WD My Book Essentials not recognised

[brmakodi]

Hi guys, looking for some help if possible.

I have 2TB My Book Essential (WDBACW0020HBK-01) and has bunch of data on it but only half full.

Used it last night without issue.

Woke up this morning and when I plugged the USB in it did not show up under ‘my computer’.

I have since unplugged it and tried different plugs, different USB cable, different USB port, different computer and turned off and unplugged the computer.  All failed to resolve the issue.

There is a continual white light still showing and I can hear what sounds like regular spinning sound inside the hard drive.

When I plug the USB in I hear the little sound to say a device has been plugged in (and same for when unplugging) but nothing else comes up under ‘my computer’ or even the ‘new device has been recognised’ etc.

If I click ‘safely remove hardware’ on this laptop I get ‘safely remove USB storage device’ and later the ‘it is now safe to remove etc’, when I clicked on the remove device tab on my new PC it came up with another name I cant recall AT??? something I think.  Either way it wasnt named as My Book like usual.

I have read some other posts but havent found one exactly the same.

If I go to device manager i can see it under WDC WD20 EARS-00MVWB) USB Device, however under Disk Management I cant see it in the top  screen but I do have Disk 0 (which is C drive I think) and below that I have Disk 1 which has 1863.01 GB and I think this is my My Book hard drive.  Initially it said not initialized (i think) and I right clicked and initialized it so now it says Basic and also online but it hasnt transferred it to the top window where I could possibly do something with it.

Through the online forum I tried an option of downloading Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics hoping I could check it there but it doesnt even show up under either physical drive or logical drive.

Would very much appreciate some wisdom and magic please.

Cheers

[WD_ME]

Im having the same issue and i cant even  reformat the darn thing.

[brmakodi]

Certainly wish I was someone else writing a basic answer to my reply rather than me adding to it haha.

I am now on my new pc and I still cant see it at all under ‘my computer’ under the devices with removable storage.

I can however find it listed as ‘My Book’ under devices and printers.

Having said that I cant do anything with it except eject or open properties.

It shows that its working properly which to me indicates a computer is somehow telling a little lie lol.

Under disk management it also looks like its unallocated.  Not sure what that means.

By reading untold of these forums I think it may possibly need formatting??? but i dont want to do that because I dont know how but also because i dont want to lose the data which I cant even see right now anyway.

May be of relevance (or not) to mention that when it was used last it was to watch a movie on tv last night and tv was turned off and I think but may be wrong in saying I also turned off the DVD player we watch it through and when I took out the hard drive Im pretty sure it was turned off but wasnt ejected safely.  Having said that, does it even matter if the device is turned off?

Heeeelllllp please. whole day wasted trying to sort this out.

Cheers

[Neohelp]

Hello,

I got a few questions.

• Are you aware that Initializing your drive removes all the data on the external drive?

• After Initialized are you able to see your drive on My Computer?

• In Disk Management, does the external drive has a letter assigned?

[brmakodi]

Hi Neohelp and thanks for your input.

To answer your questions…

1. No I was not aware that initializing would remove the data but having said that I tend to think that it had already disappeared

2. Still cant see it on My Computer

3. No letter assigned to it under disk management

Ive worked out how to do a screen shot and upload it here so for that I will add a smiley face for a change haha

Should be three screen shots attached each showing you specifics.

Hope this helps and thanks again for your help.

[mhenley91]

Sorry to add to this some more, but I also have almost the exact same problem you do. I have a My Book Essential 1.5TB external HDD.

Just today, while I was in the middle of restoring a bunch of files after replacing a crashed hard drive, I suddenly got a bunch of errors about my files being corrupted and such and not being able to be restored. I figured that I had accidently jiggled the cord or something like that and the HDD got disconnected for a moment which messed the whole thing up. That has been known to happen with this one. However, when I disconnected it, I noticed that the light which should turn off was staying on. Here’s the only thing that differs from mine to yours: When I connect mine, I get no recognition that something’s been connected from my computer - no sound, no nothing. Other than that, it’s the same: No recognition by my computer, or by the disk manager, or any of that. Even with the HDD actually spinning up after being plugged in. This happens in every USB plug on both the laptop I was restoring and a desktop.

