My malfunctioned Book Unessential WD 2TB

A month after buying the product: My Book Essential 2TB, [edited] , it stopped working. No computer was able to recognize it (except that a USB was plugged and that it). Couldn’t initialize the drive through the Manager. After a bit of googling I gave up and bought another more reliable product, not of your company, that “amazingly” a year after works. Now - a year after I bought your product I’m trying to see if I can bring it back to life, and seeing I still got warranty - so it might stop taking dust - and check if some of the data I backed on this drive can be restored.

Googling again I found some of the following results from your own forums:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-for-PC/My-2TB-MyBook-Essential-external-hard-drive-won-t-show/td-p/58806

http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/My-Book-Essential-2T-Won-t-Mount-or-Show-Up-On-Computer-No/td-p/67104

http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/My-Book-Essential-Not-Working/td-p/258208

The last link I think got the solution and I  believe its the same problem I (and many many disappointed users of your product) experiencing.

The general solution is described here:

http://www.allthingsdentistry.com/2011/09/repair-western-digital-external-hard.html

and here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sENpoL88Zw

Of course I’m not 100% sure that the solution to my problem - but from all accounts - that seems the one most probable (replacing the controller card).

I haven’t tried this solution myself for the following main reasons:

One - I don’t feel that it’s my responsibility to fix a problem in equipment that malfunction by the same problem that happens to thousands (if not more) of users of the same product.

Two - I don’t think that as respectable company (as you present yourself to be) would actually expect “find the solution yourself” behavior acceptable.

Three - I’m not trained electrical \ computer engineer that I want to take risk losing my last chance to save my data - and a bit less hopeful (and now less caring after spending money to buy other more reliable data storage devices) - ever recover the equipment itself.

Four - Why should I spend more money fixing your product when the problem seems to be a repeatable flawed design (the controller card)?

Five - And sadly the biggest reason - as long as I’m not trying to fix it by myself - I can hopefully use my last remaining 1 year warranty (from 2 I got for the equipment) to give you a chance to try and solve me my problem AND recover the data I got on it (according to the solution I found the data probably undamaged).

As I mentioned - I tried to initialize the drive - and couldn’t - always get the message “drive is not ready”. Also I tried to connect the adapter directly to power outlet - didn’t work. Got new power adapter - didn’t work.

According to the solution I found - its suggesting replacing the controller card. This means the data inside the external hard disk in intact and not damaged. I don’t think I need to accept just replacing the drive when you as easily can help me recover my data.

One last thing - I reported this to your support team in your “email” application form - and of course no answer. Not only that there is no answer - you don’t even even reply in any way… Nice.

Respectfully (but grudgingly),

Oran

This a users forum, here you will not receive an official WD answer.  I suggest you to contact WD Support.

do not continue trying to initialize the drive if you want your data back

try using a data recovery software to retrieve your data

the threads you are referencing too might not be related to the problem you are having

you do not have to replace parts to get it to work… this user have the expertise required to try that

I already tried to contact support - they finally answered me few hours ago - with no avail. Hope they’ll try to find away to solve the problem AND restore the data and not just end with “send us the disk and we will replace it”…

And I tried using the recommended recovery programs I found in this forums but alas - without the drive being recognize its seems they can’t even attempt recover it.

For now Im giving  last chance for WD support to try helping me… But from reading previous forums with same described problem their solution was “if u got warranty  - send and we will replace, no data recovery” and if your warranty is over: “you are on your own…”. Lucky for me I still got warranty buy I really hope WD wont just shrug its responsibility from helping it costumer in retrieving the data from its malfunctioned product - especially if the solution (for them at least) is simple and easy.