hard drive - Western Digital Elements 1TB USB3.0 Spins up and then beeps?

07
2014-07
  • thatsimplekid

    Well, today, I unplugged my WD external HDD from my laptop so that I could move it to a different port. I was not using any program that would be accessing the drive at the time. However, when I plugged it back in, I hear no spin up, and a "clunk" - stuck heads, so I gave it some "gentle persuasion" (hit it very gently against my palm while it was trying to spin up, and I then managed to get it spinning, However, now when I power the drive up, It spins up, and I then hear beeping (hardware) and then it spins back down. Windows recognises the drive, as I can see it in device manager, however, It doesn't recognise it as a mountable volume :/ Is there any way I'm getting my data back without going to a scam called data recovery?

    • Answers
  • sammyg

    Can you see the drive mounted to a drive letter in Explorer? Can you read its contents? Or is the ability to eject it (removable drive) that you don't have now?

    If you don't see it in Explorer, run diskmgmt.msc and verify that it's available. How does it look like? Do you see the partitions in there? Or is it just shown as unallocated space? Maybe even shown as not initiated?

    In Windows, you have diskmgmt.msc and you have chkdsk. These are the tools you would use for general disk maintenance, diagnostics and file system repair. I would suggest you write a bootable Gparted Live system and boot the computer off of that, and see if you can read the contents of the disk. You can also use any Linux Live system for the same purpose.

    If you can't read it in either Windows or Linux, and your warranty is expired, I would suggest your take the disk drive out of the housing/case and connect it to a desktop computer. See if you can read it that way. It could be a connection problem. You should have tested another USB cable already, before you do any of this.

    Official troubleshooting guide can be found on WDC website. You might find these links helpful.

  • Linker3000

    The 'beep' could be coming from the disk read/write head voice coil mechanism or its drive circuitry - that's the bits that move the position of the read/write head array. What you could be hearing is the high current, high frequency drive signal, and it may indicate that either the mechanism is stuck or that it's trying to position the read/write heads somewhere valid, but it can't because there's been a media or electronic failure and its not 'seeing' any data.

    Either way, this is not a good sign. Try the diagnostics suggested and if necessary, RMA the drive if it's under warranty.


    • Related Question

    hard drive - repair/recovery tool for Western Digital Elements (1TB)
  • Pennf0lio

    My Hard Disk Drive just got corrupted due to electricity fluctuation. When I plug my Western Digital Elements, It ask me if I want to format it or not... I can't see my files or even the capacity of my disk from it's properties.

    Is there any solution you would suggest? looking for a software that can give me access to my files. I just need to copy it then I can retire my Drive and will buy a new one...

    Thanks!


    • Related Answers
  • madmaze

    2 main programs

    these are both included on SystemRescueCD

    I mainly use ddrescue, even works if some of the heads have faild

  • Rohana Mallawa

    Same thing happen to me. With much trial and error I found that the USB connecting jack at the Elements end is not making properly. Try to enter the jack half way. If the drive light comes on wait and see if spinning starts and the arm moving is felt. If so see the drive is recognized and files are able to reed. In my case I cleaned the both ends with a sharp safety pin. Specially the drives end and drive socket projected pins with grooves.If these groove end plastics are not letting cable to connect properly or only power is connected without data lines this can happen. My solution if this is the case is to expand slightly the drive end jack, end metal cover joining parts slightly outwards to get a little good pressure on the drive side male projection part.

  • Indrek
    • Open the upper metal cover by unscrewing 4 screws on left and right edges.
    • Remove the cover to expose the back side of the motherboard PCB showing 5 or 6 screws.
    • Unscrew all of them and pick up the PCB.
    • Use an obsolete toothbrush and adequate PCB cleaning thinner and rub the three IC solder bases quite gently together with all metal points on the board. Take utmost care while rubbing and cleaning.
    • Dry the cleaned surface with a dryer and screw back all screws and cover the upper part as well.
    • Plug the hard drive in and power it up.

    In more than 60% of cases, hard drive problems are fixed and it starts functioning. Copy your data off the drive at your earliest convenience.