WD EasyStore Portable (2.5") seen, but won't serve files.

[rainless]

Hey! Long time no see. Moto's working now...

Anyway... I read the other two WD threads.... Mu problem is a little DIFFERENT.

I have a 4TB easystore portable drive. (The flat ones. No power supply.)

Not sure, at all, what happened to it. I did move recently... Maybe it was at the bottom of some heavy boxes... I have no idea.

Drive is recognized every time I plug it in... I see all of the files... but I can't copy them. It just hangs.

Being a 4TB external drive and all... I've backed-up my LIFE to that thing. (Last time for THAT btw... From now on everything goes into the CLOUD... Or like a COUPLE of clouds... from different companies...)

I checked for the tell-tale signs of hardware problems: It's got NONE of those. Drive is still spinning just fine. It's not getting stuck. No clicking... No overheating...

It seems like it SHOULD be working. But when I run the WD Utility it says "S.M.A.R.T. FAIL" like IMMEDIATELY. One second. (Maybe less).

Been like an EXTREMELY long time since I've had a drive fail on me. Like the last time was before I joined this site... And that was a MAXTOR. It was that long ago.

It almost seems like it's suddenly just not getting enough power. (So, to that end, before I start going all MAD SCIENTIST on this thing... I ordered a modern splitter cable... which I realize shouldn't even need in the modern age... but this is kind of an old drive... and it's 4TB... AND it's suspect. It'll be here tomorrow.)

This had to be one of the ORIGINAL portable 4TB drives... and I kinda have my doubts now that they really had that technology figured out. I remember having trouble getting it to work when I first got it. (Somehow I only had that problem once).

Maybe it fell... I seem to have some memory of it falling at some point... but I'm pretty sure I used it after that.

So I COULD buy another one and rehouse it... If it means anything... I've tried like 6 different cables, and I've tried reading it on mac and pc. (I was actually able to get files off it on Mac... before it conked out...)

 

[Niku-Sama]

does it have that strange micro usb 3.0 connector or is it a regular micro or C style?

 

[rainless]

does it have that strange micro usb 3.0 connector or is it a regular micro or C style?

It's got the weirdo one.

 

[EarthDog]

I'd shuck the drive out and connect it directly to your system if possible. Either the drive actually failed or your chassis with the connection did. So yeah, take it apart and see if you can connect the drive directly is my suggestion.

Does device manager say anything about the drive?

If you ran the WD tool and it fails instantly, it's worth shucking the drive out and seeing where the actual problem lay.

does it have that strange micro usb 3.0 connector or is it a regular micro or C style?

It's got the weirdo one

Which weird one...(not like it matters here, but, for giggles).

 

[rainless]

I'd shuck the drive out and connect it directly to your system if possible. Either the drive actually failed or your chassis with the connection did. So yeah, take it apart and see if you can connect the drive directly is my suggestion.

Does device manager say anything about the drive?

If you ran the WD tool and it fails instantly, it's worth shucking the drive out and seeing where the actual problem lay.



Which weird one...(not like it matters here, but, for giggles).

View attachment 361962

Micro-B.

I watched a video of someone shucking a similar drive (it wasn't the EasyStore... It was the Elements) and it JUST had a micro-b connecter soldered right onto the board. Proprietary

So the first step is I wait til I get the Y cable from Amazon tomorrow and see if that helps. Then I'll see about the shucking.

I won't know about solder points until I see it... if it comes to that.

 

[EarthDog]

What will a splitter do for you? I guess it's a different cable to the PC from the device so it validates if the cable is good or not(?).

I assume you tried on different USB ports, yes?

EDIT: Ok, I watched the vid... if your drive has the micro-b port is soldered onto the PCB of the drive, there's no interface between the chassis and drive to go bad. Please specify your exact model of Easystore. Going off another model may be different than yours. It appears there are several generations of Easystore, soooo....



Missed this...

Does device manager say anything about the drive?

Also, can you WRITE to the drive? You just mentioned copy and something about it working for a brief time on a Mac.

 

[don256us]

I think that the splitter will give him 5v from two ports thus giving more amps?

I was going to say you need a new cable until I read the last line of your post.

I agree with ED on shucking it. If your's is older, it should not have a soldered usb connector but it might. When there were large scale HDD shortages, people started shucking in large volume and the companies responded by changing the connector as you noted. Further, some comanies made it so that *if* you plug in a SATA power connector, detection of the 3.3v leg rendered the drive inop. To get around that, use a 4-pin molex to SATA power connector. It will only get 12 and 5v.

Good luck.

 

[EarthDog]

I think that the splitter will give him 5v from two ports thus giving more amps?

Would it do that?? I don't think it's a power issue (at least no symptoms described lead me to believe this)... but anything is worth a try, I suppose.

EDIT: Make sure you're putting the device in a USB 3.x port and not 2.0. It should work in 2.0, I'd guess, But 3.x ports do offer more power.

