HDD GURU FORUMS

Hi all, I have a problem with this WD hdd:





It's no longer recognized by the system, either via USB nor if directly connected. It did not take shocks nor other types of trauma. It does not produce any kind of metallic click, the discs rotate normally, when I connect via USB is "seen" just for a moment by windows XP then immediately disappears, Windows 10 instead "sees" the hdd, but asks to format it because does not find any file system. In your opinion, what could be the reason? It could be the PCB?

Hi, you could try this:

1. install another disk larger than that one, and have both disks SATA connected (as well as an OS Drive)
2. install DMDE
3. reboot, just to make sure system is fresh, don't worry yet if windows doesn't see the drive,
3. start DMDE and if the "faulty" drive is showing in the device list, select it and click ok
4. in the partition view, right click the drive (not a partition) and create a clone/image of it, saving it to the other disk.
5. run data recovery on the image, or try and mount the image with partition find and mount.

though I suspect there is probably head problems or something with this drive.

Probably bad sectors and/or a firmware problem.

99.9% NOT the PCB

If the data is not so important and you accept the risks of DIY, then you could try cloning with something like ddrescue or Media Tools Pro (something NOT windows based) and then use some recovery sw (e.g. Rstudio, reclaime etc..) on the resultant clone.

Haha! Beat me to it Brian!!

solved! thank you!

Great! For others who might be reading this, could you possibly go into some detail on how you solved it?

I followed your guide with DMDE, after this, I noticed that by changing power supply, usb cable, and usb port, the hdd is now visible and have no more problems. I don't know what append to make it not visible or visible but not accessible (on win 10), maybe o lower charge of elctricity? Maybe it's near to leave? I don't know....

Very cool !

Nice that you were one of the few lucky ones that got your data back in an easy way !!!

Now DO BACK UP your data !!!

HaQue, I just purchased DMDE Express, would that version do what you told the OP to do? If yes, I'll make a copyNpaste of your advice onto my HD, that is apple of gold on a silver platter to this data recovery newbie.