I have a WD10EARS that I’ve had for less than a year. After getting it installed it worked perfectly. Then my XP OpSys began losing it while I was using it. The only way to resolve this was to shut it down and restart it. That always worked. It happened again today, but now I can’t start Windows off my primary hard drive with the WD10EARS enabled. Windows will start then just stop. If I disable the hard drive then Windows works fine. I have tried moving the jumper and I’ve tried switching from Sata 2 to Sata 1 and changing the power attachment too, all to no avail. I don’t have another computer to try it on and I desperately need the data that’s on it. Please Help!
Get the WD Data LifeGuard software and check the drive’s info. It could be that the S.M.A.R.T. info is having problems that do not get reported to the computer’s BIOS S.M.A.R.T. status.
I had a similar problem on my Caviar Black this past Dec 2010. The drive was causing Windows boot issues but no other problems. S.M.A.R.T. info was reporting a “warning” with CrystalDiskInfo and WD Data LifeGuard Windows would never complete the Quick SMART test. Just waiting for my RMAed replacement drive.
install it from an external source and try to recover the data
