WB 160GB passport not accessable

here is what I do know:

The drive turns on (light glows anyway) and the disk does spin, it also spins more when I try to do something to it or access it.

The drive is visible from Windows XP Pro SP2, the drive is specified as Q:

I would imagine that my computer system is of little importance in this matter, but the Motherboard driver and utilities is an EVGA version 74.1 NF680i SLI. I have no problems with other externals.

The USB plug is 2.0 and I have tried multiple plugs from multiple computers to access it.

I used Norton PartitionMagic 8.0 to try to delete and rebuild the current partition, it then states an error #27 "Cannot lock drive ". None of the Norton PartitionMagic functions work on it outside of its status of "Active" or "Hidden" which doesn't seem to effect it. I currently have it on Active, but have tried to adjust it with both.

It is currently formatted as FAT (just FAT, no numbers afterwards), Primary Volume, 152625.3 MB total space, all 152625.3 MB are used, however it does not have an actual label and it won't let me change it or any other features. Partition Magic also gives me an error about there not being enough memory to perform the action.

I tried to access it with PC Inspector File Recovery, but after several megabytes it slowed down and then the program halted. All it was able to detect was 1 directory, but absolutely no drives or files. I also am not sure I trust the analysis of the drive prior to the scans failure since the drive is obviously messed up some how.

I'm also not sure how to access, Recover, or Change an MBR of a portable external hard drive.

I also tried with windows to access it, it detects that it has to be formatted. It tries to format it only to not do anything.

A friend proposed that it is possible that a magnet could have messed it up somehow, however I am reasonably certain (about 94% sure +/- 3%) that it was never next to a magnet since it was safely in my drawer along with my other computer peripherals. it was also not within the vicinity of a large speaker or sub woofer.

I don't care about whatever data is currently on it (there was none), and I am willing to go through a lot to get this sucker working again. does anyone know anything that could productively make this particular portable hard drive functional?

 

thanks for the reply!

when I open diskmgmt.msc, it starts up but then immediately returns an error Labled "Logical Disk Manager" and the error is "The service database is locked ". The manager stays open but there are no drives listed. I can click on some buttons, but nothing really useful

I don't know exactly what it means by either service database or how/why it is locked.

I looked online for common problems for this and found that I might have a service somewhere that cannot start. I opened up msconfig and checked the services but everything is either running or stopped.

does anyone know where to go from here?

 

I have tried frequently to reboot the computer with and without the external connected. This computer isn't the only computer which has problems with the drive either, and every computer I connect it to have the same exact problem that mine does with it, which indicates that it is the drive itself and not the software.

Another thing is that when it plugs in, it does identify that the drive exists, it does assign a letter for the drive, and at the very beginning it can identify that its WD1600, but then immediately changes to an error message stating that the device is not installed properly.

 

Here is the WD External USB/Firewire FAT32 Formatting Utility:
http://support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=41&swid=34

Partition Magic works well(?) changing the current partitions, but I always seem to have problems if I get it to make or format one. I never use PM to make and format a new partition.

If you have any problems with the formatting utility, use the Lifeguard Diagnostics.

Matt

 

Thanks, that actually helped the situation. I was able to return it to its original state after making it detectable, then using WD's software to reformat the whole drive to factory settings, then from there I changed it from FAT32 to NTFS using partitionmagic, but unstead of reformatting to NTFS, I selected Convert instead and it kept the original settings but changed it to NTFS. it is fully functional now. I also installed Lifeguard and tested the drive; before and after the NTFS change it passed the inspection. Thanks very much ^_^

 

HCM, good you got it working

Is there a special reason for choosing NTFS format? Do you want to use any NTFS security features on it? It may be a little faster than FAT32, but you lose the ability to access it with DOS based utilities if there should be a problem in the future (looks like there has been one in the past ). If you have irreplaceable files on it when that happens, they may be lost.

WD seem to go with a FAT32 system and I would follow their lead, but that's your call.

Matt

 

There is a single reason that I chose to go with NTFS and that is because it supports massive file sizes above 4GB. I usually use my portable HD for moving large files that my flash drives simply can't store (such as 6GB ISOs and the like)

Believe me, I agree with you and would prefer to stick with WD's preferences, but I need a portable HD that can support large file sizes.