WD Elements Play Multimedia Drive (2TB) won't shut off

Hello,

I got the above mentioned hard drive for palying music and video on my TV. I’ve had this for a couple of years now and never had a problem (beside a freeze now and then).

Recently however my drive has the habbit of not completely shutting down anymore. The blue light usually blinks and then dissappears but I can still feel and hear the drive running. After this it also cannot be turned on back again without first removing the power cable.

I’ve already tried clearing some space but no luck (it still has 300GB+ free memory). The remote also works normal. It sometimes shut off after been connected to my pc first but as soon as it 's been on for a while the problem comes back. Firmware should also be up to date and didn’t cause any problem untill now.

Is there a way to do a reboot or formatting without deleting all content(I don’t have another drive big enough for all the 1.5 TB).

Thanks in advance!

Have you tried a Factory Reset ? (Reset Hole pictured here)

Also, I would highly recommend you purchase another Hard Drive and Backup your data

If you lose you 1.5TB of data will you be Happy ?

No, of course not … so backup your data today. before anything happens

(i have lost data before and it is not a nice feeling … so for every hard drive i own, i have a backup drive as well. eg. 2 x 4TB, 2 x 3TB, 2 x 1TB)

Hard drive prices keep falling … eg. a 3TB WD Elements HDD costs less the $100

Ok I’ll try that. Is this the same as a format (e.g. will it delete all data) or not?
Otherwise I will back up first.

a “Factory Reset” does not (should not) Format / Delete data

This is where having a Backup will give you peace of mind if you’re unsure :slight_smile:

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