Before having this fast blinking light and drive unrecognizable in windows it had frozen up the computer while transferring a file, so I had to power down the system by holding the power button. Since then the drive just blinks fast, about 3 times per second, which according to WD's lousy documentation means "activity".

I can hear it spin up, sounds like any other drive but doesn't go through the same phases of led-light blinks and I don't think it spins down afterwards either just blinks forever.

Device manager shows it being connected but computer management can't assign a drive letter, an I/O device error on initialization if attempted.

Left disconnected from pc, when you power up one of these drives they normally spin up and light stays on, blinks a couple of times but never goes into this fast ~3x/sec mode.

I haven't moved the drive around or messed with wires prior either, so I'm wondering if it's one of those PCB replacement jobs that will be needed.

Does anyone know what is happening here?

It won't be PCB.

Sounds like media degradation (bad sectors) and/or FW damage.

You'll need to take it out of the chassis to check it by connecting by it's SATA interface.

(You won't be able to read the data by SATA as it'll be encrypted by the USB bridge board, so don't even try let alone format it as Windows will prompt you to)

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I have it connected to an XP machine, finally, after getting XP to install drivers it showed up but not with the correct drive space. It's showing up as only being 746.51 GB in Disk Management.

Without a drive letter, chkdsk can't be used so I ran WD's LifeGuard Diagnostics Quick Test and after it was saying it would take weeks by it's "Estimated Time Remaining" it returned an error saying "Too many bad sectors detected. It got to 511 of 5860533167.
Then I started the Extended test and returned an error "Cable Test:: Could not open SMART or port driver on drive2!" I'm sure there are going to be better drive testing and recovery programs besides WD's "LifeGuard Diagnostics".

Is this because the drive is encrypted? What is the recommended step now at this point besides assuming the new generic sata cable I used is defective according to the last error message?

It looks like a failing head. The "recommended step now" is to consult with a data recovery specialist if the data is important, and if not, return the drive for warranty exchange.

If my "armchair diagnosis" is correct, working with the drive via software only makes things worse.

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I had just started looking at ddrescue, as it did a one-pass attempt to recover data for backup as opposed to others like spinrite or hdd regenerator that will hammer the drive repeatedly...

I figure it's worth a shot before sending off for warranty, but did I void the warranty by opening the enclosure (and breaking a little plastic tab in the process)?

Glue it back together and hope they won't notice

Call WD's Tech Support. Ask them if they will allow you to open the enclosure. From what I've seen at WD's forums, they will usually say yes.

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Well crap, it says I voided the warranty on the website, here. http://support.wdc.com/warranty/rmapacking.asp

External Western Digital Enclosures: Do not remove the drive from the external enclosure. Return the drive in its original enclosure/plastic housing (without having been opened or dismantled, along with the power adapter). Please keep all software, manuals and interface cables (except an included Thunderbolt cable - it must be returned with the RMA). Please use this document as your reference: "What do I return?" WARNING: Removing the hard drive from, a Western Digital single unit external enclosure, will void the warranty.

Now all I can do is keep trying to recover some files, if it's actually possible.

Which place did you get the drive from. WD enclosures are normally easy to clip open and close again. If there is no visible damage and the case is okay, returning it should be easy. Now if the enclosure is broken, or torn apart than that will be hard to explane.

Normally it will be the store that deals with the return. If you got the drive from a supermarket, than a return should be okay. A place like PC world or such would include them checking the drive before returning, but WD does not normally deal with returns on a retail level.

Shane

http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Dri ... d-p/197250

"Contacted WD support and received almost instantly an email back - from a real person addressing my described problem ! - and with it came their explicit permission to open up the case and try to salvage / recover my files via a direct SATA connection prior to exchanging the drive under warranty."

The information was wrong, though.

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There was one little "clip" that did break and there's minimal amount of tool marks where I had to get the screw driver in but it doesn't look bad. Might not be very obvious unless you were looking to see if it had been opened and of course, once opened you might notice that one clip is broken.

Call up their customer service department, tell them what you did (and that you didn't open the actual drive) and I'm pretty sure they will accommodate you. WD is the best HDU company to work with . . . no one comes close with their customer support.

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Ooops. Another duplicate post.

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