Way to retrieve files from crashed western digital external hard disk ?

My PC unable to detect my Western Digital External Hard disk after I plugged in the harddisk.

I can heard the sound when I plugged in via USB but unable to see the drive on My Computer.

I can see the harddisk under Device Management but was unable to initialize Disk. The error i got is "Data Error (cyclic redundancy check)".

I try to reterive my fies via the some Data recovery application but they either were not able to detetc my hard disk or was unable to open/process my harddisk.

I have many important files in the hard disk which i have not back up :(

Is there any way i can reterive my files?

Hi, thakur95,

Welcome to eTI forums. The way you described your problem, looks like hardware issue with the drive and it is little complicated to work on it. Most the time you may need help of some professional to get recovery. However, whatever it is, do not plug it to computer, as the longer it is connected to machine, harder the chances for recovery.

You said that drive is not being detected and showing CRC errors. Have you tried command line to access it and fix the errors using command line. You may do following :

Run CMD as an Administrator
. type

Code:

---

chkdsk H: /f /r

---

( 'H' signifies the affected Drive).
If you can run above command then there are chances its already back in recoverable state.

. Run DiskPart utility from the same command prompt type

Code:

---

DiskPart

---

Once utility is loaded run "rescan" command. This command locates new disks that might have been added to the computer.

If you can't do above then I think better to take to some professional which can examine and see reason for error.. like head gone bad, pcb issue or firmware issues, in short if he can get your drive in working state by repairing it.

I advice you to read this comprehensive article, I think it can give you much better idea:
How to Recover Data When Your Hard Drive Goes Belly Up

Hi thakur95,

Based on your post, I agree with Aarish Rizvi. You can try the commands suggested by Arish Rizvi but in case it will not work, you may go for data recovery service if the data is important. I'll post a link below for the data recovery service.

Support Answers

I hope it helps.

I bought this 1TB WD My Passport USB hard drive not so long ago. After only a month of use on my laptop(Dell Vostro 1500 with Win7 Home 64-bit), it suddenly stopped showing up in My Computer.


When it used to work, sometimes when I plugged it into one of the four USB ports, it would beep for a very long time(not always), when it stopped beeping, it would show up in My Computer and become available for use.

But now, when the beep stops, it will not show up in My Computer at all, so I have no way to access it.
It is still there in Device Manager as
"WD My Passport 0740 USB Device" under Disk Drives



and it also show up under Disk Management...but as
Disk 1
Unknown
Not Initialized
with no report on the disk size
I am unable to initialize it. It would give me "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error".
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 993x705.


It also show up normally under Devices and Printers



At the right bottom corner of my desktop, I am able to eject the hard drive normally



But no matter how many times, and which of the 4 USB ports I plug it in, it will just beep for a minute or so then it will still not showing up for use under My Computer.


I wasn't sure if it is simply a software problem(settings conflict, or a virus), or if the hard drive is a bad one that is dying. Because I am out of the country for the moment, I am away from my other computers.

thakur95, your posts are merged. Hopefully you have know that your question has been answered already. Please don't ask same question twice.