Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive Logo
Posted on Sep 05, 2009
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Light is on but no one is home.

Hi,
My WD 1TB EHD has been working fine for months but recenently has my PC won't recognise it. The blue light is on (it used to flash when it was working properly and had 3 sections in a bar but now its just the centre bar thats on without blinking), and I can hear it spinning inside but it wont come up on any of my USB ports. I run Windows XP. Is it all over and I should throw the peice of junk against the wall or is there still hope?

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  • tom_owczarek Sep 06, 2009

    Ok, I tested the USB ports and USB cable with other devices and everything seemed to work fine. I cleaned the USB port on the EHD too. As soon as I plugged it in to my PC the light on the EHD started to flash like its meant to and my PC also started to make the same noise it does when its reading something. But then nothing... Still couldn't read the EHD. Everytime I pug in the EHD, my PC makes the USB device connection noise and the same noise when I disconnect it but it doesnt appear in the "Safely Remove Hardware" section. I've also looked in the device manager under System in Control Panel. WD is listed in my disk drives section but when I looked at the properties of it it couldn't give any real info and said it was at location 0 ...
    Is there anything else I can try before I attempt to "fix" it with a hammer?

  • tom_owczarek Sep 11, 2009

    "remove the raw drive from the casing
    if its a sata connect it directly to your pc using a power cable for sata drive and a data cable and connect it to the mother board" ...

    Did all that and still nothing comes up. How do I fix the firmware?

  • Anonymous May 11, 2010

    Please don't throw it.U You can try cleaning and removing dust on the USB port,see if it helps. and also wipe out dust on the usb on the EHD

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1 Answer

Arora Singh

Arora Singh

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  • Posted on Sep 06, 2009
Arora Singh
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Please remove the raw drive from the casing
if its a sata connect it directly to your pc using a power cable for sata drive and a data cable and connect it to the mother board
i am sure it would detect your drive
if no then your drive has lost its firm ware ata module or the rom bin file

if you know how to fix firmware the drive can be up again
pm me if you cant solve your problem

datarecoveryfactory.

  • Arora Singh
    Arora Singh Sep 11, 2009

    you can fix your drive with the help of a data recovery guy.IF its costly affair then let me know. you can then inform me and make arrangments to send it .

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