Hello all HddGurus:

In Short:
While running the WD (WesternDigital) SmartWare “Complete Drive Test” diagnostic on my 3TB My Book Essential (WDBACW0030HBK-NESN ) the following error popped up:
“Windows – Delayed Write Failed : Windows was unable to save all the data for the file H:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.”

After this neither my computer, nor any other computer recognizes my USB drive as a volume. It’s as if it has no formatting, no partition, nothing. Is my data toast? If not is it possible to recover it myself? If not can a pro do it?


History:
I’m running Win XP SP3.
I’ve had the drive just under a year. I use it moderately, maybe a few times per week to move/transfer/store data. When I’m not using it I keep it disconnected from my computer. About a week ago it started making a “clicking” noise, not the same as the sound of the head. I could even feel the “thump” through the plastic case. The noise was not present while the drive was being accessed, but only when idle for more than a minute, or so. I plugged it into a different computer with same results. I figured it was time to run a diagnostic, and then send the drive in to WD for a replacement.

I installed the accompanying WD SmartWare software, which said that my hdd firmware was outdated, so I updated it. Then it suggested I update the software since it was old, which in tern said I had to have “Microsoft .NET Framework 4 or higher” as well as “Internet Explorer 7 or higher” so I installed those as well, even though after decades of computing I've never needed these applications.

“Quick SMART Status” in the WD SmartWare diagnostic utility showed as all normal. Next I ran the “Quick Drive Test.” Result was “FAIL”. (see attached image)

Ok. Failed what? After starting the last offered test “Complete Drive Test” I realized these diag utilities aren’t going to tell my anything except if it passes, or fails. While the test was running I read about the “Data Lifeguard Diagnostics (WinDLG)” utility, decided to download it and use this instead since it at least offers a log file. I attempted to cancel the “Complete Drive Test” in the WD SmartWare diag utility by clicking the “cancel” button. It said “canceling” in the status window and stayed like that, but it still seemed that the drive was being accessed, so I left it alone. More than an hour later the test was still “canceling” and the application seemed to have hung. I lost patience and ended the WD application and process from Win Task Manager. That’s when the “Delayed Write Failed” error popped up. After that my drive is no longer recognized as a volume. Win Device Manager shows it as “WD My Book 1140 USB Device”, but no volumes exist, no drive letter, etc. (see attached image)

Win Explorer does not see the drive at all. WD SmartWare sees the drive as blank, but it’s grayed out and unable to do anything with it. The drive, when plugged in, spins-up fine, no weird noises. I can eject it as a "USB mass storage device". As far as hardware, I think it’s still ok. I’m pretty sure the drive is corrupted only.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I’d really like to recover my data. I don’t really want to do anything until I consult some people who might have a better idea of what I can and should do. I did read about “Data Recovery Wizard” utility by EaseUs. I have not tried it yet.

Thanks and Regards,
Ken B.

I'll give some brief comments about how I interpret your story. They are all IMHO; other people may interpret your comments differently...


It's impossible to answer that accurately remotely - I expect the answer is probably not.


Based on the symptoms you report, then no.


Perhaps - it depends on the result of a detailed diagnosis, by someone experienced in DR with these drives, who has the drive in front of him/her.


Each click was the heads hitting the end-stop, and that was the clue about there being an internal drive problem.


Actually, instead of running a diagnostic, this was the best time (if you were going to take the risks of DIY) to get your data off the drive, before things got worse - which they unfortunately have done.

From the rest of your story, the drive seems to have been "diagnosed to death" (i.e. the time when it was "limping along but dying" was spent running diags, until it failed even more severely), since Windows Device Manager no longer recognises the drive correctly. Further checks could be done, but seeing that things have already degraded, I suggest you stop here to avoid making the situation even worse by trying to do yet more diagnosis.


I politely disagree. If this was only (user data) corruption, then the drive itself would still be reported correctly in Device Manager. The "clicking" that you reported also does not fit with the problem being corruption. Based on the reported symptoms, there is an internal drive problem and therefore any software recovery tools, like the one you mentioned, will be useless.

If your data is valuable, then I know that member jono-ats runs a WD-approved DR company in Atlanta. There may be other members in the USA who can assist - perhaps you'll get recommendations. I don't see any chance for you to use DIY recovery, based on the reported symptoms, since these fit more with an internal drive problem than with the (easily replacable) electronics.

Vulcan,

I really appreciate your response, and even though it's not what I was hoping to hear it does all make sense.
I checked out WD's list of approved DR companies and found one in Atlanta. I'm assuming that's the one you referred to.
$649-949 for a 3TB drive?! Yikes! I had no idea DR is so expensive. I really would like my data back, but I don't think I'm willing to spend that much on it. In which case I have nothing to lose. Let's say it's not completely dead. Anything at all I can try? Particular utilities to use to try and get it up and running enough to extract what I can of the data, if even possible? How about pulling it out of the USB case and connecting internally, thus eliminating the USB side of it? I imagine, however, this would void WD's warranty.

