I bought my external MDL:WD5000AADS-11M2B1. I have never had a problem with it before. Yesterday i connected my external to my laptop and it ran fine and i started moving all of my files onto my external to free up my computer and they moved over fine. i disconnected it for a while and when i went to reconnect it to watch one of the movies i recently moved to the external it installed it as a initio default controller. I have the drive connected, the external has power and the light is on but the drive is not spinning, and it is not showing up anywhere on my computer that it is connected and i looked at all the hardware on the computer and all my devices and drivers for the computer are working properly but it is still not showing my external anywhere. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!
When you see Initio controler displayed there is usually a problem with the circuit board. Check the posts by fzabkar he explains troubleshooting the board. Opening the drive voids the warranty. If it’s a drive that came with Smartware the data will be encrypted. Even if you get the drive recognized without the board the data will be encrypted and useless. Next time make sure you have 2 copies of important data on different drives.
Joe
in addition to what Joe_S says, the model number you’re giving is not for an external, it’s for an internal drive. if you’ve pulled the drive from the case, and it’s a smartware drive, you won’t be able to see anything on the internal drive because it’s an encrypted drive. you will need the case to unencrypt it.
