After upgrading smartware, I then needed to reconfigure my backups, but before doing so I decided to first use wd erasedrive to clean out all the old stuff. Unfortuantely that has turned my passport into an expensive paperweight. I have now spent way too much time trying to reformat the drive using various wd tools as well as windows and acronis. each time the format fails. is there any way to reformat the drive? why does wd erasedrive render the drive useless?
Try using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics to test and erase the unit.
After that you can initialize and format the drive.
How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/940
How to low level format or write zeros (full erase) to a WD hard drive or Solid State drive
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1211
How to initialize or write a signature to a secondary hard drive or Solid State drive in Windows (8, 7, Vista, XP)
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1018
How to partition and format a WD drive on Windows (8, 7, Vista, XP) and Mac OSX
this solution doesn’t work. eveything is fine until the last step format does not complete successfuly.
In this case the unit appears to have failed.
Maybe you should contact support to see what other options are available.