Thanks,
Ken B.

I hope Vulcan has no problem with me cutting in the conversation.

Actually this is a VERY VERY VERY CHEAP PRICE for a 3TB drive. It is a bargain, really.


Yes you can do that as long as you have decided that you are following DIY route. This is probably without return I have to say, in case you change your mind and decide you want to take drive to a pro, then this would be a lot more expensive and/or your data non-recoverable. If that's ok with you and you have nothing to lose, then remove drive from case and connect it via sata port and see if it gets detected. If it does you can use some NON windows imaging software like dd-rescue to image your drive to some other drive. Then, you will have to deal with another problem, since these drives come encrypted through the usb bridge. This means, that assuming your drive clones perfectly, you will have a new drive with scrambled data that just dont make any sense.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

$600 - $900 isn't all that bad when you consider you're purchasing Expertise, Parts, Labor, Shop Supplies & Tools. Not bad at all.

I know saying this ain't gonna help you much now, but, in the future, always buy two drives when you get an external disk. Or, basically, be sure you somehow have two copies of whatever it is you never want to lose.

It's an "insurance" policy that well help you when crunch-time comes. You just pull out the 2nd copy and BAM! Instant data recovery at a price a pro can't touch. Especially today with the huge amount of data today - 3TB is a lot to lose, or even 60GB or 10MB if it's something important like records or something personal.

_________________
On a clear disk you can seek forever.

@northwind: No problem at all, and all agreed with what you've said (as usual ).

@kenyb21:


I suggest that you pause and consider the situation for as long as you need to, before taking the next step. As northwind also said, you could be making things more expensive for any future professional recovery (or, in the worst case, unrecoverable at all), by further DIY.


As a hypothesis you can say that it's not completely dead (which, for our purposes, would include the drive not being detected in the PC BIOS nor by Linux/Unix) but of course until you try the next steps, we don't know if your hypothesis is true or not. Since you report that Windows Device Manager doesn't report the drive correctly (it's just detecting a USB device), then I'm not hopeful for you.


Also, as I said before, your story explaining the degradation of being able to read from the disk doesn't fit with a typical electronics issue, which is why I didn't go into the issues of removing the SATA-USB board.

Again, northwind has kindly explained the typical DIY option. Personally, after doing some comparisons between various free cloning tools, and with my skills in relevant areas like *nix, I use GNU ddrescue as my "free tool of choice". There are several other software cloning utilities - your decision about which to use depends on your skillset, budget, expectations for support, etc. etc. I have explained all this in detail many times before, so I'll avoid wasting time doing it all again. Search for "cloning" in posts with my user name and you'll find previous discussions where I've participated.

As you've already read, an attempt at cloning this drive via SATA (which is usually the best approach, for several reasons) would result in an encrypted clone on the target device, although by using the original SATA-USB adapter afterwards, that can be decrypted if the clone has been successful in the vital area.

What level is your Linux experience - do you have any?

Would you be willing to buy another identical 3TB external WD drive, as part of your recovery attempt? If not then where would you plan to store a 3TB clone of this disk?

@Vulcan

Thanks and ... ditto

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

All:

I appreciate all the feedback and advice.
Yep. I think the worse-case is confirmed after I confirmed that the BIOS is not seeing the drive and GetDataBack indicates that a "drive is not ready" and shows an exception error message. I'm assuming that's my USB external drive. I've tried the same checks on two different computers.



<sigh>
I haven't pulled the drive from the case and plugged it in directly via SATA, but I'd rather not do that since it'd void my warranty. At this point I think I've accepted that I won't be getting this data off my drive and I'll just send it in to WD for a replacement under warranty. I'm not willing to spend the ~$600-1000 to try and have the data recovered by a pro.

Vulcan:
My Linux experience is very limited.
Yes, I'd be willing to buy an identical drive to use for any DR attempts.

If there's anything anyone would like to suggest trying while still using the USB connection (in other words, that won't void the warranty) then please do so.
Again, thanks to all for your feedback. Forum communities like this are awesome!

Best Regards,
Ken B.

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the update.


I've nothing more to suggest, based on this requirement of using USB, after the (unfortunately expected) results you've got. Sorry...

The drive marked with a red arrow on GDB screenshot shows 250GB of space, not 3TB.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Northwind:
Roger that. Must be my internal hdd, and its two partitions (C and D). Not even seeing the 3TB, which confirms it all the more.

Thanks again, All. Next time I have even the slightest suspicion that my drive might have an issue I'll know to forget about any kind of diagnostic and immidiately get all the data off. Would be nice if the diag utilities offered by the hdd mfgs could offer a small pop-up suggesting this and note that actual diag process can "kill" your hdd even faster if it's on its way out.

Ken B - OUT