 

[don256us]

Yeah. I don't think it will help but it can't hurt. Devices will take only the amps they want so more amps availible can only serve to assist if that's the issue.

 

[rainless]

Missed this...

Device Manager says everything is hunky dory. Drive is in great working order. Tried every usb port on two different computers.

I think that the splitter will give him 5v from two ports thus giving more amps?

I was going to say you need a new cable until I read the last line of your post.

I agree with ED on shucking it. If your's is older, it should not have a soldered usb connector but it might. When there were large scale HDD shortages, people started shucking in large volume and the companies responded by changing the connector as you noted. Further, some comanies made it so that *it* you plug in a SATA power connector, detection of the 3.3v leg rendered the drive inop. To get around that, use a 4-pin molex to SATA power connector. It will only get 12 and 5v.

Good luck.

Sneaky *****... Like if they're selling drives anyway then WHY would they do this?

Yeah as I said, if the splitter thing doesn't work I'll proceed immediately to shucking.

Would it do that?? I don't think it's a power issue (at least no symptoms described lead me to believe this)... but anything is worth a try, I suppose.

I think power is the issue. Drive is recognized by both PC and Windows. Disk manager says it's in good working order. I can even see all the files. I've head TONS of drives die on me... Never had a drive be this... accessible... and die on me.

Anyway the cable was like three bucks. If it doesn't work? Then it doesn't work. Onto chucking. But I always tend to try the cheaper, less invasive action first. (Unless we're talking about my own body... Then, by all means, let's get STRAIGHT to the surgery.)

 

[EarthDog]

Sneaky *****... Like if they're selling drives anyway then WHY would they do this?

Consumers like you and I did this. IIRC.......somehow, at one time it was cheaper to buy an external and shuck the high capacity 3.5" drive out of it.

I think power is the issue.

I hope that's it, but the symptoms don't lead me to think that way. AFAIK, these either work or don't. Remember, drives spin up when powered on (typically their most power use, start-up current) so if you heard it ramp up initially, it's using a lot of power there already and not frozen when you 'access' it. You may be better off buying another of the same generation and swapping out the PCB.

So, no copy... but can you write a file to it? Typically reads and writes have similar power consumption... idle a bit less and standby-sleep a lot less.

Will you list the exact model of your drive, please? Easystore has several generations and the video is a different, albeit similar, drive.

EDIT: You can see if it's power by testing it with a multimeter to see if you're getting the correct voltage. There are pinouts of the USB plugs online if you choose to use this method.

 

[don256us]

I can remember days where I get a zip lock bag with water and ice and marry it to a drive with rubber bands to get data off. A "last resort" type deal. Worked on a few occasions too. It is possible that you have a chip that gets hot during data transfer and conks out. The bag 'o icewater can help. I would remove the plastic case for that to work best but if it works or not, the drive would be tossed after all availible data has been removed in whole or in part.

What software have you run against the drive? Drive Image? I think that's made by Macron/Marcom/something like that (sp?).

 

[EarthDog]

Macrium products @don256us?

 

[stompah]

I lean towards throwing it in the freezer to see what happens.

But I'm wondering about it working on a Mac not a PC. I wonder if there is an error check that windows has that Mac does not? Or some correction program that Mac has?

Have you considered trying it in Linux? I am not well versed in all of the distros. Buy, maybe there is one that is more server oriented that can error correct, or try again rather than stop on an error.

If everything fails I would plug it in the Mac and remove files/folders in small batches until you get it all. It may require a few hours of patience.


Another thing is to use a magnifying glass to check the connectors. Also chuck it and see if you can inspect the solder joints to the logic board. You could have damage there that is causing resistance.

 

[EarthDog]

Please, "shuck" the drive from the chassis... do not 'chuck' the drive and chassis, or it could cause more damage.

 

[stompah]

You are incorrect Sir. It is a Western Digital drive. You CHUCK. Any other manufacturer you shuck.

Leaving my typo in the original post for posterity.

 

[rainless]

Oh... Somebody asked about "which" Easystore: P/N KDBKUZ0040BBK-UA

 

[don256us]

So that become important if you can get another unit with the exact same circuit board. Swap the electronics and save your data. I've never done it but it can be done. Kind of a last ditch before sending it to a company to recover. What does recovery cost these days?

 

[rainless]

So that become important if you can get another unit with the exact same circuit board. Swap the electronics and save your data. I've never done it but it can be done. Kind of a last ditch before sending it to a company to recover. What does recovery cost these days?

Well it used to be an arm and a leg.. Now they want the whole corpse. And at 4TB....??

 

[Niku-Sama]

the reason i was asking about that funky 3.0 connector is i had a similar problem but it would work with a regular micro 2.0 cord.
give it a shot, i'm sure you could find a decent quality standard micro cord hanging around