Problem with Western Digital Elements HD

[Tiger Fury #3]

Three months ago I purchased a WD Elements HD. For two and a half months, everything was perfect. Then, out of the blue, I plugged it in with the intention of watching a TV show. Upon clicking on the show, the device stopped responding and the window closed itself. I plugged it back in, but my laptop wouldn't recognise it. It eventually did, saying something along the lines of installing software. Even when it was apparently ready to use, the hd still wouldn't show up on my screen. I tried the HD on three seperate computers, each time achieving the same result. To make matters worse, I can't find the receipt.

I figure if the good folk at Bigfooty can't help me, no one can (without a fee) so if anyone has any advice to give it would be greatly appreciated as the HD contains a terabyte of data I would much rather not lose. Thanks.

 

[grimlock]

You need to ascertain whether the hard drive itself is corrupted or something within the enclosure. Try taking the HD itself out of the enclosure and connect it straight to your computer (via the motherboard) and see whether it recognises it then. If it doesn't, it's most likely that the HD is corrupted/dead and it can be difficult to recover data. You'll have to google for methods, some expensive, some creative, some desperate to see what you can get out of it.

 

[Tiger Fury #3]

Thanks mate appreciate it.

 

[Biggy_Boy]

You could try downloading a program like Seatools and do a scan to see if there is anything physically wrong with the drive or try and access it from a Linux live CD.

 

[red+black]

The WD Elements HD does not have an enclosure, it's all-in-one.

I'll assume you're on Windows. What do you see if you go to Disk Management?

Right click My Computer, Manage, Disk Management. Do you see anything in the top right under Volumes? How about in the bottom right in the Partitions section?

WD have their own diagnostic tools. The one below is for WD Elements Portable drives:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=303&sid=3&lang=en

 

[grimlock]

I'm not sure what you mean that it doesn't have an enclosure. If it didn't it would be just the raw hard disk and you wouldn't be able to connect via USB, you would need SATA or eSATA.

I used to have a WD Elements too, granted it's an older model from 5 years ago, but the power supply in the enclosure died on me. I opened up the WD enclosure took out the hard disk itself and put it in a new enclosure that I bought and that worked no problems.

 

[red+black]

I've purchased a few of these, I have one in my hands now. Not sure how you're supposed to open it. Jimmy it open? There are no screws, you buy it ready-made, you don't buy a separate enclosure, but you probably know all this already. Of course it has an enclosure, maybe what I should have said is to my knowledge you can't extract the drive from the enclosure.

 

[grimlock]

Ah okay, I didn't realise they re-designed it. The old design definitely had screws and was easy to remove. It's pretty sneaky of WD to design one that is hard to take apart so that people can't re-use the enclosure and/or drive inside.

http://www.devincollier.com/2010/01...-elements-500gb-2-0-portable-hard-drive-case/

This guy uses a Swiss army knife to open it.

 

[prankmonkey]

I've purchased a few of these, I have one in my hands now. Not sure how you're supposed to open it. Jimmy it open? There are no screws, you buy it ready-made, you don't buy a separate enclosure, but you probably know all this already. Of course it has an enclosure, maybe what I should have said is to my knowledge you can't extract the drive from the enclosure.

that's the portable elements drive
he might have a 3.5" drive

need to know if you have a 2.5 or 3.5" supply (ie does it have a power cord or not). i believe some of the elements range had problems with their power supplies.

 

[red+black]

I have a 3.5" also, will have to have a proper look at it. I think it's the same, just bigger.

 

[Tiger Fury #3]

The WD Elements HD does not have an enclosure, it's all-in-one.

I'll assume you're on Windows. What do you see if you go to Disk Management?

Right click My Computer, Manage, Disk Management. Do you see anything in the top right under Volumes? How about in the bottom right in the Partitions section?

WD have their own diagnostic tools. The one below is for WD Elements Portable drives:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=303&sid=3&lang=en

No dice. What i don't understand is why the white light that signals it being plugged in comes on when i connect it to my PC but the computer still can't find the device.

 

[Tiger Fury #3]

You could try downloading a program like Seatools and do a scan to see if there is anything physically wrong with the drive or try and access it from a Linux live CD.

Will do mate cheers.