You could try the WD software to test the drive.
https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebas...&lang=en&p=110
I have managed to recover drives using similar software.
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You could try the WD software to test the drive.
https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebas...&lang=en&p=110
I have managed to recover drives using similar software.
Cheers fellas, I'll be looking in to this over the weekend
The best software for inspecting drives is G parted Linux which can be downloaded https://gparted.org and run off a USB
G parted can also attempt data recovery. I find it essential to see what any given issue is with a hard drive.
and its free ! Its also packaged in a Linux Mint USB which is available here - you don't have to - if you wish to install Mint rather
just run Gparted when it starts https://linuxmint.com
WD external drives are very specific with their power supply - other than that, which just requires using its plugpack and no other , the one I have has worked perfectly.
Oli, is power getting to the passport? Are you using USB power or an external power source? Are there any lights on the passport and if so do they light up? If you are using USB power try a different cable.
I assume you are using a Windows machine. Go to 'Computer management' and then to Storage/Disk Management. This is the equivalent of Gparted that Chris mentioned. If you can see the WD there that will be a very positive sign. But take care in that area don't, for example, muck around with the partitions.
Bummer!
Like someone said try thr HDD in another computer or a USB caddy/adapter and see if that works. The EaseUS software is good and so is Recuva which is by the same people who do CCleaner.
I use a QNAP TS-253 PRO set up for RAID1 which means the data gets mirrored onto both HDDs in the unit. I had a one fail and when I replaced the faulty HDD the NAS just mirrored the data from the good drive to the new. I have no issues with Volmio.
Synology and QNAP are probably the better brands to go for. Be careful of WD Myclouds. I’ve heard they have an encryption chip to protect the data on the drive but the chip has been known to fail and if it does it is impossible to decrypt the data on the drives. Other cheaper NAS drives are OK but the data transfere rates over the network can be painfully slow.
youtube vid on how to fix maybe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m5cil6KezI
Oli, sorry to hear of your HDD failure. Here is some advice and observations for what it’s worth. I have worked in IT for over 30 years and HDD especially spinning ones have a life, in my experience if used daily you’ll be lucky to get 5 years. There are several issues that can cause failure, bearing wears out causing mistracking, bearing/mechanism of read/write arm fails, electronics controlling the thing fail. The drive map is at one part of the drive this is accessed all the time causing wear to the drive.
Generally it’s the read/write head, signs of this getting passed its sell by date are longer times read and writing data, if you run tests to check the drive you will see more block errors. If this is happening it’s time to replace.
So plan to replace every 4-5 years if spinning disk drives. If it is a solid state drive(chips) these fail, they are a mass of miniaturised on/off switches put simply and after a while they will fail through use. Usually failure is catastrophic and can stop any data recovery.
If data is really important then buy a NAS drive with multiple hard drives and set up with RAID so one is a mirror of the main drive, if and when one fails you just pull the failure out and plug in the new one and RAID will then re-copy from the good drive. I would still have another external backup drive that an incremental backup is run to at least once a week.
Plug your failed drive into computer and put it to your ear, if you can hear it repeatedly clicking then the read/write mechanism has failed. If this is the case to recover data the physical drive needs to be taken out and put in another with a good read/write head. Trying to access the data with a failed read/write head may damage the disk(s).
I hope you sort it out ok
All the Best
Adrian