There seem to be a recurring issue with 500GB external Western Digital “My Book” Hard Drives (HD) & other models going bad. These HD go bad and display a message " disk not formatted. Do u want to format it now?"
There seem to be an issue with booting sector & partitions going bad.
We have tried solutions using “TestDisk” software solution with no success; See below
A fter rebooting nothing happens… we see the drive but not the data.
Request for FORUM Help:
Any one that has experienced this problem and identified the “solution”, we welcome your valuable input to save our data.
I’m running MSFT VISTA O/S and the hard drive is external.
Western Digital knows about the problem but offers not solution, their tech support service informed me to take the drive to a repair shop which is absurd. I will not purchase another low quality WD drive again…
Step 1: Download ‘Testdisk’
A. At the first window, select “ No Log ” and press the < Enter > key.
B. Select which drive to analyse, choose “ Proceed ” and < Enter >.
C. Select partition type – Intel if it’s a PC then < Enter >.
D. Choose Advanced > press < Enter >.
E. Choose Boot > press < Enter >.
F. Choose Rebuild BS > press < Enter >.
G.Note: Do not need to choose Repair FAT, just exit the program. Computer should be able to recognize your hardisk again.
THE SOLUTION ABOVE DID NOT WORK! Please advise Alternative solution.
