Unreadable or Unaccessible Hard Drive, How to fix?

Hello everyone,

I have two external hard drives. Not sure how this happened, but both of them are not accessible or readable. Possible corruption. When I try to access both external hard drives it gives me an access is denied. One of them gives me an additional message that states: The parameter is incorrect. I also got a message before that it was corrupted and unreadable. I don't remember where that message popped up though. One external HDD I can see my original drive name, but the other external HDD was turned into a raw drive.

I used a program called EaseUS Data Recovery to recover my data. Not sure if it recovered all, but I think most of it.

Is there anyway or procedure I can try that could make both external hard drives accessible again? Any other information you guys need please ask and I will do my best to answer.

Thank you very much for all your help. Crossing all my fingers that i can get this resolved.

 

Could be the external USB enclosures that have failed rather than the drives, seen that a few times

Easiest way is to remove the drives from their enclosures if they are just normal SATA drives, connect them as internal drives and data recover > wipe partitions > create new partition > format

 

Hi there

As above can be yours HDD enclosure has failed, check again cables and if its possible then I would remove HDD from enclosure and put them to PC, usually they will be recognised sooner than in enclosure

I remember last time my WD external HDD failed and only option has been remove HDD from enclosure

Hope this helps

Thanks, Jura

 

use knoppix sometimes it can read what windows cannot

 

+1

Oh, I forgot on good old Knoppix, have used that for recovering few HDD and TestDisk

Thanks, Jura

 

Hello Everyone,

Thank you so much for all of your time and assistance. Much appreciated.

Thank you for this information, the hard drives according to the diagnostics they still work it is that I can't access them. Do you guys still think it is the enclosure? Also, this is something I can try, but at this point I am a little nervous doing so because I am a novice. I don't want to ruin the drives. Let me know your further thoughts. Also, these are external hard drives WD My Books, and I looked at them and don't see any screws. Do I have to break them open?

 

Thank you so much for your time and assistance. I will research further, but I can I install this on a windows system right? I have Windows 10. I am a novice when it comes to this.

Thank you!

 

bump

 

added by mistake

 

I did do some diagnostics using CrystalDiskInfo and chkdsk. Here is the Diagnostics using CrystalDiskInfo and chkdsk. https://postimg.org/gallery/fq6vkf4k/

 

no prob dude and coolthing is that is an os on a disc no instal and bs anyway youtube is your friend just need to type how to and it does the rest for you good luck

 

Thank you again!

 

Hi there

I would say yes you will need to break to open WD My Book, I remember have one previously and same as yours failed after while and I just broke the WD My Book case and put the HDD to my PC and no problems and still after 4 years after I've removed that HDD this HDD is working

You can find few videos on YT how to remove HDD from WD My Book,on some you will need to break the casing and on some not

Just be careful with using chkdsk, I usually do chkdsk only on HDD which I've successfully recovered

Hope this helps and best of luck

Thanks, Jura

 

Thank you so much Jura for your time and assistance.

One more clarification though. My HDD is not broken though, it is just not accessible because of probably a virus etc. I did diagnostics that say that the drives are working all it needs is to be reformatted. With that said, would you still do the advice you are recommending?

Thank you for the advice on chkdsk. Will do.

 

Hi there

Have look on R-Studio which I've used for while on for recovering HDD which has failed(in my case 3 Seagate 3TB failed) and success rate has been pretty good with this SW or you can try to create image of yours HDD and then start to play and reformat HDD,this usually I do, try recover much as I can and then try to repair HDD or just send to RMA

I don't think you've got virus there,I would suspect Windows thinks yours HDD is "dirty"

You can try have look on this website

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/running-a-check-disk-with-an-easy-to-use-interface/

I've used CheckDiskGUI and you can try also to manually reset dirty bit on yours HDD, which I've done on few of my HDD

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/manually-reset-or-clear-dirty-bit-in-windows-without-chkdsk/

If you are sure you are recovered everything then I would try to format HDD, if this does help then you are OK, but still I don't know why but I personally don't use external HDD as they fail, their cheap USB to SATA controllers usually fail first

Hope this helps and best of luck there

Thanks, Jura

 

Thank you again Jura. I will look into the info you gave. I am starting to go your way on the External HDD and not use them. I have had some issues with prior ones and they get corrupted so easily. I am actually buying a docking station and two internal drives for image backups etc. on Black Friday. What do you think about that?

Thank you again.

 

Hi there

Yes I would agree they will get corrupted so easily,in my case my first one get corrupted after while, I've used that HDD as backup HDD

Regarding the docking station, I've one which I use for few HDD and is OK there,but in yours case its not possible to run as internal HDD or you don't have enough SATA ports? If you don't have enough SATA ports then I would have look on PCI_E SATA II card,I don't think you will need or benefit from SATA III as SATA II is enough for normal HDD and they don't cost too much there, I've run few months back LSI RAID card which cost me £50 used and I've run too few other SATA cards which has been great too and they costed around £15-£40 as most, out there are few better and expensive cards,but those cards worked for me

Hope this helps

Thanks, Jura

 

Hi Jura,

Sorry for the late reply here. Not sure if I am understanding, but The docking station just plugs into a USB port and I have extra ports from the PCI cards that I have. So I will be able to use internal HDD's via docking station. How do you like RAID type system? I have never done that before.

 

Hi there

Yes docking station is you plug this to USB port, just this depends on few docking stations as some won't read HDD which are larger 2TB, with mine dockimg station I corrupted my 3TB HDD, due this be carefull if yours HDD is larger than 2TB there

RAID not sure, you need to ask yourself if you need that, have look om SYBA or Startech or Highpoint SATA cards, those cards are probably best for money and I've used them on my PC if I needed more SATA ports

Hope this helps

Thanks, Jura

 

Hey Jura,

Again, thank you so much for your help here. I will be getting a 2tb or 3tb depending on what is available and what the prices are. Here are the products I will be considering and would love to get your input.

PCIE-E CARDS

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B6ZCNG...TF8&colid=1TTVDEMMCUHHF&coliid=I1K4258492W2W6

or

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FPIMJE...TF8&colid=1TTVDEMMCUHHF&coliid=I196Q6L6XK89QI

EXTERNAL DRIVES

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E3RH63...TF8&colid=1TTVDEMMCUHHF&coliid=I10FTTR5KHC0RS

or

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop...0030HBK-NESN/dp/B01LQQHL2G/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

DOCKING STATION

https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Alum...id=1479942021&sr=1-2&keywords=inateck+docking

and

https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Alum...id=1479942021&sr=1-4&keywords=inateck+docking

INTERNAL DRIVES
Something in the list here

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...+hdd+drives&rh=i:aps,k:WD+internal+hdd+drives

or

I will pick another brand that's price is cheap because for backups I heard you don't need the best drive. So I might by one that is in the $40 range.


Let me know your thoughts and thank you so much again for your time and help.