Let's try this again

Hello, again… I don’t mean to be a bother. I feel like I just couldn’t properly articulate the issue I am having with my HDD so I’d like to start over and just do a whole new post with a hopfully better discription of the issue. (perhaps we could just go ahead and delete the ‘click, click blue’ post and start fresh???

Moving on:

The Past:

In the past the HDD worked fine, well and good. Arlight, then one day I noticed that the blue light on the front of the HDD was flashing, as if it was being accessed, then I also noticed that my computer just no longer recognized the HDD, the HDD Didn’t show up in my computer… Now, the computer when I first bought it assigned the HDD as (G). So I left the thing unplugged for a few weeks, out of sheer fear of distroying EVERYTHING that was on it…

So I moved and unpacked it and figured I’d give it another go and sure enough it worked just fine. Problem solved!! (right???)

The Present:

Okay, now we flash forward to just a few days ago… So far for the last 3 months the HDD has been fine, well, maybe not, there was one time where I tried to access a file and could not do so, the computer said that the file wasn’t there, yet I was right there looking right at it!! - - So I unplugged it and then tried again and bingo. it worked, Then another thing I noticed was that one of the files that I had set up a short cut on my desktop could no longer be accessed. My computer says that it’s not availible, even though the thing is plugged right in… but I could access the same file if I go through the HDD it’s self, rather than using the shortcut. another quick issue that I had noticed but thought nothing of it, was, if I kept the HDD plugged into the comptuer as it shut down then turned it back on moments later the computer would crash while turning on, so from that point on I kept the HDD disconnected from the computer while I turned it off or on… one more note, recently, as I am dealing with this current issue (See below) if I go to turn off the computer with the HDD plugged it - - It takes FOREVER to log off the computer, (that silly function it does while shutting down). So again, It gets unplugged.

The Proplem (now):

Alright, now comes the time that I have to really try my best to articulate what I am looking to fix…

A few days ago I was creating files in my HDD, you know just clicking “new folder” then taking that “new folder” and naming it. That’s all I was doing.

Then very quickly the window that I was working in just closed out.

BLIP!

so I tried to access it again but found that when I clicked to go into the HDD it wasn’t there… no sign of it, so I go to that little icon on the bottom right hand corner and went to disconect the HDD, but the comptuer said nothing was attached.

So I then shut down the computer, in hopes that it would then reconize the HDD when it rebooted.

But no luck.

And now, we’re back to the game I had before, where the HDD seems to be running and it’d do it’s flashing lights gag then stop and go solid blue and then I’d hold the HDD to see if it’s vibrating or anything and nothing. It’s just sitting.

Also from time to time (maybe about 20 mins AFTER the HDD has been reconnected) windows will say “You have to format the F drive in order to use it” or something to this effect

However, if you recall that this drive was assigned in the past G. so where it’s getting F is beyound me.

I’m also at a loss here because what the jist of the issue appears to me is this:

While I was typing within the drive it just disappeared and somehow reassinged it’s self a new drive letter.

Please help with any solutions, the information on the drive is HIGHLY important.

Thank you.

Some questions .

Did you  follow the install directions for the My Book ?  Western Digital has software built-in to the drive that installs it. You don’t use the Windows installer. So when Windows says found new hardware you should not let Windows install it. Just trying to cover all the bases  here since I don’t have enough info to go on. I’m not assuming you did anything wrong but its best to get as much  info as possible.

Also, this particular external drive is not  really for a lap-top. At least its not considered portable according to Western Digitals user manual.Its not supposed to be moved around a lot. My understanding is that it is supposed to be stationary  when in use. Its more for a desktop . The users manual says that it shouldn’t be moved while operating and that it is not a portable  hard drive . I assume there are moving parts in the Essential and the Passport is solid state.

 The  Passport is portable . I own both of these drives. The My Book Essential is hooked up to my desktop. I haven’t spent the time trying to figure a work around with the Essential freezing the boot so I unplug it when I first turn on the desktop until  after the  Windows logo comes on screen. Then I plug in the power cord connector to the back of the hard drive. 

