Western Digital 500 GB External Drive Not Recognized

miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 06 Jul 09, 15:53

I have a 500 GB WD External drive that has music and pictures and generally a back-up drive. Since last week I noticed the blue light was not steady, but flashing, but didn't think anything of it...

Last Saturday, I went to access the drive and it isn't recognized. I checked all the connections, and they are all set. Then the USB Hardware wizard opens up. It doesn't recognize it, except that it raises this flag.

Any ideas on how to raise it from the dead?

And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen

captoveur 06 Jul 09, 16:20

Is it making any noises?

It may be the enclosure.. I would pull the drive out and try installing it in a computer to see if the bios recognizes it.. If it doesn't then you might as well take it to the rifle range.

I like my coffee how I like my women: Black, bitter, and preferably fair trade.

Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 17:00

miamiair wrote:I noticed the blue light was not steady, but flashing

Is it flashing randomly or is there a pattern?

Have you checked Device Manager to see if it shows up there, or if the controller is showing up?

Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.

miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 06 Jul 09, 17:03

Queso wrote:Is it flashing randomly or is there a pattern ?

Have you checked Device Manager to see if it shows up there, or if the controller is showing up?

It shows as an unspecified device.

And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen

Cadet57 06 Jul 09, 17:08

miamiair wrote:
Queso wrote:Is it flashing randomly or is there a pattern ?

Have you checked Device Manager to see if it shows up there, or if the controller is showing up?

It shows as an unspecified device.

Driver issue?

Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 17:16

Cadet57 wrote:
miamiair wrote:
Queso wrote:Is it flashing randomly or is there a pattern ?

Have you checked Device Manager to see if it shows up there, or if the controller is showing up?

It shows as an unspecified device.

Driver issue?

It would be native to XP/Vista and shouldn't need a special driver.

Model number?

Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.

miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 06 Jul 09, 17:22

Queso wrote:Model number?

WD5000I032-001 is the one I have in my office. The one at home appears the same, but I would have to get that whe I get home.

And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen

Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 17:39

Do you have another 'puter you can connect it to temporarily to help us narrow it down? I'm thinking this may be a problem with the controller in the external drive case.

Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.

miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 06 Jul 09, 17:44

Queso wrote:Do you have another 'puter you can connect it to temporarily to help us narrow it down? I'm thinking this may be a problem with the controller in the external drive case.

I can bring it to work tomorrow or try connecting it to my lap top.

And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen

Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 17:49

miamiair wrote:
Queso wrote:Do you have another 'puter you can connect it to temporarily to help us narrow it down? I'm thinking this may be a problem with the controller in the external drive case.

I can bring it to work tomorrow or try connecting it to my lap top.

OK, we need to see if the problem follows the drive. The only info in the WD userbase is:

Problem:
Code 10 status is displayed in Windows XP Device Manager for a USB or FireWire device.

Cause:
The device is not recognized or there is a problem with the device drivers. Commonly, the error message displayed will be similar to the following:

"This device is either not present, not working properly, or does not have all the drivers installed. (Code 10)

Solution:
Upgrade the device drivers for this device. To resolve this error code, make sure the device is connected to the computer correctly. For example, make sure all cables are plugged in fully and that all adapter cards are properly seated. Follow the suggested solution button provided by Windows and update the device driver. It may be possible to remove the device and redetect it using the Add New Hardware wizard.

Note: If the solution above does not help, the drive may have failed. It is recommended that you try to connect the drive to a second PC running Windows 2000 or XP. If the same error message is shown in the Device Manager of the second PC as well, the drive has failed and needs to be replaced.

I doubt it's a corrupt native driver because that's rare and because you'd probably be complaining about things like your mouse not working too. That solution base answer is pretty generic and I didn't find anything specific to your model of drive, even when replacing the "I" with a "1".

Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.

AndesSMF (Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 18:59

Are these those 'book' drives?

I had two of those just simply stop working on me. Never tried to bring them back up as I simply purchased newer drives for backup purposes.

Einstein said two things were infinite; the universe, and stupidity. He wasn't sure about the first, but he was certain about the second.

miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 06 Jul 09, 19:02

AndesSMF wrote:Are these those 'book' drives?

Yes. Unfortunately it has a lot of family photos and music on it.

And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen

AndesSMF (Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 19:07

Oh, crap...

The only thing I would suggest, and it should work just fine, is to remove the drives from their enclosure and then hook them up to a desktop computer. Then you should be able to recover everything just fine.

How you can remove the drive, IDK.

Einstein said two things were infinite; the universe, and stupidity. He wasn't sure about the first, but he was certain about the second.

Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 19:21

AndesSMF wrote:Oh, crap...

The only thing I would suggest, and it should work just fine, is to remove the drives from their enclosure and then hook them up to a desktop computer. Then you should be able to recover everything just fine.

How you can remove the drive, IDK.

That's a good suggestion, and CaptOveur said a similar thing earlier. I figured it would be easiest to try it on another 'puter first, then we can worry about disassembly if that's not successful.

The hard drives contained in the enclosures are standard drives, it'll either be EIDE or SATA and you'll have to connect it to a 'puter with the same internal interface.

Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.

IFEMaster (Project Dark Overlord & Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 20:31

I had the exact same thing happen with the exact drive. It ended up being the logic board in the enclosure. I bought a new SATA2 enclosure for $20 and the drive has worked perfectly since.

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein

AndesSMF (Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 20:35

IFEMaster wrote:I had the exact same thing happen with the exact drive. It ended up being the logic board in the enclosure. I bought a new SATA2 enclosure for $20 and the drive has worked perfectly since.

Wouldn't doubt it.

Most drives, even after they crash, remain quite readable.

What often happens is that the boot sector does not allow the drive to mount, but reconnecting the drive to another channel has always worked for me.

Einstein said two things were infinite; the universe, and stupidity. He wasn't sure about the first, but he was certain about the second.

Cadet57 06 Jul 09, 20:50

AndesSMF wrote:
IFEMaster wrote:I had the exact same thing happen with the exact drive. It ended up being the logic board in the enclosure. I bought a new SATA2 enclosure for $20 and the drive has worked perfectly since.

Wouldn't doubt it.

Most drives, even after they crash, remain quite readable.

What often happens is that the boot sector does not allow the drive to mount, but reconnecting the drive to another channel has always worked for me.

Same here, a friend once gave me a "dead" 200 gig he wanted me to see if I could fix. Boy was he embarassed at what I found :))

helvknight (Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 20:52

I'd agree with Andes and IFE. You should be able to get a replacement enclosure from a computer store for $15-20, try it in there first. They're quite easy to change over. (normally about 4-6 screws)

I've had a couple of brick drives go bad, both times it was the board rather than the drive. Drives these days are pretty reliable.

Hire Engineers to drive the vision and execute a plan. Hire MBAs to shuffle the papers and work in sales. Hire Accountants to manage your staff working a viable livable wage, and never have either an Accountant or an MBA run your company. - Steve Jobs

miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 06 Jul 09, 22:19

I have an AOG, so I am back at the office.

I brought it with me. The computer gives you all the flags in the lower right hand corner, but when I go to My Computer, it doesn't show up.

And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen

Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 06 Jul 09, 23:48

miamiair wrote:I have an AOG, so I am back at the office.

I brought it with me. The computer gives you all the flags in the lower right hand corner, but when I go to My Computer, it doesn't show up.

Then you probably don't want to hear my verdict.

Pull the drive out of the case and see if you can connect it to the internal controller and see the drive. If so, you can get another external and save your data to it.

Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.

You are at netAirspace : Forum : The Combustion Chamber - Off-Topics : General Off-Topics

LEFT