Western Digital 500GB My Book World Edition 500 GB Hard Drive Logo
Posted on Jun 30, 2008
Answered by a Fixya Expert

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WD MyBook World Edition 500GB Model: WD5000G032

Got this product over 6 months ago. Set up, works with no problems. A month or two ago = problems. I ran the drive constantly on in a ventilated area the whole time. Now, starts up fine, stays up for a while, then flashing blue light and no access to it. I turn it off, unplug it, then turn it back on and the blue light does not come on. Let it sit for a day or so. Turn on, blue light will be on for a while can access it, then kaput, same issue, flashing blue light. Why after six or so months issues when no changes have been made? Why will it kaput with a flashing blue light now? Mionet seems to be fine as it operates as it did, it just can't find the drive because it is flashing the blue light and not running properly. Why will it not work!!!!! UGGGGGHGHHHHHHH!!! And WD tech support is worthless. Please help! I don't know that much about pc stuff to figure out what is wrong.

  • 12 more comments 
  • osualum78 Jun 30, 2008

    Oh, and it is networked into my Linksys router. My laptop cannot find the drive as a drive anymore because of this.

  • osualum78 Jun 30, 2008

    And to top it off, my laptop is only a 30GB harddrive and I only have about 5GB free.... and I don't know if any of my files on the WD are backed up

  • osualum78 Jun 30, 2008

    when the blue lights is flashing or not on, the drive is still spinning if that helps any

  • shreshth Jul 15, 2008

    the blue light has dissapeared completly. i can't seem to get the blue light back on. i need to get access to the data.

  • dtoubi Jul 29, 2008

    I ve been using mine for some time know with now real issues just until recently when for no obvious cause it would freeze and I should leave it unplugged for a day in order to recover. Also for the last week I cannot access the drive through my network or even when I plug it to my Mac directly, and cannot access the web interface as well. Please help all my personal files are on the c#$%$^$ disk...

  • Anonymous Aug 15, 2008

    Same problem again. Worked fine for about a year. Then one day I couldn't turn it off using the button and had to just cut the power. Next day would start up but lights wouldn't come on and I could hear hard drive just ticking over and over. Eventually lights came back on but now, although I can successfully ping the drive's IP address I can't access the web interface or view the drives shares. I've never used the MioNet software and only use the drive as a NAS on my home network.

    I've contacted WD support and am awaiting a reply and in order to save my data am about to take the drive out of the case and put it into my PC.

  • Anonymous Aug 28, 2008

    exactly the same problem as above. The drive has all our work data on it so I'm wondering about how to recover it ... If I remove the drive and stick it in another enclosure should I be able to access it?

  • Anonymous Aug 31, 2008

    I have the same problem and I have search on the WD support page without finding any comments on this problem.



    I suddendly saw that my drives where not connected and when I try to re-start the drive I only hear the spinning sound but no blue light and not HDD pops up to be found. Dead!



    10 months after purchase and already with problems although I only use it to store picture....all our family pics. I really hope we can save the pics. Otherwise, this well be the first and last My book I buy.



    /Daniel

  • Anonymous Dec 09, 2008

    Man, I can't believe I found so many others with the same problem. Mine is 1.5 yrs old, on 24/7 then suddenly no access and no blue light. Drive spin sound fine, but never seems to get beyond POST (self test). In desperation I took the drive out to find a WD5000AAKS (Blue Caviar) drive. Removing the drive controller I actually see burned pins on the main chip; looks like someone took a arc welder to the little feet of the chip. Last backup was 9 months ago. Arg! Now trying to buy an exact drive to swap controllers. I bought and tried swapping a controller from a brand new "identical" drive but that didn't work. Now searching for a older "identical" drive.

  • ThreeDeee Dec 15, 2008

    I also have the same problem.... when I first got it, it wouldn't mount on my desktop, then it mounted.... worked fine for a year, then yesterday go to my computer, nothing. I have the blue light, but it won't mount. I have had nothing but bad experiences with this HDD.

  • Anonymous Feb 10, 2009

    This has just happened to me, can't believe so many having the same issue.

  • Anonymous Feb 18, 2009

    I'm using this drive as a backup for SBS2003 and am all of a sudden getting the same issue. Inaccessible drive randomly. Its been killing backups for days now and something HAS to be fixed immediately.

  • Anonymous Apr 11, 2009

    Same issue! I fear everything is gone.

  • Anonymous Apr 14, 2009

    after 12 months blue light not seen. 

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  • Posted on Apr 24, 2009
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I had the same problem as everyone else here - blue rings go out and then - nothing.  I called WD's data recovery partners and got quotes from $700-$1500 to recover the data because it is a network device!  Thanks Kellydam for the first clue.  I took my MyBook apart (start with rubber seal around the edges, then "unhook" it top and bottom on front of device by inserting a flat tip screwdriver through middle slot).  I purchased a Gigaware SATA enclosure and pluged it in to my computer.  Nothing.  I didn't get access to my files until I used Explore2fs to view the ext3 file system.

  • Estecom Nov 17, 2010

    dkriver... thank you thank you thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you saved my life !!!!
    I have theWD5000G032 network device and 2 weeks ago just died.
    I tried removing the hard drive and connect it to a xp, leopard, linux, and i couldn't see the data.
    I was just ready to send it to a recovery center and spend $1000 or $2000 but dkriver gave me the answer, http://uranus.chrysocome.net/linux/explo...

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I reckon I'm gonna have to go down the warranty route as well. I got the hard drive out of the case and eventually got it working in a pc. Had trouble with unsigned windows SCSI drivers and also had to install a special driver-like tool so that windows can read ext2 and ext3, the linux filesystems.

http://www.fs-driver.org/download.html

All my files were there and ok, so it definitely aint the drive that's broke. I've been looking at

http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/backup-images-of-mybook

as well as other pages on this site, with the aim of using these images to restore the OS in case that has somehow gotten corrupt. I havent tried very hard but I cant seem to get Ubuntu to recognise the drive. I'm thinking I might need to install some SCSI drivers, as that was the problem in windows. Havent done that before so I'll have to look into that. I might not bother however, as like is said above, the issue does seem to stink of some hardware failure on behalf of the casing.

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Mine was a defective hard disk controller. I've gone through WD and will be getting it replaced under warranty. Unfortunately I have had to get the data restored through expensive professional services ... :-(

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  • Posted on Sep 11, 2008
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I can smell a defective hard disk controler in my sleep , this wreaks of it.

you're all not alone , as you can see many others have the problem , that sure smells like a bad batch of hard drive controlers to me , if that is indeed the case

USE YOUR WARRENTY :-)

Again this smells like a bad batch of hard drive controlers to me , sometimes that happens in production runs , and well , it's warrenty time.

shalom

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  • Posted on May 19, 2010
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Can anyone help? I followed the instructions above and I used Explore2fs and assigned letters. When I try to explore it says format drive..... any ideas?

A

Anonymous

Well, from what I've read, it was an overheating problem with the power supply. I did an RMA, and my new drive power supply cord looks different. So far no problems (crosses fingers).Regardless, customers shouldn't have to go through the stress of wondering if all their files are lost forever.

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Far far better than WD Technical Support.
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bye
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