How to fix a WD My Book Premium ES with CHKDSK?
-
I've got a WD My Book Premium ES 500GB external hard disk (and most likely will never be buying anything from Western Digital in the future). I should have read Amazon customer reviews before I bought it, oh well... It started dying after 11 months (or so) with Acronis TrueImage complaining that it could not read from some sectors. Now I have it off for most of the time as it's constantly spinning after powered up and slows down Windows, even hangs up Explorer (I think this should not happen, Vista should cope with a non-accessible external hard drive where there's nothing OS related, right?! :|). Anyway, I suspect this may be only a corrupt NTFS, because it's generally accessible after some time. I looked at it in GParted and it just told me to run chkdsk /f. Fine, but this particular drive has a feature which puts it in a stand by mode when it's idle for 10mins or more. So, I run CHKDSK and it happily proceeds to fix some errors with MFT and Virtual Map (whatever this is..), but after some time I notice it's not 'moving' (CHKDSK, that is) and the drive is in stand by mode - at this point I can no longer access its contents w/o restarting it. :/ Do you have any ideas on how to prevent it from going to sleep?
-
I've got a WD My Book Premium ES 500GB external hard disk (and most likely will never be buying anything from Western Digital in the future). I should have read Amazon customer reviews before I bought it, oh well... It started dying after 11 months (or so) with Acronis TrueImage complaining that it could not read from some sectors. Now I have it off for most of the time as it's constantly spinning after powered up and slows down Windows, even hangs up Explorer (I think this should not happen, Vista should cope with a non-accessible external hard drive where there's nothing OS related, right?! :|). Anyway, I suspect this may be only a corrupt NTFS, because it's generally accessible after some time. I looked at it in GParted and it just told me to run chkdsk /f. Fine, but this particular drive has a feature which puts it in a stand by mode when it's idle for 10mins or more. So, I run CHKDSK and it happily proceeds to fix some errors with MFT and Virtual Map (whatever this is..), but after some time I notice it's not 'moving' (CHKDSK, that is) and the drive is in stand by mode - at this point I can no longer access its contents w/o restarting it. :/ Do you have any ideas on how to prevent it from going to sleep?
Assuming the warranty is void (or you value your data more than the remainder of it), pop it out of the enclosure and connect it as an internal HD to your PC.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
-
I've got a WD My Book Premium ES 500GB external hard disk (and most likely will never be buying anything from Western Digital in the future). I should have read Amazon customer reviews before I bought it, oh well... It started dying after 11 months (or so) with Acronis TrueImage complaining that it could not read from some sectors. Now I have it off for most of the time as it's constantly spinning after powered up and slows down Windows, even hangs up Explorer (I think this should not happen, Vista should cope with a non-accessible external hard drive where there's nothing OS related, right?! :|). Anyway, I suspect this may be only a corrupt NTFS, because it's generally accessible after some time. I looked at it in GParted and it just told me to run chkdsk /f. Fine, but this particular drive has a feature which puts it in a stand by mode when it's idle for 10mins or more. So, I run CHKDSK and it happily proceeds to fix some errors with MFT and Virtual Map (whatever this is..), but after some time I notice it's not 'moving' (CHKDSK, that is) and the drive is in stand by mode - at this point I can no longer access its contents w/o restarting it. :/ Do you have any ideas on how to prevent it from going to sleep?
Sector read errors are hardly just a corrupted NTFS issue. The drive is having problems reading the physical disk. The reason the drive goes to sleep is because there is no I/O activity going on. CHKDSK sent commands to the drive which either didn't get to the drive, or the drive didn't process and CHKDSK is still waiting. Therefore, since neither CHKDSK nor the drive is hearing what it needs to, the drive goes to sleep. Since CHKDSK very nearly keeps I/O going on the drive continuously, AFAICT, no, there is no way to turn this off on the drive.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008 -
Assuming the warranty is void (or you value your data more than the remainder of it), pop it out of the enclosure and connect it as an internal HD to your PC.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
dan neely wrote:
Assuming the warranty is void
I think I have 1 more year to go. :) I'm trying to solve the problem myself without support first and without tinkering with hardware, but thanks.
-
Sector read errors are hardly just a corrupted NTFS issue. The drive is having problems reading the physical disk. The reason the drive goes to sleep is because there is no I/O activity going on. CHKDSK sent commands to the drive which either didn't get to the drive, or the drive didn't process and CHKDSK is still waiting. Therefore, since neither CHKDSK nor the drive is hearing what it needs to, the drive goes to sleep. Since CHKDSK very nearly keeps I/O going on the drive continuously, AFAICT, no, there is no way to turn this off on the drive.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008Another thing I noticed is that if I power up the drive in Windows, it starts spinning (at least the light circle indicator does) continuously and is inaccessible during that time. It takes at least a few minutes for it to 'calm down'. I tried running HDD Regenerator, but since its a USB drive the program can't access it before Windows loads. :( HDD Regenerator uses some Windows 98 stuff, I am running Vista.
-
dan neely wrote:
Assuming the warranty is void
I think I have 1 more year to go. :) I'm trying to solve the problem myself without support first and without tinkering with hardware, but thanks.
Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
I think I have 1 more year to go.
that makes it more interesting, your warranty coverage will most likely result in your getting a new package and loosing whatever data was on the drive itself. The only possible exception would be if they did a diagnosis first and IDed a problem with the enclosure itself.
-
Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
I think I have 1 more year to go.
that makes it more interesting, your warranty coverage will most likely result in your getting a new package and loosing whatever data was on the drive itself. The only possible exception would be if they did a diagnosis first and IDed a problem with the enclosure itself.
I have some paper with a support ID which says the expiry date is 3/31/09 and on the box it says I have 3 years limited warranty. I still have to consult the supplier and the invoice I got when I bought it. But I would really like to copy a few files and ideally wipe out the disk before I give it away for support, I'm kinda paranoid.
-
Another thing I noticed is that if I power up the drive in Windows, it starts spinning (at least the light circle indicator does) continuously and is inaccessible during that time. It takes at least a few minutes for it to 'calm down'. I tried running HDD Regenerator, but since its a USB drive the program can't access it before Windows loads. :( HDD Regenerator uses some Windows 98 stuff, I am running Vista.
You have no choice but to take the drive out of the enclosure and stick in the machine. If the drive won't access for minutes at a time, the drive is having problems with any of the following: -Maintaining spindle speed -Seek position -BoT "heartbeat" -Communication with the USB host (NOT the computer). This is the interface doing the translation between USB and the drive controller. None of this stuff is going to be fixed by any piece of software you have, or can get...
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008 -
You have no choice but to take the drive out of the enclosure and stick in the machine. If the drive won't access for minutes at a time, the drive is having problems with any of the following: -Maintaining spindle speed -Seek position -BoT "heartbeat" -Communication with the USB host (NOT the computer). This is the interface doing the translation between USB and the drive controller. None of this stuff is going to be fixed by any piece of software you have, or can get...
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008Thanks. It became inaccessible anyway. ;) I just wanted to try to get a few files and perhaps wipe it out, but I guess I have no choice and have to hand it over to support. I do have the warranty yet. By the way - it passes SMART tests...