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Question

WD My Passport in device manager, not seen in file explorer

Feb 26, 2016 2:19AM PST

Hi, I have a my passport 1TB external non wireless hard drive. Just a day or so ago, not from anything I can think of having done, it stopped showing on file Explorer. It 'beeps' 7 times, 3 times and then 3 times. This youtube video shows what I'm pretty sure the problem is (note I haven't opened mine up because of the dangers, this just shows the issue) https://youtu.be/twwTiUbFBJM

It is shown in disk management but it says I have to re initialise and therefore it would wipe the drive (If I go through with it, it gives me a fatal error). Also smart ware states the drive has no writable partition.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I need the data off of the hard drive. I can get rid of the hard drive after, not worried about it.

Thanks

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: failed hard drive.
Feb 26, 2016 3:10AM PST

Time to call a data recovery company
http://support.wdc.com/Warranty/dataRecovery.aspx lists some they recommend.

It won't be free, unless you still have warranty.
After the warranty period backup is much cheaper than recovery. And it's always more reliable.

Kees

Post was last edited on February 29, 2016 2:46 AM PST

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Warranty Never Covers Data Recovery
Feb 29, 2016 2:21PM PST

Even if you are still under warranty, data recovery service is never free. Doesn't matter if the drive is brand new, all the warranty will do is replace the drive with a new / blank one. That's why the box always has a disclaimer saying you are responsible to back up your own data.

I'd recommend you contact one of the following companies:

Data Medics (Providence, USA)
Recovery Force (Guelph, Canada)
Data Savers (Atlanta, USA)
DataRecovery.com (USA)

All are reasonably priced and can handle these type of cases. Just be careful of some of the big name companies who charge a fortune.

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Answer
Data Recovery...
Feb 29, 2016 2:34AM PST

Hi @pd4000!

I'm sorry to hear about what happened with the drive and that you cannot access it, I know how unpleasant it can be. At this point I would suggest to contact a data recovery company and see if your information can be retrieved from the drive, and keep in mind that the more you use the drive and try to repair it, the worse the damage and the extraction of files may become. You can take a look at the link @Kees_B posted to our official website.

Hope this helps and best of luck!