Hi all HDD Gurus,

My WD MyBook 1.0TB external HDD which was working fine for about 2 years now, has decided to died on me recently.

To cut story short, I will describe in point forms for easy understanding.

Current symptoms:
Power? Yes.
Lights on? Yes.
Disc spinning? Yes.
Detected in My Computer? No.
Detected in Disk Management? No.
Detectec in Device Manager? No.
USB Port making sounds when connected / disconnected? No.

Troubleshooting done:
- Took the HDD out from the casing.
- Connect the HDD (without the bridge board attached) to laptop via USB to SATA cable: Detected but needs initialization to access it (Possible hardware encryption).
- Connect the bridge board (without the HDD) to laptop by using the original cables: Detected as well in the Device Manager.
- Connect the HDD with the bridge board to laptop: Nothing got detected.
- Tried connecting the HDD to another laptop: Nothing got detected.
- Connect power adapter to the wall socket: Same issue.
- Use other USB cables: Same issue.

I find my issue closest resembled to this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB3dVTqGg6c
except that my HDD (without the bridge board) is detected, which means the PCB is fine.

At the same time, the guy did not test the bridge board by connecting it to the laptop, which I did and it got detected as well, which means the bridge board is OK too.

Now, the issue is when both of them are attached, there seems to be something blocking it to communicate with the laptop.

I've been working with experienced member here, fzabkar, who taught me to do some of the troubleshooting that I've done here.

However, we seems to have come to a pause here and hopefully some members here can help shed some lights.

Many thanks in advance!!

Hi all,

I stumbled across some discussion board that mentioned about the original power adapter that comes with the HDD is faulty (or worn-out after 2 years) and therefore it is not able to send enough voltage to go from the bridge board and eventually to the PCB.

Although the light does came on (stay on without blinking) on the bridge board, and I can hear the disc spinning, I do noticed that the disc spins sounds weak.

It is like it came alive, then without 10-15 seconds, it die down and then it sort of 'retry' by spinning again and yet again within 10-15 seconds, it die down completely like it went to idle.

Is this because of insufficient power to retain the disc activities, or it is normal?

Hi, you most probably have a drive with heads issue.
If the drive spins up for 10-15 sec then spins down, then make a retry and after that spin down and stays down, then it's heads related…not a power problem.
And yes there is encryption as well.
Not a DIY case.

Bosse

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Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

Hi mr_spokk,

Thanks for your response!

If it is the heads issue as you mentioned, then why is the HDD detectable when I connect it without the bridge board?

Post a picture of the drive being detected in device manager.

_________________
Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

It could be a possible head issue or an insufficient 12V power on the bridge board interface.

_________________
Encryption is a powerful defensive weapon for free people.
It offers a technical guarantee of privacy, regardless
of who is running the government - E. Dyson

Hi! You could do a simple test by connecting a spare drive to the bridge board. Initialize and format it. Then write data to it and check to prove the board and usb interface are working. One thing to note is sometimes certain makes and drive models seem to require more power (amperage) than the power pack can provide. You need to methodically check this.

Hi All,

All these while I was doing all the testing on my laptop running Windows 8.1.

However, I decided to do a few testings on my desktop running Windows XP now.

Test 1
- connect the HDD (with bridge board attached) into the desktop. No response.
- connect the HDD (without bridge board) into the desktop. No response.
- connect the HDD (without bridge board) into the desktop at the rear USB port. It get detected in DeviceManager now (as shown in attachment).
However, the drive does not show up in disk management and my computer.
Previously when I was testing it from my laptop, it does show up in disk management which requested me to initialize the drive before I can access it. But it does not now in my desktop.
Is it due to my drive has taken up the label C, D, E, F, G, H, I due to several partitions that I had?
I also noticed it does take some time (~ 5 seconds) for the drive to get detected.

Test 2
- connect another working HDD. It gets detected immediately.

Test 3
- connect the faulty HDD again. It doesn't get detected anymore.
- tried to do some sequencing such as power on first and then connect the USB into the port, or vice versa but still doesn't get detected in Device Manager like in Test 1.
- connect the HDD to another USB port at the rear. The HDD get detected now.

Does this show it is unstable in term of the power?

Another thing is, the white light that comes on without any blinking is worrisome to me.
I do remembered it will flickers previously when it was working fine.
Is this a good sign for me to start troubleshoot from this symptom?

I'm also attaching photo of my PCB and bridge board for references.

Hi, you can refer to my previous post with attachment. Thanks!

Hi, if it is indeed a head issue, is there anything I can do?
Or what is your advice if there are insufficient 12V power?
Get a higher voltage power adapter?

Hi, unfortunately, i do not have other drive which i can test what you suggested.
Regarding the amperage that you mentioned, how do i check?

The pic posted looks like drive is connected via the bridge.
Wanted to see what the drive shows up connected in Device Manager connected without the bridge per your question/wonder above.

_________________
Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

The pic posted is when the drive is connected to my desktop by using SATA to USB cable without the bridge board.

If my HDD is detected in Device Manager while being attached to bridge board, then i will be a much happy man. Hahaha..

You are misunderstanding the purpose of the test. Connect the drive via SATA port directly to your desktop. This way we can identify whether your drive works properly or not, hence rendering the bridge as the culprit.

_________________
Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Precisely, as it is now only the usb chip on the usb-sata cable is identified.

_________________
Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

I'm sorry. I think I've misunderstood your meaning of "The pic posted looks like drive is connected via the bridge.". I was thinking "by bridge", you meant the bridge board that comes with the HDD.

Now I catch your meaning, the bridge means the bridge on the SATA to USB cable? I didn't know there are bridge board on the SATA to USB cable as well.

Anyway, I did a test to connect my HDD to my MOBO via SATA port (hoped this was what you wanted me to test) and it doesn't get detected no matter what sequence I went through (power on then connect or vice versa). Nothing in the Device Manager or whatsoever.

Then I do the same test on another working HDD and nothing was detected as well.

Could it be because my desktop is an old one (bought it around 8 to 9 years ago with 256MB RAM!!)?

If the drive is working you should see atleast the right model in Bios.
But the importent question is: how does the drive behaive when you plug it in to the motherboard, Does it spin? Does it spin up and after a Little while spin down?

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Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

You mean I should be able to see the HDD model in the BIOS eventhough it is clearly not detected in Device Manager?

The drive behave as per what I mentioned before. Nothing out of the ordinary.

This behaviour is not in the "ordirnary"
Yes, IF the drive is working good enough to reach it's SA...

_________________
Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

Hi, I've attached the sound of my HDD starting up.

You can listen that after 1 min, it spindown and retry to start again, and after 1 min it totally quiet down.

Is this normal?