External HDD Going Bad?

Darren

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
I've had a Western Digital My Passport for 2-3 years now and am suspecting that it's going out. I primarily have used it as a backup means when doing Windows reinstalls and more recently just kept it as storage for Movies and TV Shows. Usually it just stays plugged into the front of my machine and sits inside my 5.25" slots that are open. I've noticed that sometimes, especially when watching something saved to it, that it will disconnect and reconnect instantly and I'll have to reload the file I'm viewing. This is sporadic and I've of course tried other USB ports. Also does it in my laptop.

I cannot however get Seatools in Windows to see the drive and thus scan it. Is there any other software I can use to check it that should pick it up? Disk reads fine in Disk Management and has a letter assigned. Just can't get Seatools to pick it up.
 
Is this one of the drives to where you can remove the hdd from the case and test it? If you can, I would. Could be a cable issue.
 
I don't think you can take any of the WD external harddrives appart and read them like a regular drive. I recall reading about their 3.5" external HDDs having a lock on the drives itself to only be read through their enclosures.

There was a huge thread about it when people realized their 2TB external drives were cheaper than the 2TB WD Greens Newegg was selling.

@Darren, consider reading through this. http://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=940
 
Intel_man said:
I don't think you can take any of the WD external harddrives appart and read them like a regular drive.
Click to expand...
Not sure when this took effect but I have an older WD Elements external that I was able to take out of the enclosure and attach to pc.
 
Intel_man said:
I don't think you can take any of the WD external harddrives appart and read them like a regular drive. I recall reading about their 3.5" external HDDs having a lock on the drives itself to only be read through their enclosures.

There was a huge thread about it when people realized their 2TB external drives were cheaper than the 2TB WD Greens Newegg was selling.

@Darren, consider reading through this. http://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=940
Click to expand...

This is what I needed, thanks. I looked before for WD's own software but couldn't find it for whatever reason. Running long test now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top