero Assumption Recovery, Recuva, Pandora. It's unlikely a standard OS (like Linux) will find that data.

Warranty doesn't include recovery. If they can't repair it you'll get another empty one. If they repair it there's a good chance they delete your data in the process. So don't count on that.

So if all you lost is your backup, you still have the originals. I'd start with buying another hard disk to copy them to have another backup. And from that external drive to another PC, of course, so you have 2 copies besides the original. Then keep the external on a safe place outside your office and you'll have an acceptable backup for professional environment. But webbased storage might even be better and easier.

Kees

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I'm with you....replace it now (internal would be better if
Feb 21, 2011 3:45AM PST

possible) , do another backup to the new HDD and check the alternatives for replacing the 'the other drive' under warranty with WD.

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Had the same thing happen but...
Aug 25, 2011 10:48AM PDT

I had a Fathom external drive that got the "click of death" and I lost all my data. So when I replaced it, I bought the much more highly rated Western Digital My Book.

Two months ago I heard the horrible "click of death" sound as it tried and tried to search for files and then failed.

I finally got it to be recognized (sort of) by the computer. It assigned it a drive letter, but indicated that the drive was completely unformatted. About one Terebyte of data now gone!

But there's an interesting end to this hard drive story. I didn't throw it away like I did the Fathom. And the other day I gave it a try again, but this time plugging it into a different circuit -- not the powerstrip where all my other components were plugged into. Apparently the power converter (this is just a guess of course) was not pulling quite enough power from the shared power strip to power the drive. Once it was on a seperate outlet, it did just fine and I was able to access my data. I'm not fully convinced something isn't wrong with the drive, but I was able to salvage and tranfer the data to another external drive.

Kinda wierd! Because I have several other hard drives all plugged into power strips, and they all do just fine.