New My Passport 2TB not accessible and shows as Local Disk

Hello. I badly need help. Yesterday, I bought a new WD My Passport 2TB External Hard Drive . I went home without checking if it works from the store. When I tried using at home, it loads very slowly, and my Windows 10 can only read it as a ‘Local Disk’ drive. I tired plugging it in on my Windows 7 laptop too but no changes. I have tried chkdsk several times with my Win10, but it won’t work.

I went back to the store today, replacing it with a new unit after checking by the staff. This time, before I left the store, I checked the external hard drive with my own Windows 7 laptop, and the Windows 10 laptop available at the store. It works perfectly fine. When I got home, I plugged it in excitedly on my WIndows 10 PC, but after a few minutes, it transferred files very slowly, so I unplugged and plugged it in again. Now it can only be read as ‘Local Disk’ too. Take note that this is a completely brand new WD My Passport External Hard Drive. I have tried things I’ve read from the internet but sadly, nothing works.

I hope you can help me. I can’t even do anything with it, except using CMD. It kills my windows explorer, even if I just right click on it.

jedirene…looks like things worked in the store, but failed on you win10 home machine.

  • does the 2TB still work on the win7 laptop without Explorer errors…can you copy/paste files here with reasonable speed and consistency? If it does, and the win10 PC does not, then it’s probably not the hardware.
  • on the win10 PC, are you using the usb3.0 direct connect, and not a thru a hub. Should work on a usb2 which is what your laptop probably has for win7. Also, try another USB on the win10 device.
  • I see WD support mentioning about permissions. here is a link
    https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8752
  • maybe this win10 machine has some virus program running that is blocking access…try turning off the program to check if Explorer can see it. Maybe try a Malware pgm.
  • you say it “kills my windows explorer” does it mean Explorer hangs up. Did you by chance pull the USB wire without safely using the Eject icon on the bottom by the clock? If something is writing to the drive and you just force pull the plug, you could mess up the drive. If this now also fails back in your laptop with Explorer…there is a problem.

This is what happens when I tried plugging it in on my Windows 7 this morning. It keeps loading like when I used it on Windows 10.

Oh Oh…

  • if you remove the Local Disk, either by proper Eject of USB (down by clock under the Up arrow) or shut you Laptop down…

  • re-log into you laptop and win10 machines Without the HD attached…does Explorer viewing of the C: drive go quickly, and not slowly crawl across the top bar?

  • if no USB HD, and everything is fine, then I believe your HD is definitely the problem. There is a file, folder that has corrupted and when Explorer tries to read it affects all of Explorer on any other drive…C:

  • I had a problem like this when I tried to delete a video that was playing…and I forced a delete. Everytime I tried to subsequent rename/delete the file, Explorer started acting up. I ended up isolating the file/folder, moving all the good stuff to a new folder and never touch that folder again…kinda of a slight pain but I could not figure how to fix. Here is a link of someone discussing a similar problem. Redirecting to Google Groups

  • so, the HD originally worked with you laptop and now it fails after first hooking it to your Win10 PC.

  • What were you trying to do on the Win10…did it open fine at first and then go bad after you put stuff on it. Did you try to delete stuff that was open or pull the USB out from the port. Must use Safe Eject, especially if a program is running.

I was transferring files, but the transfer was very slow so I cancelled it.

I’m back on Win10 now. This is what it looks like from Disk Management and Device Manager.
image
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EDIT: I have returned the unit to the store. It turns out that it was a new model of My Passport, and it was the first release. Both units are faulty and I will not recommend buying it. Please don’t buy it. The WD My Passport Ultra Slim.

I have replaced the WD unit with a Seagate, and it works fine. Problem solved!

jedirene…I’m glad you were able to find Peace with your situation. Fortunately you didn’t have years of data since it was new. The Forum is going to miss your comments cause you were able to dialog repeatedly with some technical knowledge…I liked your Device Manager post in another blog today… about Update the driver.

  • I’m guessing that when you did not have the HD attached, both your Win10 and laptop worked for the Explorer…that definitely pointed to the HD…hope you were able to get a refund.

  • I have a 1Tb and 2Tb Passport (2626 USB drive) and have not had problems, but will keep an eye based on your experience. I do a important stuff backup onto the 2 drives in-case of drive failure.

  • just a comment…I saw your CMD box inquiry that you posted that was all black. If I may, if you do a cntl A, the box display will turn gray or white (I think there is a color setting). Then I use the Win Snip screen capture to just isolate what I want to capture for clipboard or print. To activate the Snip, press the WinSymbol, shift key and S key. Window will go gray at which point you can drag a window across the section to capture. An image will briefly appear on your lower rt screen…if you now quickly pick this image, a new window appears that allow scaling, or highlite markers or Print. No pure text box editor exists. If you mark up your image, you must re-Snip the page. Sorry, for these comments especially since you may already know how. Snip allows capturing a smaller portion of your display screen and is not browser based, so any displayed window works, even capturing the Desktop for future reference. I wish it would have text box capability and a scrolling capture of slide bar in Explorer…I use Snagit for that.

  • Remember, always do a Safe Eject of the USB drive

Hello There.

I’m having the same problem as Jedirine.

My Wd Elements Portable Hard Drive 1Tb is currently having the same error as jedirine gets.
the Request failed due to fatal device hardware error.

the Initialized Disk button doesn’t work.
What can you suggest regarding to it ?

Our president here in our company needed the files inside of this one .
hoping he can get his files back .

This Is what I’m getting now.
What can I do about it ?

Have you tried chkdsk?

Yes I did but still has the same error

Can you help me ?

Hdd like this are usually easy to fixed by simply initializing it . But on this one, I don’t know why . It doesn’t allow me to initialize the disk .

Hello Ms. Jedirene.

Yes, I’ve tried chkdsk but it doesn’t show at CMD.

And aside from that, I tried to check diskmanagement as well but it says that it is unknown and not initialize.
upon right clicking it, the Initialize button are Faded which means i can’t do that.

i don;t know why .
Can you suggest that will be able to help me / ?

Hi, I also encounter similar issues.

My WD (My Passport 4 TB) suddenly freeze when being used, then make everything freeze in my new notebook (windows 10, USB 3). After waiting for quite long time (around 15 minutes or so), I tried to force restart the notebook. After that my external HDD couldn’t be opened. The HDD appear as drive F in my Computer, but it couldnt be opened.

At first, there is pop up notification written as “The request failed due to fatal device hardware error”.

Second time, I tried on different PC. It still couldn’t be opened but there’s no notification pop up. It listed as drive F in my computer also in computer management. However in the computer management, the HDD file system written as RAW (not NTFS). The drive still couldn’t be accessed.

The third time, I tried some suggestion to check it on Macbook (iOS). The HDD doesn’t appear on the finder, but it shown (after around 15 minutes or so) in disk utility. However i couldnt mount the drive or accessed the files. When i click the HDD properties in disk utility, it’s written “can be verified:no, can be repaired:no”.

The forth time, i try again to access using 1st notebook (to try chkdsk). It shown as drive F but when i try to open computer management, again the notebook getting freeze and the weird sound started. I have to force shut down (again) and unplug the cable.

Is there any suggestion for these?

As the data really really important for me, I need information how to fix this issue.

I try to see some videos on youtube but that’s make me more confuse, whether that’s hardware failure or system failure?

What should I do to recover all data inside HDD? Should i retry using chkdsk/data recovery software?

Or i should I stop trying to plug the HDD to prevent more damage (if it’s hardware failure)?

Thanks and looking forward for the recomendation.