My Fixes for WD elements drives

Hi folks,

Just a couple of workarounds with Windows 10 that have helped me with my 2TB Elements External product

Firstly if your drive suddenly reports as “(drive letter) not accessible data or path corrupted” after moving files or switching between OS for example happens to me mostly after pluging into Android os on my TV then back to Windows 10.

the fix to get the MBR and drive content to show up again in windows 10

  1. run the command prompt by it’s shortcut from the start, all applications, windows tools menu or clicking your cortana icon and typing “cmd”

  2. in the DOS command window type chkdsk /f (your drive letter) in my case f: this will check the drive for any bad table information and fix most reasons the drive won’t show in windows anymore leaving your data intact.

chkdsk /r (your drive letter:) does the same thing as chkdsk /f (your drive letter:) only it also checks for bad sectors on the disk and recovers any readable information.

The WD firmware update tool also works just fine in windows 10 with administrator privileges enabled (right click and run as admin option)

For WD staff: The main cause of issues with location seems to be associated with hot swapping between Android and Windows.
Your WD Disk Utilities tool and WD’s main hardware options software for changing drive options like LED etc… will not function properly in windows 10 with Elements 2TB drives at least. I have been unable to get it to detect the Elements drive to show me information with admin privileges etc… Even though the firmware update tool detects and updates just fine?

Also you need to improve USB 3.0 connection cables with some kind of click release like an Ethernet cable connector has… they are flimsy and always coming loose which has the potential to severely impact drive lifetime and data on the device. USB 3.0 is great for the performance but the connectors must be redesigned IMO.

I hope the location inaccessible fix has helped you out without having to format all your data from your device. Usual story of WD blame Windows, Windows blame WD… reality is all these hardware providers are supposed to issue the correct software and firmware for there devices to a generic standard that has remained the same with windows for years. The key difference with newer drives is write caching options and OS hotswapping therein lays the issues.

Hello,

Thanks for sharing your solution with the community.