When the blue lights are on steady that is a idle state.

When the blue lights are flashing fast approx. 3 times a second. That is an activity state.

When the blue lights are slow flashing , a flash every 2 seconds, that is a standby state.

The clicking is normal for this drive.

Its probably never a good idea to cut power to the unit during an activity state.

As for Windows assigning different drive letters to it. Do you ever have flash drives or any other devices plugged into any of the USB ports ? Windows will assign drive letters according to availability. So if you plug in a flash drive and it is assigned F:, and then plug in an external hard drive without a reserved drive letter, it will be assigned the next available drive letter. In this case G:.If you didn’t plug in a flash drive and plugged in the HD, it would be assigned the drive letter F:  and any subsequent devices thereafter would be assigned the next available drive letter. 

The best recomendation I have is first to download the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics tool. It will run diagnostics on all or any of  your drives you choose and give you a  full report . Its available here . Data Lifeguard Download Site. 

Then after getting that report you can strategize the next move. Without a diagnosis of  the hard drive everything is pretty much guess work as to what the problem is.

You can also use Windows to check the integrity of  your partions on an external drive but it won’t give you detailed  report like the WD Data Lifeguard software will.

Good Luck !   

good sir, you have been more helpful than anyone else on this forum, for that I thank you… second, I ran the test and it seems that my HDD is no longer called (G) as it once was… this baffles me.

Second, it seems that there isn’t any data on the (newly assigned) drive… what should my next step be…??

I’m confused on how this happened as while I was working within the drive to creat some folders and then the window closed out on me and boom, I can’t seem to access the drive anymore, only as a new drive.

this doesn’t many any sense to me…

and yes, to answer your question. I followed the manule to the letter. step by step and the issues I’ve mentioned are the ONLY issues I’ve come across… only this time it seems like reall bad news… I am horrified that I have lost EVERYTHING, am I a fool for not backing it up? - oh sure, however for the amount of space I had dedicated on to the EHDD, making a back up wasn’t the easist thing to accually do… so because of such the daunting task of figuring out how to back up 500 gb’s i ended up forgetting about it…

if i could be guyed into how to fix this and or get back what I’ve lost I’ll be forever greatful. and will def. learn my lesson here in backing up.

Well if its not showing any data then there apparently is nothing to recover. Assuming the drive is ok and you are sure nothing is on it then I would go ahead and format . Of course if there is anything on the drive it will be gone after formatting obviously. 

Use your partitioning software or Windows to set up three partitions. No sense in having one partition on that large of a HD.If it gets corrupted you lose everything.Use one partition for a Windows backup, one for a backup of your HD, I dont’t normally write directly to my external. Whatever I want to backup is created on my C drive and with continuous backup it gets saved to the External drive automatically.

again thanks for all the help…

Here’s what I did,

I downloaded the program you’ve suggested earlier and that seems to work just fine - with out the external hard drive plugged in - then once I plug in the hard drive, the program gets a little batty, it will search for the drive then the program will shut down.

or it will find the drive, under the wrong name, and says that it’s 100% clean and that there isn’t anything on it… I disagree I happen to know that I’ve had 1/2 of a TB of information on there.

So I’d go and click the search more button and then it acts up again and shuts down. or freezes all together…

I have some slight hope to get maybe 1 third of what I’ve lost on my old, virus ridden desk top (hence why I bought a more elite and efficiant laptop). But that’s an absolute LAST RESORT.

I’d rather recover what I can from the HDD

WAIT

WAIT

WAIT!!!

What’s this partitioning thing?

exactly?

a friend of mine said something about that… something about if I could get the partitioning connected again, or find some way to get a new one connected with out erasing my data I could then RECOVER my data…

does any of that make any scense???

A friend of mine just suggested that

I re-download the Driver for the External Drive and that may be the fix that I’m looking for…

how’d I go about that!!!