WD My Book Problem

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
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I have a WD external drive (model:  WD3200do32-000).  It has been acting a little odd lately, so I just got a new external drive.  By oddly, it’s been freezing and some of the files were not accessible…but only some of the time.  

First, I tried to move the folders to the new drive.  They began to transfer, but then stop.  It would just completely freeze.  I wasn’t able to eject the drive.  I just unplugged the USB.  The drive was still lit and the light kept spinning.  The power button didn’t work either.  The only way I could get the drive to power down was to unplug the power supply.   I then tried to transfer the same files (all my photos) a few days later and they transferred successfully.  

By the way, I’ve tried using different USB ports and the same issue happens.

Now, I’m trying to transfer all of my video files.  Again, they begin to transfer but a few gigs in, I get a windows error message saying something like, “cannot transfer file “file name” because the original location no longer exists.”   I can see all of the files in Windows Explorer.  However when I click on one of the files, I get an error message saying the file no longer exists.   For example, when I click on a video file (.avi), my VLC player will open up and the name of the movie is displayed, but I get a VLC error saying the file is not found.  Also, at this point, the drive no longer appears in the list of drives in Windows Explorer.  

It’s as if when I can get my computer to recognize the drive, everything is OK for like 10-30 minutes, then my comp stops recognizing the drive and the files can’t  be viewed or transferred to another location.  

I’ve been dealing with this for hours and hours for a few days now…reading through tons of forums.Etc.  I downloaded the WD Lifeguard Diagnostics tool.  The drive passes the quick scan.  However it fails the Extended Test.  In the middle of the test, I get an error message saying, “Too many bad sectors detected.” and it fails the test.  When I try to re run the test, I get the same message immediately.  

So, should I just call this a loss?  I really want all my movies.  Honestly, I’m not the most tech savvy person and don’t know what to do next.  

Thanks in advance.  

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Well dude, bad sectors in a failed extended test means the drive is almost dead… And it’s the physical mechanical drive inside the casing. Since the drive is still working then I’d stop using it to prevent further degradation and take it to a recovery tech.

You’re lucky; most drives just fail out of the blue instead of degrading at a slow rate.

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Thanks!  I appreciate the reply.  So, ballpark, how much is cost to recover the files.  Although, I’d like to have them, not sure if it would be worth if it’s crazy expensive…just movies and episodes of Lost and other tv shows.  A buddy of mine told me that it would probably cost around $700.  True?  

So, is there anything I could have done to prevent this?  Although it’s a few years old, I probably used it like 20-30 times…just dumping stuff on it.  It sat on my desk and was not handled roughly.  

I’m just so **bleep** happy that I was able to get all my photos off of it.  I would have been really bummed, had I lost them.  It 

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wow, I just noticed the grammatical errors in my above reply…typed it in about 10 seconds.  sorry.