I’ve had the 500Gb drive for 21 months, so still within its 2 year warranty. It used to be recognised as “Local Disk (F:My Passport)” if memory serves me correctly, but now simply as “Local Disk (F:)”. I rang WD and they directed me to do a quick and an extended test. The quick test was ok but the extended test showed several bad sectors. The WD customer service guy said they can replace the drive, or I can format the drive which may allow it to be used again but this will obviously destroy all the data on it. He then said I can try to used some data recovery software, but they do not provide any data recovery software, which I find VERY strange indeed. I’m disappointed that WD aren’t more helpful, especially as the Passport drive is within the warranty as I’m trying to recover data from it.
Can anyone recommed which of the many kind of data recovery software I should use please? My pc is running XP. The symptoms are the same when I try the Passport with a different USB lead and on a laptop too, indicative of the fault only being the drive itself.
Regardless of the drive being replace, I now cannot depend entirely on WD for data storage, so will have too use another manufacturer. Does anyone have experience of other companies, like Seagate?
Thanks in advance,
Martin (London, UK)
