WD Elements appears as 'local disk'

Thank you

I'll reply in the morning

Disk A
I chose GPT and eventually get a 'data error' . . .




disconnect drive; then re-connect . . .




It says 'device working properly but I get prompted for GPT again



Drive B
- there is no power supply port.


Thank you

idgat said:

They can die in 2 SECONDS after bought. There is never any certainty, just a warranty.

Click to expand...

So true. WD Elements and WD My Book are notoriously infamous for weak bridges. People often just crack them open and remove the drives inside to use as internal hard drives. They're usually SMR drives and knowing this should explain why they tend to be unstable with respect to keeping the data written to them. I've recently inherited a few of these but I stopped buying them over a decade ago because they simply aren't that reliable. My experience has been that Seagate models tend to be slightly more durable.

hader said:

Disk B: It looks that the drive is absent and maybe broken. (Does it need a external power supply? Some old ancient drives do. Draws power from a power supply then from an USB port. Old things were more power hungry. In order not to blow up an USB-port (drawing to much power) it had an external power supply.)

Click to expand...

Yes. They require an external power supply. One more reason to keep them turned off after use and only turn them back on when needed. If used for back up purposes they should only be used as a secondary or tertiary backup. (Or not at all.)

M1000tutorials said:

Disk A
I chose GPT and eventually get a 'data error' . . .

View attachment 185878


disconnect drive; then re-connect . . .


View attachment 185879

It says 'device working properly but I get prompted for GPT again



Drive B
- there is no power supply port.


Thank you

Click to expand...

You must be using a newer model then. Admittedly, I've never owned a WD My Passport. I'm guessing it must be one of the smaller size units. *edited* The lead post refers to a WD Elements external hard drive. As far as I know these units require an external power supply. USB isn't adequate. The fact that you are getting cyclic redundancy reports should be cause for concern that this unit is malfunctioning or bricked. I would remove it from it's enclosure (if possible) and connect it directly to SATA to see if I could salvage any of the data. After that I would try to attempt a reformat. If I still got cyclic redundancy then I'd recycle it. OF COURSE I would only do this if it were off warranty. If it's still on warranty then it should be replaced.

Scannerman said:

So true. WD Elements and WD My Book are notoriously infamous for weak bridges

Click to expand...

I'll show you my collection (soon)

Scannerman said:

Yes. They require an external power supply.

Click to expand...

But there is no 'opening' for a power supply . . . It's an enclosure!!

Oh God, the other one is an enclosure too

(photos to come)

My advice: IF you have no warranty on them CRACK them open and pull the drives. IF you cannot do this with them and they're still reporting errors no matter what you try then they're toast. Not uncommon. Newer ones have bridges soldered to them so you can't "shuck" them. Older ones can be removed from the SATA/USB bridge. You can find videos on how to do this on YouTube. Bear in mind that not the best quality spinners are used in these devices.

M1000tutorials said:

But there is no 'opening' for a power supply . . . It's an enclosure!!

Click to expand...

Portable external USB drives require both power and data transfer capability, both requirements usually being satisfied through the one USB connection

However, this can be dependent on the computer USB capability, and the connecting cable capability

USB Micro B type connections are notorious for requiring an exorbitant amount of power, frequently not met by the device to which the drive is connected. At the other end of the scale, Type C to Type C are generally more successful

When an external USB drive fails to get the power it needs, the errors that pop up can be varied and mostly meaningless of the true cause ... in effect, Windows can't discern why the drive is not recognised and flashes the first error message that it can think of. Very confusing and nigh-on-imposssible to troubleshoot

Type of connection for your device(s)? Is/Are your problem device/s connected through a USB hub?

EDIT

I note your specs indicate a laptop ... notorious (irrespective of brand) for failing to provide enough power for your type of drives. And this can happen (*snaps fingers*) just like that, between uses.

Hi @M1000tutorials

Hard Disk Sentinel supports most WD external disk.Compatibility list Compatible external hard disk, external enclosure, adapter

I would advise you again to download and install Hard Disk Senntinel Trial version Hard Disk Sentinel Trial version - HDD health and temperature monitoring

Plugin your not working external disk, Run Hard Disk Sentinel , select your external disk and post a screenshot, The overview tab will show the status of the disk. Post the screenshots for both the external disks,

Also be aware that WD external disks My Passport and My Book are hardware encrypted,. A encrypt/decrypt chip in the Sata to USB bridge encrypts the incoming data and writes it into the HDD, In case of failure of the SATA to USB Bridge inside the enclosure, you cannot recover the data even if the HDD turns to be good, You will only get the encrypted data.

Scannerman said:

Older ones can be removed from the SATA/USB bridge.

Click to expand...

I think I'm asking about the connection, in the video about what I should order?


My collection: 15 drives . . .