So, in the end, I’m contemplating RMAing the thing. Unless someone can come up with something pretty quickly, I guess I’ll just have to lose a huge amount of work and such that will be a huge pain to replace… This one’s worked fine for the year and a half or so that I’ve had it up until now, so I’ll happily get it replaced this one time, but I think that if it happens again, I’ll have to bring my business elsewhere…

EDIT: also, I should note that I thought that I had heard it clicking a bit before it failed, but I paid it no mind… My mistake, I suppose. That was probably my warning right there.

[frannyz]

Sorry I can’t help you

 1 bought  2 of those disks last year. Was used to store the same datas en both

 3 month ago one of them fell and the same thing you got occured, I didn’t  use the gaurantee, it was my fault

you can see the disk in the  config pannel  but it doesn’t open

it doesn’t show in “my computer”

if you unplug it, a screen says you must first disconnect it  but it won’t disconnect if you do so, but it disappears from the config pannel and makes the connecting sound when you reconnect the usb port

I still had the other one so  I used it and to night  we had an electricity fall, since then my second ebook does the same… and this time it is not my fault, it is only  too fragile

I tryed to get help from the email  support but my product is not more under garantee

If somebody from wd reads thats : if we buy those disk it is to store datas we want to keep some time, if they crash after   the guarantee time it’s no use buying them

So I think I’ll go on all sellers forums I know and write not to buy the  bleep thing  and you fellows should do the same !!!

And I’ll do it in the  5 languages  i speak  don’t buy wd products

 

and nobody here can help an old blond !!!

[brmakodi]

Cheers for the other members input and from reading your issues, plus my own experiences and reading other members issues on these forums I now realise WD does indeed **bleep**.  I didnt mention in my initial post but this is the second failure with a WD product and the first we lost everything.  I purchased a newer bigger hard drive figuring it may have been a once off.  My main issue is that I have posted on here a few times and sent through an email log of it with a follow up saying where is my actual email help.  And to date, all I have to show for it is my still useless hard drive, one posting of questions from someone I think is with WD (neohelp) and thats it the end. The best input so far is from other members in similar situations. Customer service **bleep** and I have now come to the conclusion that WD products also **bleep**.  My hard drive is still in warranty but as yet I havent had contact from WD saying this is what we will do or how you replace it etc.

[brmakodi]

oh and for the record all the bleeps that changed automatically when I posted my last were for the word that is the opposite of ‘blow’ and could also be used to describe how you drink through a straw lol

[brmakodi]

Users, readers and staff,

I havent been on here since my last post obviously and wanted to wait and see what unfolded before posting again.

Today I received a replacement hardrive in the mail.

The replacement hardrive has had most of (and possibly even all) my data transferred over to it.  I have yet to check exact information stored.

I went through the phone assistance thing as well as online here.  WD contacted me and me them a few times.

Basically they made an exception to their rule (if I understood them correctly) and not only replaced my hardrive but had me send in my hardrive to which they were able to somehow recover my lost data, transfer it onto a new hardrive and send it to me.

So fair is fair I say and it is only right that I make all aware of this.  It took a long time and I complained and wrote negative stuff and justifiable so I believe.  Now though I can say they have fixed the problem.

I will forever be wary of WD hardrives and have purchased a competitors equivalent.  Having said that though, it too may fail in due time.

That leaves me with my new found wisdom of not trusting any of them and backing up data to a few items stored  in various places so as to prevent a loss like I suffered.

My problem came about from an unknown problem that shouldnt have occurred in the first placen but WD, I thank you for resolving the issue.  Thank you very much.

Cheers

Brendon