# Dropped external hdd



## billubakra (Jul 2, 2019)

Hi Guys,

I bought a 2tb wd my passport hdd about 2 months back. I slipped yesterday, injured almost every part of mine. I was carrying the hdd to some other room and unfortunately it fell down, first to a small table and then to the floor. Now I tried inserting the usb wire, but the smaller part of the wire wasn't going in. Tried to adjust the port with a screwdriver with little force but it didn't work. In the end said fck you my kismat and adjusted it with the wire itself and I was able to forcefully insert the wire in the port. The hdd is bruised up pretty bad. I can view the contents in the pc, haven't tried copy pasting anything yet. What are my best options? I am not taking out the wire out of the hdd till the time I can have a permanent solution to this. Here is the Crystaldisk info report



 

Should I use WD's lifeguard tool to generate a report?

@whitestar_999 @patkim @sling-shot 

Thanks


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 2, 2019)

No SMART parameters damage but there should have been some physical damage from such a fall.Keep the cable plugged in hdd & copy/backup/upload all important data to some other place first.


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## rhitwick (Jul 2, 2019)

copy data as soon as possible.

Don't trust the HDD anymore. And no data write to it.


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## billubakra (Jul 2, 2019)

whitestar_999 said:


> No SMART parameters damage but there should have been some physical damage from such a fall.Keep the cable plugged in hdd & copy/backup/upload all important data to some other place first.





rhitwick said:


> copy data as soon as possible.
> 
> Don't trust the HDD anymore. And no data write to it.



Thank you, will try to copy as soon as I am able to get out of the bed. Is there any software which can access the physical damage? Should I run the WD diagnostic test or anything else?
Many people who have damaged their external drives, converted them to an internal drive using some kinda dock. Recommended? I only want to use it for as long as possible.


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 2, 2019)

No software to assess physical damage,RMA for a working hdd can only be initiated if any SMART parameter fails.

WD portable hdd are soldered to usb bridge so not possible to open the case(which voids the warranty anyway) & take out hdd to use as internal hdd.Seagate portable hdd can be taken out like this but again warranty void plus in your case it won't matter as hdd suffered physical shock(aka if your luck is good it may keep working but if not then no matter how you use it will fail).

P.S. any fracture?


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## billubakra (Jul 2, 2019)

whitestar_999 said:


> No software to assess physical damage,RMA for a working hdd can only be initiated if any SMART parameter fails.
> 
> WD portable hdd are soldered to usb bridge so not possible to open the case(which voids the warranty anyway) & take out hdd to use as internal hdd.Seagate portable hdd can be taken out like this but again warranty void plus in your case it won't matter as hdd suffered physical shock(aka if your luck is good it may keep working but if not then no matter how you use it will fail).
> 
> P.S. any fracture?


Thanks. I will try their WD lifeguard tool to verify it once because WD doesn't consider SMART shit. They only believe in their own software.

Na bhai bach geya, bas zameen mein gola ho geya   thanks for asking.


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 2, 2019)

WD tool also checks SMART parameters besides other things(but still unless they put some proprietary sensor for assessing physical damage inside their hdd I doubt their tool can also do it).

That was lucky,health is wealth after all.


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## billubakra (Jul 6, 2019)

PFA


 

 

 

 

 

I can hear crack sounds when I press the hdd on the sides. Inserting usb cable is a mess, its port will go away I think.


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 6, 2019)

Then I guess no choice but take chance & hope it will last at least till its warranty is over(keep the cable plugged in,in fact just attach it to desktop & think of it as an internal hdd never to be removed).


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## pkkumarcool (Jul 20, 2019)

i also dropped my wd 2tb hdd now its not showing in file manager what should i do i have some data in it ,its showing device is working fine in device manager but in file manager nothing.What software do i use to check hdd


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 20, 2019)

Use crystaldiskinfo free which will confirm if hdd is working correctly at least on software level,if it shows ok then use some data recovery software like Recuva to scan the hdd.


