The drive is only a few months old. I had just decided to start using it, placed an order for another (on backorder from online website) and wouldn't you know it, the damn thing craps out. It's been pretty flaky since the get go, so I should have known better. At least all the data on it is replaceable. I've gotten a replacement unit from WD, so I'd like to take a shot a recovering what is on the drive. The data is non-critical so if I can't get what's on there I'm not going to cry, but it'll be a good learning experience.

Basically, the drive is recognized by the computer when it's plugged in, the USB shows it as Mass Storage Device (not a specific WD ID). The white light on the front of the case blinks continually.

Is it possible to initialize the drive and then run some recovery software to rebuild the data that is on the drive? If "yes", what software do you recommend? If no, are there other possibilities?

Thanks!

Hi,

If your happy & accept the risks of DIY which it sounds like you are.

Firstly I would take the drive out of the WD enclosure. Take off the bridge board & try connecting the hard drive directly to a pc via sata (not usb). Does the drive spin up? does it get detected in BIOS? Does Windows Disk Manager see it? Dont intialise it or format it. If it does & there are not weired noises then disconnect the drive.
Now take your WD replacement & take the hard drive out of the enclosure, take off the bridge board & attach it to the other drive. Plug it in & connect it to a USB or USB3 port. If your lucky the bridge boards will be compatible & maybe you will have access to your data. If this works then your fault is with the original bridge board which you should be able to get a replacement on ebay.

Loki

Right, I should have mentioned that I did try plugging it into the sata connections directly in the tower, with no joy.

It is visable when plugged in via USB in the disk manager, just with zero space showing(? I think)

Your drive sounds faulty, it is just the USB bridge that is showing up when you connect it is the USB chassis.

Listen to the drive when you power it up, does it sound perfectly normal or does it try to start and then spindown?

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If drive does not ID on BIOS when connected via SATA, then it's game over for you i'm afraid, just forget it and move on.
The fact that it shows *something* on diskmgt when connected via USB does not mean anything at all, this is caused by the usb controller, not the drive itself.

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