I have an approx 5 year old Western Digital Scorpio 80GB hard drive (model WD800VE-75HDT1) that came in a laptop that I no longer have. One day the drive stopped working. I took it out of the lappy and slapped it into a USB enclosure. When I connect it to a computer via USB for the first time The USB "Du-dum" sounds and the "installing drivers" box comes up. In the box it recognizes the drive by its full model number above but after a few minutes it says driver install "Failed". I open device manager and it is listed under "disk drives" by its complete model number and under properties it says "This device is working properly." However under "volumes" tab it is empty and when I click populate a box pops up with a red x saying "volume information for this disk cannot be found". In the computer management console under Disk Management it does not list the drive at all, neither as formatted, unformatted nor unallocated...nothing at all except my other drives which are working fine. The drive seems to be spinning up fine with no weird clicks or clacks or thunks or any odd noises so it doesn't seem to be physically damaged. Any thoughts? Thanks.
Recommended Answers
Jump to PostIt's obviously faulty!
Jump to PostAs in physical damage. The only way you will get your data off that is via professional data recovery and that's expensive!
It's most likely that the drives electronics are damaged!
Jump to PostIf, as I suspect, the electronics have had it it's just not worth repairing. Especially seeing how cheap hard drive are nowadays! I got a 500gig laptop sata for just £49.99 for example!
All 11 Replies
It's obviously faulty!
It's obviously faulty!
Yeah...thanks Rik. That's pretty much the reason why I posted.
As in physical damage. The only way you will get your data off that is via professional data recovery and that's expensive!
It's most likely that the drives electronics are damaged!
As in physical damage. The only way you will get your data off that is via professional data recovery and that's expensive!
It's most likely that the drives electronics are damaged!
Oh, ok. Thanks. I'm actually not interested in recovering data. Don't even remember what's on it. I was just hoping to be able to use it as an external. It's such a waste.
Is there no way to repair it? It seems like it wants to be used since it is recognized properly by Device Manager. Could it be that MBR is damaged or other such thing corrupted?
If, as I suspect, the electronics have had it it's just not worth repairing. Especially seeing how cheap hard drive are nowadays! I got a 500gig laptop sata for just £49.99 for example!
Is there some diagnostic software available that can bypass the OS and check an attached physical drive to determine the problem? Thanks.
Not for free use there isn't!
check western digital site for a drive utility that if it can see the drive will maybe let you right the drive to zeros and format the drive .
check this link/list for links to westerndigital
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic28744.html
Thanks to both Rik and Jack but so far no joy.
so did you run tool,if so did it see the drive to scan it,if no,then do what i do with drive like that,toss it away
We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.