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User profile for user: dmcallister
dmcallister Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

I have a brand new Western Digital 3Tb Drive that wont Load

Basically I have the above mentioned drive. "my book essential".

when I bought it I quickly moved all my data onto it to be used as the main backup. did not use is as a TM backup I just wanted to store specific data on it.


a few weeks later I disconected it by going thru the usual right click and eject...

so I waited til the drive icon went away and then I disconnected it from the USB slot on my macbook pro.


As soon as I did that a message came up telling me that I disconnected the drive incorrectly and bla bla bla

if you know anything about pulling the USB plug without ejecting the drive you know what I mean!


Anyway, I connected the drive again but nothing happened. The drive's LED turns on and stays on but the drive does not mount.


I go to Disk utilities and it's not there...

I've tried Disk Warrior, Drive Genius, Tech Tools, Western Digital SmartWare Application and even tried attaching the drive on a PC.


But Nothing.


If you think you can help I would really appreciate a response.

I see a lot of posts that initiate a problem followed by some "Genius" posting the same problem. (Please Think before you do that)


If you're having the same problem, please wait for someone to respond.


If this post seems a bit rude, it's only because I don't want this to turn into a book...


this is an elevated question and requires someone with real technical expertise, that's whom I want to hear from!


I've tried many possible solutions but obviously not the right one!

who know there may not be one and I'll just have to throw the drive in the trash.


thanks for your help in advance




~D

Posted on Jul 19, 2011 10:17 PM

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User profile for user: MrHoffman
MrHoffman
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
116,469 points

Posted on Jul 20, 2011 7:41 AM

Empty off the rest of the external USB, remove any external hubs, try swapping the USB cable and try a different USB socket, then (if this drive is new enough to be covered under vendor warranty) call the vendor product support folks and see what they say about this.


You can try the USB Prober USB bus analyzer tool (it's a fairly simple tool, and is part of Xcode4 among other Xcode releases, look in the /Developer/Utilities directory), but I'd doubt that will get very far. You'll see some USB hubs (usually some combination of OHCI or EHCI hubs) and probably Bluetooth and an iSight device, or whatever happens to be included within this Mac box, and whatever's on the external buses (which should be just this disk, if it responds, assuming no other devices are connected).


The behavior of this disk implies a problem with its power supply, USB, drive interface, cabling, or with the head-disk assembly. It's a hardware error.


The LED probably means that the enclosure has voltage from its power supply, and not that it's working without error. Check the docs for the hard disk, and see if the LED can (also) indicate errors. Some can. But then hardware diagnostics have a long history of not being entirely reliable; hardware can fail in unexpected ways.


If there's critical data on the disk, you can contact one of the recovery services; they can usually swap parts or power supplies and (depending on what failed) might be able to get some data off the disk. (This usually isn't cheap, however.)

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User profile for user: MrHoffman
MrHoffman
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
116,469 points

Jul 20, 2011 7:41 AM in response to dmcallister

Empty off the rest of the external USB, remove any external hubs, try swapping the USB cable and try a different USB socket, then (if this drive is new enough to be covered under vendor warranty) call the vendor product support folks and see what they say about this.


You can try the USB Prober USB bus analyzer tool (it's a fairly simple tool, and is part of Xcode4 among other Xcode releases, look in the /Developer/Utilities directory), but I'd doubt that will get very far. You'll see some USB hubs (usually some combination of OHCI or EHCI hubs) and probably Bluetooth and an iSight device, or whatever happens to be included within this Mac box, and whatever's on the external buses (which should be just this disk, if it responds, assuming no other devices are connected).


The behavior of this disk implies a problem with its power supply, USB, drive interface, cabling, or with the head-disk assembly. It's a hardware error.


The LED probably means that the enclosure has voltage from its power supply, and not that it's working without error. Check the docs for the hard disk, and see if the LED can (also) indicate errors. Some can. But then hardware diagnostics have a long history of not being entirely reliable; hardware can fail in unexpected ways.


If there's critical data on the disk, you can contact one of the recovery services; they can usually swap parts or power supplies and (depending on what failed) might be able to get some data off the disk. (This usually isn't cheap, however.)

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I have a brand new Western Digital 3Tb Drive that wont Load

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