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## pkkumarcool (Jul 22, 2019)

whitestar_999 said:


> Use crystaldiskinfo free which will confirm if hdd is working correctly at least on software level,if it shows ok then use some data recovery software like Recuva to scan the hdd.


its not showing in crystaldisk  also, only my laptop hdd drives partition is showing (c: and d)


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 22, 2019)

Then I don't think there is much hope without "professional assistance". See if recuva can detect it.


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## topgear (Jul 23, 2019)

pkkumarcool said:


> its not showing in crystaldisk  also, only my laptop hdd drives partition is showing (c: and d)



Try on a different pc / laptop - if it's not even showing there including device manager then RMA is the only way left.


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## pkkumarcool (Jul 23, 2019)

topgear said:


> Try on a different pc / laptop - if it's not even showing there including device manager then RMA is the only way left.


not showing on another laptop too


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## billubakra (Jul 31, 2019)

pkkumarcool said:


> not showing on another laptop too


Can you update on its status?


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## pkkumarcool (Jul 31, 2019)

billubakra said:


> Can you update on its status?


Same,Still no success not able find drive on file manager and the light is keeping always on and not blinking before it used to


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## billubakra (Jul 31, 2019)

pkkumarcool said:


> Same,Still no success not able find drive on file manager and the light is keeping always on and not blinking before it used to


Tried any professionals?


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## pkkumarcool (Jul 31, 2019)

billubakra said:


> Tried any professionals?


contacted a data recovery company they are asking for 500rs charge for fist checking the drive and later upto 5000-7000rs charge for recovery depends on how recoverable.


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## billubakra (Jul 31, 2019)

pkkumarcool said:


> contacted a data recovery company they are asking for 500rs charge for fist checking the drive and later upto 5000-7000rs charge for recovery depends on how recoverable.


lol
I don't think that WD would rma without running a test with their WDLG tool first. Sorry about this brother.


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 31, 2019)

pkkumarcool said:


> contacted a data recovery company they are asking for 500rs charge for fist checking the drive and later upto 5000-7000rs charge for recovery depends on how recoverable.


This is pretty standard & this 5k-7k charge is assuming simplest degree of physical damage.


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## pkkumarcool (Jul 31, 2019)

billubakra said:


> lol
> I don't think that WD would rma without running a test with their WDLG tool first. Sorry about this brother.


Yeah its frustrating just one mistake and i dropped my hdd from table i dont wanna rma because they will replace the drive with a new one i have got very important stuff(Family photos and videos) in it so i think i will save some money then will go for recovery later


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## rhitwick (Jul 31, 2019)

I lost 500GB internal SATA drive.

Spent 3500/- for same. No result.
Lost lot of important photos and documents.


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 31, 2019)

That is why always have a backup of your important data in at least 2 different places.


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## billubakra (Feb 10, 2020)

Hi Guys,
So finally it has stopped copying heavy files. It has started making tik tik noise too. CDI shows this





Is there a chance that they will know that it fell?


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## billubakra (Feb 10, 2020)

WD Lifeguard diagnostic is not detecting it, whereas CDI now shows caution but doesn't respond when I click on it.
*Any chance to erase the data as it is not being detected? Can't risk to send it like this back @whitestar_999 @SaiyanGoku @anupam_pb @patkim @meetdilip *
Edit- PFA


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## billubakra (Feb 10, 2020)

After connecting it to the system today in CDI>>Advanced features>> AAM/AAPM I slided the bar to the max performance and then the noise started and it literally went down. Can the same cause this? Because before this it was working fine.


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## whitestar_999 (Feb 11, 2020)

Some hdd have g-sense error rate parameter but even that is not 100% trustworthy so almost nil chances of anyone finding if hdd fell for sure.

Unless hdd is detected,nothing can be done. That is why many people keep their data in encrypted format so in such situations they can send it for rma without worries.

AAM/APM slider should not have any relation with this,once any hdd falls it directly affects its mechanical sub-system which is very delicate & once that happens failure of hdd is just a matter of time.


