I'm familiar with the terminology and theory but not on the practical aspects (programs to run, what to look for, etc)... In short, I'm not a hardware guy so I need advice to find out how much crap I'm in...

Basically, I have a WD MyBook Essential 2TB the USB 2.0 only version model (WDBAAF0010HBK silk screen on back of plastic case).

Just yesterday I plugged it into the USB port (of Win7 64bit laptop, it's usual home) and SmartWare starts it normal cycle and brings up DriveLock. Enter my password as normal and Win& chugs for awhile (not normal) and says that the drive needs to be formatted! I have mucho CAD models and structural research on the HDD (1.7TB worth! Almost my entire career is archived on that drive!)

Windows sees SmartWare (E:) and the data drive (F:) but no data says it needs to be formatted.

So, I'm guessing it's not a WD usb controller/encryption issue (so no hardware needs to be replaced). I did open the case just to check and found that the HDD uses 4061-705059-001 REV AA on a barcode sticker but the PCB itself was printed as 4060-705059- with nothing in the white box. I don't know if this info is useful.

No clicky noise to indicate bad platters/mechanics everything sounds normal and no scorch smell. With the exception of the data lights not showing the data capacity on the drive, the fact is everything eeriely runs fine except that windows7 and the NTFS Mac I attach it to sometimes does not see the user data and requests to format the HDD. I haven't done that as I don't want to loose the data.

After researching this board I see several people have somewhat similar issues but not precisely the same experience. Am I facing just remounting the partition after running Partition Find and Mount (I don't know how to use Partition F&M but will find out for myself if that is the solution) or R-Studio to image (don't know how to use this as well but will learn of need to, but how to decrypt data?) or... well basically what is my situation with the drive and how to I fix it so I can get at the data to copy it over to a non hardware encryption external?

Any help would be muchly appreciated...

Negotiating the stages of grief,
RhinoUser

I ran Partition F&M and it could not find any data. Windows 7 (64) sees it as RAW (asks to format it). I'm Running R-Studio as I type but it doesn't seem to be moving (currently at 44 min and still on first block).

Any suggestions?

And an opinion question, is EaseUS just as effective?

RU

Sounds like bad sectors.
Image that drive right away.

_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

Could be bad sectors, but could also be sign of failing heads. Also, the USB does not help.

You could attempt to image it yourself, or you could send for professional analysis, but either way it will not recover by R-studio and not over USB in its poor condition,

PM Sent

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery