20 Most Recent Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive - Page 2 Questions & Answers

You will need the smartware disk that comes with the drive to connect to a PC and remove the password protection! If you do not have the disk try downloading from the WD website.

I'm sorry to say that this may be due to a corrupt HDD. WD Hard drives tend to die far too fast (I know too well unfortunately).
If this is under warranty, I would call up WD support service for a free replacement.
If you want to take more invasive steps, I will be happy to help you try and recover your files.

Your WD HDD have been attacted by viruses for your computer or outside computer where you used it last. Make sure that you have an up to date antivirus software, scan your computer or the external hard drive, explore your computer, go to tools - folder options under view files & folders select show hidden files and folders apply and ok it.

First of all - STOP using your WD drive immediately! If you continue using the disk drive, you significantly increase the risk that the files you want to recover will be lost forever due to overwritten. Every new file or action will take up more "free space" and reduce your chances of retrieving your deleted files from WD. So really, you need to act quickly. The next step - get a good HDD data recovery software to retrieve the data as most as possible.Learn more from: http://www.western-digital-data-recovery.com/

Try this link to download the software/firmware of your external hard drive:

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/step1.asp?id=wdfMB_Essential&os=win

^_^

Do you mean connecting pin from USB cable or power adapter?

All depends on what computer you connect it to. Mac or Windows. If damaged you may need software tools such as Norton for PC or DiskWarrior for Mac.

Most external hard disks use a 12 volt 2 amp power supply. The modern ones are small and cheap. Be aware the power plug should be the same as the power plug on the old power supply. and the polarity also.

Since your disk is showing up with a drive letter, hopefully, check disk (chkdsk) can help: http://www.wikihow.com/Fix-a-Cyclic-Redundancy-Check-Error (this if for Windows XP) Google "checkdisk windows [your version]" if it doesn't translate well. Falls are a huge cause in external hdd failure, though, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if the disk is beyond help. Try connecting to another computer (to see if the problem still occurrs) or another operating system (you can boot to a linux live cd) or, at least, use another USB drive on the computer you are connecting to. Next step would be to *cross fingers* hope the external enclosure suffered damage, but that the actual drive did not. If you are comfortable doing it (likely voiding your warranty), disassemble your external enclosure and remove your SATA hdd. You can open your PC and connect it to your motherboard assuming you have an available SATA connection, SATA cable, and available SATA power hookup. Alternately, you can buy a 'kit' to connect a hdd to your pc via usb, which prevents you from having to open your PC. It is much more convenient if you can diagnose without purchasing 1-time use hardware, though. (Google "sata to usb" -- i buy from NewEgg usually, cheapest with 4 stars) You can try data recovery software, but they haven't been very helpful to me in the case of physical trauma to drive. Data recovery outfits (expensive) may help if the information is not otherwise recoverable. Good luck!

if it is new, yes -- your OS should prompt you when you plug it in. if it isn't new (your data is currently on it), i wouldn't recommend initializing. your best bet is to remove the hdd from the enclosure and attach it manually if you are comfortable doing that. of course, it can't hurt to try 1) another usb port or 2) another computer first.

Hi Elizabethfam

If not removed safely, external devices can lose information when disconnected.

I recommend using a free recovery tool called Handy Recovery which is normally used to recover files accidentally files on a PC. The application can also be used to try and recover files on your external HD.

Handy recovery: http://www.handyrecovery.com/download.shtml (look for the small button near the bottom that says 'Freeware')

Good luck!

~Rob

have the files been deleted from the laptop? if not i would simply do a fresh format on the external and re migrate data. if they are then you can get software such as undelete or recover my files to restore your deleted data off of your laptop drive.

WD has a courtesy Drive cloning tool from acronis. It's on their web sit under drivers. Don't worry about the "My Book" thing the file is labeled Acronis True Image WD Edition Software download. http://support.wd.com/product/download.asp?groupid=132&lang=en

What TV?

Hi pavi66
A trial recovery software will show you the files present on your drive but will not let you recover them ! You need it and they need your monney , so , buy it or try Recuva from http://download.cnet.com/Recuva/3000-2242_4-10753287.html
Do not try to recover all at once but each category at a time , documents , pictures , music ...etc...
Otherwise , you need to buy a recovery software such as Tenor Share from : http://www.any-data-recovery.com/
Best regards ,
fanaudi .