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## billubakra (Feb 12, 2020)

whitestar_999 said:


> Some hdd have g-sense error rate parameter but even that is not 100% trustworthy so almost nil chances of anyone finding if hdd fell for sure.
> 
> Unless hdd is detected,nothing can be done. That is why many people keep their data in encrypted format so in such situations they can send it for rma without worries.
> 
> AAM/APM slider should not have any relation with this,once any hdd falls it directly affects its mechanical sub-system which is very delicate & once that happens failure of hdd is just a matter of time.


Pta nahi yaar it worked fine for all these months. As soon as I slided it to the max performance it went kaput
Itna dhokha to ladkia nahi deti jitna ajkal ki wd drives de rahi hai.
About encryption is that wd software good to encrypt? By good I mean it doesn't affect the data in any way right? What was it's name again?


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## whitestar_999 (Feb 12, 2020)

billubakra said:


> Pta nahi yaar it worked fine for all these months. As soon as I slided it to the max performance it went kaput
> Itna dhokha to ladkia nahi deti jitna ajkal ki wd drives de rahi hai.
> About encryption is that wd software good to encrypt? By good I mean it doesn't affect the data in any way right? What was it's name again?


Don't know bhai,if your luck is bad then anything can happen. But I know nobody whose hdd lasted more than a few weeks/months after falling like yours did.

You can use either wd encryption software(but it is available only for select models I think) or you can use VeraCrypt - Free Open source disk encryption with strong security for the Paranoid
Always test for a few days first with some unimportant data to familiarize yourself with encryption software because a simple error may result in all your data being inaccessible(note down the password in some notebook,don't do something which will corrupt the encryption etc as mentioned in manual).


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## billubakra (Feb 13, 2020)

whitestar_999 said:


> Don't know bhai,if your luck is bad then anything can happen. But I know nobody whose hdd lasted more than a few weeks/months after falling like yours did.
> 
> You can use either wd encryption software(but it is available only for select models I think) or you can use VeraCrypt - Free Open source disk encryption with strong security for the Paranoid
> Always test for a few days first with some unimportant data to familiarize yourself with encryption software because a simple error may result in all your data being inaccessible(note down the password in some notebook,don't do something which will corrupt the encryption etc as mentioned in manual).


_*You can use either wd encryption software(but it is available only for select models I think*_
Name of software and models?


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## whitestar_999 (Feb 13, 2020)

Setting up and using WD Security and WD Drive Utilities

Some models of WD have hardware encryption(like older my passport ultra). However some online reviews suggest it is not as secure so better use veracrypt.


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## billubakra (Feb 13, 2020)

whitestar_999 said:


> Setting up and using WD Security and WD Drive Utilities
> 
> Some models of WD have hardware encryption(like older my passport ultra). However some online reviews suggest it is not as secure so better use veracrypt.


Is there a chance of data corruption using the either of two? And a software like this on an external drive, does it impact its performance, longevity?


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## whitestar_999 (Feb 13, 2020)

billubakra said:


> Is there a chance of data corruption using the either of two? And a software like this on an external drive, does it impact its performance, longevity?


Data corruption chances are very low,same as normal copying. An encryption software like veracrypt runs just like a full format for the first time when encrypting the entire drive.After that its additional impact is negligible. basically once the entire hdd is encrypted,you will launch veracrypt to unlock the hdd(aka veracrypt will decrypt any data/file you open on hdd),do your work & when closing the file/hdd it will encrypt everything back.


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## billubakra (Feb 14, 2020)

So Veracrypt>Wd's own encryption software? Plus do we have to install these softwares in a new system before copying/pasting or just viewing the files?


whitestar_999 said:


> Data corruption chances are very low,same as normal copying. An encryption software like veracrypt runs just like a full format for the first time when encrypting the entire drive.After that its additional impact is negligible. basically once the entire hdd is encrypted,you will launch veracrypt to unlock the hdd(aka veracrypt will decrypt any data/file you open on hdd),do your work & when closing the file/hdd it will encrypt everything back.


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## whitestar_999 (Feb 14, 2020)

Yes veracrypt is better.You can either install or carry a portable version with you but it is required for you to decrypt the data.You can copy paste encrypted data too but it will just be in garbage form as it will be coded(that is why no issue if you send hdd to rma or it gets stolen).


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