yesterday My external drive suddenly made these noises which can best be described as 1) you hear something like an arm move back and forth rapidly for about 3 seconds 2) A long beep that kinda sounds like a low pitched shot clock going off 3) a normal beep and then it repeats the process until you unplug it from its power source, it won’t turn off by holding the power button. Now every time I try to turn it on all it does is make those noises, the light turns on and my computer will still recognize that its their but
I can’t access my files, how can I get the drive to work so that I can move it to a new drive?
I don’t have a new drive but it will be much more cheaper to move all my files to a new My Book than to use a data recovery service, So all I need is a way to open it, even if its a one time thing, without voiding my warranty.
Also each time I try to plug it in, I notice the first sound becomes more rapid, so I’m not sure if me turning it on a couple of times ruined anything.
model number is WDBACW0030HBK-01
Try running a test with our Data Lifeguard Diagnostics software.
How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/940
You can use a data recovery software to retrieve the files if possible.
I guess I’ll try it later, but usually when a drive is failing using it will only cripple it more, so I’ll hold off on diagnosing it via WD’s diagnostic tool until I get another drive ready to perform an emergency file transfer.
But my computer didn’t recognize the drive, well let me rephrase that… My computer recognizes a “mass storage device” but it doesn’t know what it is, so I don’t think the diagnostic tool will work, but who knows?
Also if you could give me any tips on how to “force” the drive to work, without voiding my warranty and doing the least amount of damage would be much obliged.
P.S. I don’t have the dough for a pro, I’ll only be able to whip up enough money to buy a new WD 3TB My Book and pray that I can salvage my data.
Oh I may not have made this clear, my apologies.
My drive doesn’t even power up properly, when it powers up you can hear it “lock up” like something is stuck and isn’t moving, which is probably why it beeps and tries again to no avail.
I did some searching online and the most logical explanation I came up with is hard drive stiction, but I’m not a tech genius so my opinion is probably wrong…
Anyways my drive has a problem starting up, when it does it makes those series of noises I said in my first post and never truly starts up.
My apologies for any misunderstandings I may have caused and I appreciate your time and effort.