15 hard drives = 42.75 TB
- 1x 750 GB
- 3x 1TB
- 4x 2TB
- 1x 3TB
- 3x 4TB
- 2x 5TB
- 1x 6TB


I'll break open the 4 'cased' drives

I had a Seagate hard drive die early on in my computer life so I thought badly of Seagate hard drives; WD . . . you fooled me

M1000tutorials said:

I think I'm asking about the connection, in the video about what I should order?


My collection: 15 drives . . .

15 hard drives = 42.75 TB
- 1x 750 GB
- 3x 1TB
- 4x 2TB
- 1x 3TB
- 3x 4TB
- 2x 5TB
- 1x 6TB

https://imgur.com/a/Z0z9Xk3

I'll break open the 4 'cased' drives

I had a Seagate die early on in my computer life so I thought badly of Seagate hard drives; WD . . . you fooled me

Click to expand...

My experience has been that Seagates last a bit longer with the exception of some models such as the very thin mechanical hard drives. My finding is not so much whether the drives are from Seagate or Western Digital but rather if the drives are CMR or SMR. As a rule I tend to stay away from shingled magnetic recording drives as much as possible -- especially concerning saving particularly sensitive data that isn't so easy to replace to SMR. CMR is a much better choice for RAID configurations as well but again, CMR drives tend to cost more. Western Digital makes some very reliable silicon drives but when it comes to spinners my experience has been that they're just not what they used to be. Back in the days of Caviar Black drives and Velociraptors Western Digital had a pretty solid reputation for quality hard drives. Enterprise drives are also more robust and reliable but again, they are also quite pricey. When it comes to mechanical hard drives (spinners) my preference is the helium filled drives. So far they've never given me any issues but again, they can be quite pricey. Seagate EXOS and Seagate IRON WOLF drives are known for their durability and long life spans. I hope this helps. Have fun sorting it all out.

M1000tutorials said:

I think I'm asking about the connection, in the video about what I should order?


My collection: 15 drives . . .

15 hard drives = 42.75 TB
- 1x 750 GB
- 3x 1TB
- 4x 2TB
- 1x 3TB
- 3x 4TB
- 2x 5TB
- 1x 6TB


I'll break open the 4 'cased' drives

Click to expand...

Are we running an exhibition here???

break open the 4 cased drives and do what?????

As Scannerman said - "Have fun sorting it all out. "

Which sata cable do I use for this connection?Amazon.ca : sata cable

Scannerman said:

My advice: IF you have no warranty on them CRACK them open

Click to expand...

Im taking your advice. Thank you


I bought

BENFEI 3.5/2.5 Inch SATA HDD/SSD Enclosure, Tool-Free Design, Supports 20TB HDD & UASP​

on Sept 30th.
It works with some drives but not others. Why?



Another question, different topic:

I bought 2x Yubikey. I set one up and it was with the password screen for Windows. I would like to remove the password screen. How wuld I do that? Thank you. Keep the keys but lose the password screen

M1000tutorials said:

I think I'm asking about the connection, in the video about what I should order?


My collection: 15 drives . . .

15 hard drives = 42.75 TB
- 1x 750 GB
- 3x 1TB
- 4x 2TB
- 1x 3TB
- 3x 4TB
- 2x 5TB
- 1x 6TB

I'll break open the 4 'cased' drives

Click to expand...

Are NONE of these drives working?? (With all due repect, your postings are a bit confusing and all over the place). If none are working, this would suggest the computer (or cable) rather than the device(s). Have you tried them on other devices (OTHER THAN A LAPTOPS)

Don't get too excited about "breaking open" enclosures and getting success - some external USB drives have internal non-standard proprietary connections that don't fit normal computer connections (e.g. USB > SATA, etc)

idgat said:

Are NONE of these drives working?? (With all due repect, your postings are a bit confusing and all over the place). If none are working, this would suggest the computer (or cable) rather than the device(s). Have you tried them on other devices (OTHER THAN A LAPTOPS)

Don't get too excited about "breaking open" enclosures and getting success - some external USB drives have internal non-standard proprietary connections that don't fit normal computer connections (e.g. USB > SATA, etc)

Click to expand...

I did warn him about this but really what has he got to lose? Perhaps it is part of a project. Perhaps it's one of those J-bod configs. There's a reason those were eventually discarded but there's nothing wrong with a little experimental learning adventure. I won't mess with Yubi keys so I'll just pretend I don't know what they're talking about. lol A legitimate Windows key is only 20 bucks. No reason to hack.

Methinks the OP might be aa young person trying to get information on how to crack external drives. YouTube is likely his best resource for this. He/she can learn about J-bod there too. At any rate this OP strikes me as less than forthright. They could have gotten more help methinks if they started out stating what they originally planned instead of playing "damsel in distress" or the little boy who cried wolf.