I have had a WD Elements 3TB external hard drive (#WDBAAU0030HBK-01) for less than a year. Last night I was transferring a large folder from my laptop PC to the external drive. The transfer stopped in the middle because of an I/O error and I could no longer access any files on the external or safely remove it. I then shut down the PC and disconnected the power cord from the external and rebooted both. I could access the external again, so I tried to transfer the remainder of the files. The same exact thing happened mid-transfer.
I then went to the WD website and downloaded the diagnostic tool WinDlg. The SMART test said that the external drive was in failure because the re-allocated sector count was reading at a 133 value when the threshold should be 140.
So far I have been able to back up the files with no trouble (transferring from the external to the PC). The trouble doesn’t seem to start until I try to copy files back onto the external. It seems like I can take stuff off the drive, but not put stuff on it.
Is this a driver problem or is the external likely facing mechanical failure? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
