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Exteral Hard Drive Problem

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Lude2Envy   11-07-2008 at 01:21:45 AM

Hey everyone. I have a WD My Book 320GB USB drive that is only 3 months old and already broke. The lights on the drive light up but thats it. I tried plugging it into my sisters laptop and the drive automatically installed and windows said it was ready to use but its not showing up under "My Computer" ..... just like on my system. No problems reported under device manager either. I know WD has an excellent RMA policy but they told me to call one of their partners about getting my data off the drive first. I called CBL and they said it'll be between $400 and $3500. I think WD should be paying for that but they won't. Does anyone have any suggestions before I RMA this drive and lose all my data? Thanks.

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chookman   11-07-2008 at 02:18:04 AM
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Did you look in disk management? It could be that you only need to initialise or import the disk onto your sister machine. The fact that windows still see's it and installs it i would be reluctant to say that its broke.

------------------------------ "This thread made me strap on my lolerskates and head for my roflcopter."
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huron   11-07-2008 at 02:49:30 AM
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Is the drive spinning, or not? You need to listen to tell if it is going. If it's not, that's a bum deal. If it is, and the computer isn't recognizing it, check diskmanagement (you can get there through: Run - compmgmt.msc)

If it does spin and still won't be recognized, you can always try a SATA/IDE to USB connector for about $15. You can take that drive out of the case, plug it in to another computer as USB, transfer your files, and send it back RMA.

Good luck.

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Lude2Envy   11-07-2008 at 03:33:10 AM
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I looked under disk management before and I checked it again just now...the drive doesn't even show up there. If I unplug the drive and plug it back in I can hear it spin initially but thats it.

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huron   11-07-2008 at 03:50:45 AM
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You're only connecting via USB, right? You shouldn't need a driver for that.

If it spins and stops, that may not be a good sign. I would say try to open it up and plug it in via SATA/IDE to USB cable, or just internally to a computer to see if you can get your files off of it. Then RMA the thing and put your saved data back on.

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Lude2Envy   11-07-2008 at 09:13:31 AM
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I tried to open it up but I have no idea how to. There isn't a single screw on it anywhere. And yes I'm only connecting USB...no other way. I tried to pop it open with a small flat head screw driver but I don't want to bust the drive up and WD not RMA it cuz I tampered with it.

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huron   11-07-2008 at 09:21:08 AM
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Totally understand. You have things on it that are saved nowhere else? That's gonna be tough. I wouldn't mess with it too much, so you can still RMA.

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Lude2Envy   11-07-2008 at 01:05:58 PM
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Yeah this blows the big one. I had so much crap backed up on a tun of DVDs and CDs.....some stuff backed up multiple times....so I go out and buy this drive to put everything on it nice and organized and not even 3 months later it s**ts the bed. I've had one or two Raptor drives go bad and had to RMA them but not after 3 months. WD should be recovering this data for me. I'm gonna fight it with them and if they don't recover it this will be the last time I buy a WD product. Thanks for your help and understanding though....I appreciate it.

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huron   11-07-2008 at 02:51:48 PM
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I agree. I would try to talk to their RMA and customer service. It's not your fault that you used their product to back up your data.

Hope all goes well. Good luck with this one.

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bobbknight   11-07-2008 at 03:17:23 PM
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All my really important stuff has 3 backups.

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jitpublisher   11-07-2008 at 03:54:21 PM
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Sorry to hear about your luck with the drive.
Using a drive as a backup is an accident waiting to happen.
Even RAID mirroring is not safe, and I know a lot of people use it thinking they have a good backup going. It only protects against a hardware failure if 1 of the drives physically goes bad. Kids or another person playing around deleting stuff by accident, viruses, OS BSOD's etc all can ruin your data as well when backing up to a HDD.
It may take several, but I back up my important stuff to DVDs.
Good luck on your RMA, hope you get some resolution.

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Lude2Envy   11-07-2008 at 09:42:09 PM
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Thanks for your support guys. I really appreciate it.

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