Western Digital ext Owners?

2085 Views 12 Replies 7 Participants Last post by pm-r, Jan 4, 2014

HenriHelvetica

Discussion Starter · Jan 3, 2014

Just looking for some testimonials. My external may JUST have failed. #SMH

I ejected it for just a few moments and replugged it and now, I just get a flashing light. Did some quick research and found the mother thread describing the same issue. Plugged it in a diff 10.6.8 laptop and the same results. Anyone have this happen?? I read some solutions from changing the power cord, to plugging it in a windows box and back to a Mac (which worked apparently?) to put it in a fridge (?!?!).

Anyhow, i'm still going through some testing but it's not looking like the best. The drive spins - which is good news (?). Anyone know an affordable data recovery provider, or is that a contradiction in terms?

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eMacMan

· #2 · Jan 3, 2014

Was this reformatted specifically for Mac?

Watching these threads over time, I would say it is just as common for the external enclosure to fail. If this is what has happened removing the drive and putting it into a different enclosure will cure the problem.

If you have not as yet done a reboot on the computer that would be my first step. Also look for the drive in Disk Utility. You may be able to select it even though it is greyed out, then click on the mount tool.

When you unmounted did you wait at least 10 seconds before disconnecting? In theory it should be safe the instant the icon disappears from the desktop, but I have seen that not properly disconnected dialog box far too many times when people were in a big hurry.

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HenriHelvetica

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 3, 2014

I may have had the best news over night. This just popped up.

AT least I can read stuff off it. I'm off to grab a new back up today to make this transfer happen.

Can this disk be salvaged you think? I don't mind having 2 backups TBH. I may have to retool here either way as I feel like I want to bring my music back ON my laptop and not have it externally.

Anyhow, off to grab another b/u today and maybe a new laptop drive.

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Macfury

· #4 · Jan 3, 2014

I would never try to salvage a disk where such a thing happened. Data is too valuable to fool around with.

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Myrddin Emrys

· #5 · Jan 3, 2014

HenriHelvetica said:
I may have had the best news over night. This just popped up.

AT least I can read stuff off it. I'm off to grab a new back up today to make this transfer happen.

Can this disk be salvaged you think? I don't mind having 2 backups TBH. I may have to retool here either way as I feel like I want to bring my music back ON my laptop and not have it externally.

Anyhow, off to grab another b/u today and maybe a new laptop drive.

Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro can salvage such disks especially if you just want to grab data of the disk. They will repair and rebuild file and director structures to make the best stab at retrieving data from a readable drive.

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John Clay

· #6 · Jan 3, 2014

Macfury said:
I would never try to salvage a disk where such a thing happened. Data is too valuable to fool around with.

+1

Goes in the recycling bin.

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pm-r

· #7 · Jan 3, 2014

Assuming that the WD external was the only place where the data exists, I have no idea why some would suggest not trying to recover it as the OS dialog suggests. Apple developers aren't going to provide such a suggestion if it was not going to work.

That message can occur if a volume was disconnected without being unmounted properly. If so, Disk Warrior can often fix the problem even if Disk Utility can't, or using its suggestion to repartition/format the drive. Preferably using the DU zero out option, but after doing any possible recovery to another drive volume.

If the recovery doesn't work even using Disk Warrior, then the drive is no doubt kaput!!

If so, pull it apart and save the magnets which can have all kinds of useful uses. But watch out - they are very strong and powerful!!

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Macfury

· #8 · Jan 3, 2014

pm-r said:
I have no idea why some would suggest not trying to recover it as the OS dialog suggests.

The OP can read the data from the disk already without the use of recovery software. His question was whether or not he should try to salvage the disk itself.

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HenriHelvetica

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 4, 2014

eMacMan said:
If you have not as yet done a reboot on the computer that would be my first step. Also look for the drive in Disk Utility. You may be able to select it even though it is greyed out, then click on the mount tool.

When you unmounted did you wait at least 10 seconds before disconnecting? In theory it should be safe the instant the icon disappears from the desktop, but I have seen that not properly disconnected dialog box far too many times when people were in a big hurry.

I rebooted a few time last night so that wasn't the case. And re: the 10 sec wait time, it was well post that as I was on my way out, then decided to stick around after my friend bailed. Anyhow, it's still mounted as we speak and will just copy stuff over right now. THX!

@Myrddin Emrys

I'm thinking of doing a straight drag and drop since my lap/and apps are able to read the file. Essentially, just doing what I can whilst I have the external's attention.

I might look into better diagnosis if all goes well and see what happens. THX.

I might try to save this disk but i'm going into this knowing that i'll likely toss it. If it worked, I would only keep it as a back up device for emergencies, but at the very least I might just keep the case and drop something else in there - specs allowing.

So I just found a sale on a Seagate 1TB portable external for $70. I essentially bought it as a temporary /pro tem fix, as i get something possibly faster / bigger and get a new laptop drive as well.

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pm-r

· #10 · Jan 4, 2014

Macfury said:
The OP can read the data from the disk already without the use of recovery software. His question was whether or not he should try to salvage the disk itself.

Thanks for your correction Macfury and I guess I misunderstood the original question of what the OP wanted to possibly recover or salvage.

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heavyall

· #11 · Jan 4, 2014

HenriHelvetica,

Keep in mind that when WD externals "fail", it's usually not the drive that's gone south. Their enclosures are notoriously flakey. I've had a couple of them that were displaying similar behaviours to yours, and all I had to do to permanently fix the problem was to replace the enclosure. In each case, the drives were rock solid ever since, no other intervention required.

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HenriHelvetica

Discussion Starter · #12 · Jan 4, 2014

heavyall said:
HenriHelvetica,

Keep in mind that when WD externals "fail", it's usually not the drive that's gone south. Their enclosures are notoriously flakey. I've had a couple of them that were displaying similar behaviours to yours, and all I had to do to permanently fix the problem was to replace the enclosure. In each case, the drives were rock solid ever since, no other intervention required.

GREAT TO KNOW.

I was totally about to keep that enclosure like nothing was wrong with it. Would be a major bummer if it were the case (dbl entendre) .

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pm-r

· #13 · Jan 4, 2014

heavyall said:
HenriHelvetica,

Keep in mind that when WD externals "fail", it's usually not the drive that's gone south. Their enclosures are notoriously flakey. I've had a couple of them that were displaying similar behaviours to yours, and all I had to do to permanently fix the problem was to replace the enclosure. In each case, the drives were rock solid ever since, no other intervention required.

I don't know about their "notoriously flakey" enclosures and I have three of them, but when one, their old "premier" versions went goofy on me with one of its FW connections, they replaced it on warranty without question, but I did have to pay postage as I recall to send it to them for replacement.

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