I have a My Passport Ultra 3 TB external drive connected to a computer running Windows 10. When I woke my computer from sleep yesterday, the drive was no longer accessible, and all access requests failed due to a fatal device hardware error. The drive had been working normally only a few hours earlier. The computer was not updated and the drive was not removed during that time. Changing the USB port had no effect. When I connected a different external drive to the computer, I was able to access it normally.
In Disk Management, the drive is present. But sometimes it is not initialized, and other times it is in the RAW format and empty. Clicking on the properties shows a drive size of 0 bytes.
In Device Manager, the drive is present under Disk Drives, and does not show any error. However, under Other Devices, a “WD SES Device USB Device” is listed with an error. When I try to get the computer to scan for a driver update, it says it could not find drivers for the device. When I click the properties for the device, I see the message “The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28) There are no compatible drivers for this device.”
When I attempt to run a status check in WD Drive Utilities, it says “SMART status failed.” When I attempt to run a Quick Drive Test, the test stops at 90%.
I connected the affected drive to a different computer, and was able to access the drive normally. All my files were present, and the drive was in the NTFS format.
When “the request failed due to fatal device hardware error” occurs, your device turns inaccessible. This error usually occurs while attempting to transfer/copy files and suddenly the Windows OS fails to recognize the input or the output devices. In addition, this error could also be due to a fault in the systems hardware, inappropriate configuration, loose connections, etc.
To fix the error you can try the below DIY methods:
Check the SMART status
Run an error check
Run CHKDSK scan
Initialize the disk
Further, you can check the below blog to know more troubleshooting methods that can help resolving the issue and also helps to recover data from such drive:
My old laptop was shot …an hp running windows7 , which is where I had first used my passport 1tb to store go pro pictures and videos . Also where I first started seeing issues with the drive… extremely slow, unable to disconnect properly etc … i had run WD utilities and “ repaired “ some files but can’t even turn on that laptop anymore . . Fast forward.:
new laptop: evoo Core i5-10300H Processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, THX Spatial Audio, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM . With windows 10…
I had installed WD utilities, plugged in my passport . Immediately windows said the drive needed repairs to run properly. Checked these forums . No luck . Wd smart scan would fail , the next scan would fail . Allowed windows to
“Repair” the drive . Took about an hour . Now the that the drive is “ functioning “ a lot of files still appear damaged , slow loads when opening up folders. Clicking on any images or videos sometimes will cause windows to “ not respond “ just sit there and load or even close the media player etc.
Not sure what to do next, I’m not sure the WD Software can even recognize the drive anymore. When trying run a smart scan automatically fails same for quick scan/ full scan.
Any suggestions would be great , thanks
Sorry…I’ve reported jose2020 several times to the forum admins, yet they do nothing. His advice is cut and paste and usually very destructive. He is a spammer for Stellar and they are relentless at spamming forums with very little care about any damage that they may cause just to ■■■■■■ someone into buying the horrible software.
