My Book Essential is freezing my PC

I am using My Book Essential 2.0 with WD Anywhere Backup software. I started to receive error messages tonight that it wasn’t able to locate certainbackup  files and then all of a sudden my PC stopped working. At first I was confused and tryed without success to reboot my PC in Windows  and then in safe mode without any luck. It wasn’t until I disconnected My Book Essential from the PC that I could get it running again. When I reconnected it to the PC it froze up once more. 

At the outset this seems to be a failure in the drive to respond to host O/S commands.

Other than going through the basic “canned callcenter” suggestions &  troubleshooting items, there’s not a lot I can suggest that wouldn’t involve tearing into the drive mechanics themselves or thinking about beginning data recovery operations.

You didn’t mention if the drive has any lights or if it spins up or makes any type of noise… These are clues that could help direct us to a solution. Otherwise all I can say is do the following:

1- check power adapter

2- verify good solid usb cable operation

3- test on another computer

4- rma the defective disk

This is all standard run-of-the-mill stuff  that can be tried straight away. Yes it’s all basic stuff. But what else is there to do? Keep in mind these are black boxes and are not meant to be taken apart and fixed.

Best of regards!

Would the error messages that were repeatedly flashing on my monitorthat were saying that the My Book drive was not backing up certain files indicate anything?

Also you mentioned the lights on the my Book, normally it is lit up to about 25% of the height of the unit. Last night it was only partially lit up on the bottom.

Does the motor of the drive spin up at any point? And if so, when?

Honestly I don’t ever remember hearing the motor on the My Book drive as it is extremely silent. Do you think that there is a loose cable inside that I should be looking for/

It’s possible. There might not be any wires or cables in there. It could be that everything is modular and made to fit together like a wood puzzle of a sort. Depends on what engineering and design were doing.

We need to determine if the disk can spin up. Yes they’re quite quiet. But nevertheless that’s a first step here.

I will double check tonight when I return home and give you an update.

OK, I checked it out this morning. When I plug in the power cable to the drive nothing happens. Then when I plug in the usb cable I can hear noise inside the casing from the drive, the lights flicker constantly but nothing else happens. I used to see a solid light displayed which was going up about 25% from the bottom of the drive. When I attempt to open the WD Anywhere Backup software I get a not responding message.

What kind of noise is happening in the drive? Is it spinning up? Buzzing? Clicking? And how long does it happen for?

The minute I connect the usb cable I hear a extremely low “thump thump” sound but nothing else.

By the way was there any firmware updates for this drive?

is it just 2 thump-thumps? or is it constantly making a thump-thump sound?  I’m know this sounds like I’m making fun, but I am serious.  also, have you tried plugging the drive directly into the wall to make sure it’s getting enough power?

oh, I’m so sorry, but if your pc froze up, you may have file system errors on the drive itself.  and since you’re getting error messages about files not being backed up, that could be because smartware can’t find the drive.  is your computer running, now?  can you access is in window explorer?  does the drive show up either in computer or disk management?

Sorry for the delay in answeringbut I have been traveling.

The thump thump sounds keeps on repeating.

I plugged the drive directly into the wall outlet and nothingn changed.

I tried another usb cable and still no luck.

When you click on “My Computer” the My Book drive does not appear (but it used to)

I am bumping my last post as I really need some help with this.

The thump thump sounds keeps on repeating.

I plugged the drive directly into the wall outlet and nothingn changed.

I tried another usb cable and still no luck.

When you click on “My Computer” the My Book drive does not appear (but it used to)

The thumping could come from a disk trying (but failing) to relocate a bad sector.

And until the the disk does, it (can) put a hold on external communications.

Or altogether, there could be a bad head assembly.

So at this point I should put in a warranty claim, correct?

Typically, yes. There’s not a lot to do. Plug it in it works, if it don’t it’s broked and needs a-fixin.

You can of course try things like HDD Regenerator (which fixed a problem with a few bad sectors and disconnects for me) and other utilities. But that’s if you want to spend some time learning about how disks work and stuff like that.

There’s probably no easy magic fix. External disks are very much black box gadgets.