WD 2TB elements with NTFS partition not found

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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Author
Jolly
Posts: 3
Joined: 11 Jun 2012, 19:21

WD 2TB elements with NTFS partition not found

#1 Post by Jolly »

Hi to evrybody,
here's my problem with my external WD 2TB ELEMENTS HDD, Model Number:WDBAAU0020HBK.

Windows 7: 2 months ago it became quite slow and I noticed that there were some bad sectors. I tried to regenerate them with HDD Regenerator, but not for all of them it was a success: the first ones went well, but at a certain point the program blocked itself on a sector. So I decided to wait for a backup to a new drive and I havn't used it anymore till I've begun the transfer process. After a successfull 700 mb session with average speed of about 1 MB/s, I've decided to run a new chkdsk shot in order to make the speed transfer higher (2 months ago it worked)

Nowadays:
a) It's not displayed in My computer:
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b) visible but unknown and not allocated in Disk manager:
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ps: when I enter it asks me to initialize it, but then it says that is write protected
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c) with WD data life diagnostic I see it but i fail the tests (it says too many bad sectors)
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working internal drive (to see differences):
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external drive with problems:
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failed tests:
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d: with HD tune I can't perform read and write tests and I can't see drive infos:
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it says that it's all damaged:
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this was the situation 2 months ago:
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internal working drive:
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e) drive map with HDD regenerator (2 months ago there were only 3 red B):
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Ubuntu:
a) Disk manager sees it but as unknown:
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b) With testdisk I can't see any partition, I Can't write MBR, I think that I can't read or write to any sector:
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c) photorec:
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d) fsck:
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e) ntfsfix:
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Results:
It seems that I can't access the drive: I can't read any sector, I can't write to any sector, no SMART data (2 months ago I could have them), I can't even see the device number. I think that it's something not due to data messed up on it.


Questions:
a) is it correct that's an hardware problem? (or can it still be something else?)
b) what can I do to try to backup the drive? I suppose nothng :( but I hope to be wrong...
c) If it's mechanical: how can I know what part is causing problems?
control board?
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printed circuit board controller?
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hdd magnetic head?


Thanks in advance for helping me :)
Diego

gry26
Posts: 1
Joined: 12 Sep 2012, 09:00

Re: WD 2TB elements with NTFS partition not found

#2 Post by gry26 »

Greetings,

I'm having the same problem as what you described. I came home from the weekends and found that I have a big problem with my wd elements 2tb external hard drive! I'm just wondering if you were able to get your external hard drive fixed? You can email me directly at gry2424@gmail.com. Thx in advance.

Jolly
Posts: 3
Joined: 11 Jun 2012, 19:21

Re: WD 2TB elements with NTFS partition not found

#3 Post by Jolly »

sorry, I wasn't able to fix or backup the drive.

my conclusion is: NEVERMORE WD

Lito
Posts: 83
Joined: 08 Sep 2012, 06:58

Re: WD 2TB elements with NTFS partition not found

#4 Post by Lito »

Western Digital has a tool, free to download if you register the product, to align the partitions in a large disk.
The tool is made by Acronis and Ithink (if i remember correctly) that is an image to burn to a CD.
But I cannot promise that this is the solution.
Looking at the pictures you posted, Windows has a warning about using such a large drives. Yours is just in the border.
I might sound silly but, when you tried to mount the disk, was you working as the administrator?

Also have a look in the posts in this forum, I think there is some advise about not running chdsk or the likes.

Jolly
Posts: 3
Joined: 11 Jun 2012, 19:21

Re: WD 2TB elements with NTFS partition not found

#5 Post by Jolly »

Thanks,
I'll give it a try and let you know.

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