Advice needed: Western Digital 2.5" HDD is not recognized

[gabriellapierre]

Hi,

I have a Western Digital 2.5"Scorpio Blue external HDD with valuable documents on it. I run Win7.

I used to connect it and unplugged it several times before a computer would recognize it, but it worked. After a while, the HDD was corrupted so I run a CHKDSK command to repair it. Then, I think it was corrupt again and tried CHKDSK and other commands, but nothing worked.

Now, the HDD doesn't show up in "My Computer" neither in the BIOS or "Computer Management". The HDD still turns and the LED still works normally.

What do you suggest me to do?

Any help will be gladly appreciated.
Gabriel

[hddguy]

Is this a model with embedded USB connector on PCB?

Because is no longer recognised, in addition to previous problems, it seems to be degrading with each use. This could be a sign of some level of physical damage. If there is physical issues, some areas will not be accessible and certain areas will give some read errors. If you run chkdsk while in this condition, you could have made the situation worse.

Do you try to connect direct to SATA, or via additional enclosure? Does the media make noises when it is powered? Does it remain powered, even several minutes after connection?

[ShaneWard]

I think the drive was knocked around or might have been subjugated to some form of vibration, so this would have caused the heads to touch the disk and cause bad clusters, this grew in size and also might have damaged a head in the process.

I don't think there is anything you can do. Since the drive was slowing and causing problems before, you should have taken this sign that something will go wrong and backup your data. I hope you did, as the only way is to take it to a DR firm to have it recovered.

If not, stop turning the drive on and have it sent away ASAP. any future switch on will only damage the surface of the disk as the drive can't read the data.