WD WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 failure: spins up, spins down

[j7e]

I have a 3TB WD Green disk that was bought as part of a WD Elements external HDD. The external HDD was used for a home media server and was in use for approximately 60-120 minutes per day. It's around twelve months old.

Recently, the disk appeared to show signs of failure, that I've only recognised in retrospect - directories would show as being inaccessible, but I put this down to permissions issues with the server, rather than the disk. The permissions issue would resolve itself by restarting the server. Eventually, the HDD wouldn't show at all. However, when I plugged it in to a different computer, it worked fine. I thought this could then be an issue with the server (an ancient laptop) and its USB ports (even though the WD Elements has its own power supply). I tried a USB Y-cable with the HDD's SS-USB cable and once again it worked. However, after a week or so, videos being streamed from the server would fail and the drive stopped being recognised, so it looked like it might not be a power issue.

I've since tried the Elements unit on different computers, as well as removed the HDD from the unit to try in a different external case (with different power supply and USB cable). All it does now is spin up and spin down several times before giving up (using the Elements interface) or just continually spins up and spins down (using an alternative external interface); with the latter, if it's left on for an extended period it can eventually spin up and stay spinning for 20-30 seconds before spinning down. Other than some occasional light clicks at the peak of it spinning up, there is none of the normal clicking that I might expect to hear from it. After a short while, I'll get a dialogue box telling me "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer", which I assume means something is recognisable.

I've installed Smartmontools but can't get anything useful from it. I think the device is recognised as /dev/disk2, but when I try to run an interactive session on it, I get the error "Smartctl open device: /dev/disk2 failed:"

I've made a recording of the activity. It's not great quality, but hopefully it can provide an indication of disk activity:

https://soundcloud.com/j7e/western-digi ... rx-failure

Is anybody able to tell me what the disk is (or isn't) doing and what the likely solutions are? Is data recovery likely from this kind of situation?

[Kum Ruzvelt]

You have problem with head assembly.

[pcimage]

You have problem with head assembly.

+1

[j7e]

Okay, so... How feasible is recovery likely to be? What would it involve?

[pcimage]

Recovery probably possible if the platters are in good shape, but definitely NOT a DIY job.

Requires specifically compatible parts, cleanroom and someone who knows what they are doing.

You need to send it to a proper recovery lab, and not just a PC shop or "PC expert guy"

We can take a look if you like, but it won't be massively cheap, not on this drive

[j7e]

Recovery probably possible if the platters are in good shape, but definitely NOT a DIY job.

Requires specifically compatible parts, cleanroom and someone who knows what they are doing.

You need to send it to a proper recovery lab, and not just a PC shop or "PC expert guy"

We can take a look if you like, but it won't be massively cheap, not on this drive

Definitely no intention of a DIY job or a PC shop.

I know it's difficult to say without inspecting it, but could you offer an idea of what the total cost of recovery could be?

After reading up on these Green WD disks and experiencing their technical support, it's safe to say I won't be touching WD ever again

[pcimage]

PM sent.

To be fair, WD are producing pretty good drives right IMHO, better than some manufacturers I could mention!

[northwind]

To be fair, WD are producing pretty good drives right IMHO, better than some manufacturers I could mention!

True!

[digisupport]

PM sent.

To be fair, WD are producing pretty good drives right IMHO, better than some manufacturers I could mention!

+1

[j7e]

As a replacement disk, I've been looking at the Toshiba P300 series. I understand Toshiba generally have a good reputation for reliability and the P300s aren't eco drives, which I think I want to be avoiding, given the daily use of the disk. Does that sound like a reasonable choice?