I just bought this new WD Passport Essential SE 750GB on Monday. I started transferring files over to it that night. It acted up somewhat (disappeared from "My Computer) but it eventually came back after I unplugged my other portable drive. I thought it was an issue with the USB providing power to two portable drives. So it came up and I began the transfer on Tuesday morning. When I got back home after work I saw a message that Windows experienced a write failure. After restarting my computer the drive no longer shows up in My Computer. I looked for it under Disk Management and nothing is there either. My original plan was to copy what I needed to it then image the drive. Well, as it stands I have now lost everything that meant anything to me (pst’s, photos, etc.). I have that backed up to a point but a restore would now make that stuff 6 months old and anything acquired since then is gone. I tried using a ton of file recovery software but they also cannot see the drive.
I plug the drive in and it is getting power. When I touch the case I feel the inside moving as it should. No clicking noises and I have never dropped that drive. I am leaning towards a bad cable at this point. Unfortunately this cable looks somewhat proprietary and I can’t find one just like it. This doesn’t sound to catastrophic. I am also leaning towards the controller because Windows nor DOS can see it when I plug it in. Thinking of voiding the warranty and trying to take it apart to plug it in using another method. Of course I am not sure just how to take the case off. Thanks in advance for any ideas.
It may be a power issue. A lot of PCs have barely adequet power supplies. Did you try a different port? WD also has a power boost cable. Try unplugging every USB device you don’t need and see if that makes a difference. You should never depend on one physical drive!
I will be the first to admit. I got complacent with this and I need to do a better job of backing that stuff up in the future. However I am very disappointed that I buy a drive made by WD and it does this to me after 1 day. And here I was, looking at the WD and a Seagate right next to it and I went with the WD. I have a Seagate and it has run like a dream for the past year even after dropping it onto a marble floor. That is actually why I bought this new one. I wanted to transfer everything off just in case my Seagate died soon.
You know, I bought my wd passport essential se on september in the UAE. I bought two, one 320GB and the other 500GB. What’s funny is that I experienced the same issue like yours with my 500GB. One day, it just suddenly stopped working! And it was barely two weeks old. I still have it with me. I can’t RMA it since they don’t have a WD site here (in the country) where I live. The 320GB is still working, as if it was a compensation or something. After that, I started reading forums about WD my passport and a lot of end-user consumers are frustrated with it because the same exact issue happened to them. The hard drive was never dropped but it just stopped working. I think it’s a product defect and I believe it would be better if they (WD) pull-out their products now form the market. It’s a form of cheating if they know that defect and does not do anything about it. I am really disappointed with WD. If you’re in the US or Canada, you can RMA it FOC.
If you look on the Seagate forums you will see they have many of the same USB problems too. External HDs have some weak points. One is rough handling. A second is power supply on PC. Another is the USB connection. I had a LaCie external DVD sitting on desktop and unplugged 4 or 5 times max that just quit working. It was in the port on the drive. Did you look into the power boost cable? Personally I would not buy a USB powered drive because of the wimpy power supply most PC makers use. I also think if somebody researched the USB hardware, plugs and ports they would find it was not intended for constaant use like audio jacks.
You know, I bought my wd passport essential se on september in the UAE. I bought two, one 320GB and the other 500GB. What’s funny is that I experienced the same issue like yours with my 500GB. One day, it just suddenly stopped working! And it was barely two weeks old. I still have it with me. I can’t RMA it since they don’t have a WD site here (in the country) where I live. The 320GB is still working, as if it was a compensation or something. After that, I started reading forums about WD my passport and a lot of end-user consumers are frustrated with it because the same exact issue happened to them. The hard drive was never dropped but it just stopped working. I think it’s a product defect and I believe it would be better if they (WD) pull-out their products now form the market. It’s a form of cheating if they know that defect and does not do anything about it. I am really disappointed with WD. If you’re in the US or Canada, you can RMA it FOC.
Good luck!
Did you, at least, attempt to take it back for warranty replacement to the distributor you bought it from? Did you try it on other computers to see if it was a power issue?
