WD 500 MyBook will not format

[nalayar]

Hi to all.

My 500G Western Digital Mybook will not format.

I tried using the WD ExtFat32 program and that didn't work (won't
install on my Vista system; installed on my wife's XP laptop, and the
drive wouldn't install there either).

Tried the formatting in Drive Management, using NTFS, and that didn't
work.

The computer recognizes when I plug in the USB cable, and it shows up
in Drive Management, but it won't format.

Is this drive toast? Any third party apps I can try?

Office Max is advertising a 1T FreeAgent external drive with backup
software for $99.00 plus tax. Should I just toss this thing and get
the Seagate?

 

[Rod Speed]

Hi to all.

All hanged himself, got too many posts.

My 500G Western Digital Mybook will not format.

I tried using the WD ExtFat32 program and that didn't work
(won't install on my Vista system; installed on my wife's XP
laptop, and the drive wouldn't install there either).

Tried the formatting in Drive Management, using NTFS, and that didn't work.

What exactly happened when that 'didnt work'

The computer recognizes when I plug in the USB cable,
and it shows up in Drive Management, but it won't format.

Is this drive toast?

Depends on what exactly happens when it 'didnt work'

Any third party apps I can try?

Two is enough. If it wont format in Drive Management, there is some problem somewhere.

Office Max is advertising a 1T FreeAgent external drive with backup software
for $99.00 plus tax. Should I just toss this thing and get the Seagate?

Makes a lot more sense to claim on the warranty if it has died.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi to all.

My 500G Western Digital Mybook will not format.

I tried using the WD ExtFat32 program and that didn't work (won't
install on my Vista system; installed on my wife's XP laptop, and the
drive wouldn't install there either).

Tried the formatting in Drive Management, using NTFS, and that didn't
work.

The computer recognizes when I plug in the USB cable, and it shows up
in Drive Management, but it won't format.

Is this drive toast? Any third party apps I can try?

Sorry, not enough info. Externall drives are not "installed", what
do you mean by "wouldn't install". What do you mean by "didn't work"?
What does show up in drive management? Device only? Device with correct
size? And how does it refuse to be formatted?

Office Max is advertising a 1T FreeAgent external drive with backup
software for $99.00 plus tax. Should I just toss this thing and get
the Seagate?

No. Swapping components wthout a clear idea what is wrong is not
a good idea. You may run into the same problem again, now or later.


Arno

 

[nalayar]

All hanged himself, got too many posts.

Sorry...I meant the drive wouldn't format.

What exactly happened when that 'didnt work'

"Windows was unable to complete the format "

Tried a quick format with default allocation, also tried a regular
format using NTFS and exFat. Both gave me this message.

Drive Management shows the drive as:

465.75GB RAW (Healthy Active Primary Partition)

Depends on what exactly happens when it 'didnt work'


Two is enough. If it wont format in Drive Management, there is some problem somewhere.


Makes a lot more sense to claim on the warranty if it has died.

Thanks for your help.

 

[nalayar]

Sorry, not enough info. Externall drives are not "installed", what
do you mean by "wouldn't install".

Sorry, I meant it wouldn't format.


What do you mean by "didn't work"?


"Windows was unable to complete the format"

That's the message I get; tried a Quick Format with Default
Allocation, and tried a regular format using NTFS and exFat. Same
message after about a minute or two.

What does show up in drive management? Device only? Device with correct
size? And how does it refuse to be formatted?

Shows up in Drive Management as:

465.75 GB RAW (Healthy Active Primary Partition)

No. Swapping components wthout a clear idea what is wrong is not
a good idea. You may run into the same problem again, now or later.


Arno

Thanks for your help.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Sorry, not enough info. Externall drives are not "installed", what
do you mean by "wouldn't install".

[/QUOTE]

Sorry, I meant it wouldn't format.

"Windows was unable to complete the format"

But it started?

That's the message I get; tried a Quick Format with Default
Allocation, and tried a regular format using NTFS and exFat. Same
message after about a minute or two.

Hmm. I see. So it did try to do something but eventually failed.

Shows up in Drive Management as:

465.75 GB RAW (Healthy Active Primary Partition)

That looks about right.

Now the question is what actually went wrong during the format.
It is possible that the format failed due to interface errors or
indeed the disk being damaged and causing timeouts.

What you can try is to use HD Sentinel (http://www.hdsentinel.com/)
to have a look at the SMART data of the disk. It can get SMART
data through many USB chipsets. For simple things you can
just download the software and use it without registration.
It will give you doagnostics on the disk. I don't think it
can diagnose USB problems though.

Arno

 

[nalayar]

But it started?


Hmm. I see. So it did try to do something but eventually failed.




That looks about right.

Now the question is what actually went wrong during the format.
It is possible that the format failed due to interface errors or
indeed the disk being damaged and causing timeouts.

What you can try is to use HD Sentinel (http://www.hdsentinel.com/)
to have a look at the SMART data of the disk. It can get SMART
data through many USB chipsets. For simple things you can
just download the software and use it without registration.
It will give you doagnostics on the disk. I don't think it
can diagnose USB problems though.

Arno

I used HD Sentinel (looks like a good program BTW; may buy it just to
keep track of my other drives).
Says there's 664 bad sectors, and the drive's health is 15%. I tried
formatting again after using HD Sentinel, and the drive still will not
format.
And it's been out of warranty for a year.
Trash?

 

[Rod Speed]

Sorry...I meant the drive wouldn't format.


"Windows was unable to complete the format "

Tried a quick format with default allocation, also tried a regular
format using NTFS and exFat. Both gave me this message.


Drive Management shows the drive as:

465.75GB RAW (Healthy Active Primary Partition)

Thanks for your help.

I'd claim on the warranty if it was mine.

The Seagate might work, or you might get the same result with it too.

 

[Arno Wagner]

On 17 Feb 2009 09:41:52 GMT, Arno Wagner <[email protected]> wrote:

[...]

465.75 GB RAW (Healthy Active Primary Partition)

That looks about right.

Now the question is what actually went wrong during the format.
It is possible that the format failed due to interface errors or
indeed the disk being damaged and causing timeouts.

What you can try is to use HD Sentinel (http://www.hdsentinel.com/)
to have a look at the SMART data of the disk. It can get SMART
data through many USB chipsets. For simple things you can
just download the software and use it without registration.
It will give you doagnostics on the disk. I don't think it
can diagnose USB problems though.

Arno

[/QUOTE]

I used HD Sentinel (looks like a good program BTW; may buy it just to
keep track of my other drives)

I have a copy. My internal drives are all monitored in Linux,
but for USB drives HD Sentinel seems to be the means of choice
at the moment. These guys understand what they are doing and the
price is very reasonable.

Says there's 664 bad sectors, and the drive's health is 15%. I tried
formatting again after using HD Sentinel, and the drive still will not
format.
And it's been out of warranty for a year.
Trash?

Yes. Below, say, 10 bad sectors is typically still ok, but 664 is
pretty bad. May still be suited to duty as a paperweight ;-)

Arno

 

[nalayar]

I'd claim on the warranty if it was mine.

The Seagate might work, or you might get the same result with it too.

Warranty is expired; I keyed in the serial# on WD site and the
warranty expired Jan 08.

I'm running two other external drives..one a 160G Western Digital and
the other a 300+ Seagate. Both work fine, so I guess the drive just
died on me.
I used HD Sentinel and the program said there were 664 bad sectors and
the drive's health was 15%, so I guess it just crapped out on me. I
DID have it backed up!

Thanks for your help.

 

[Rod Speed]

(e-mail address removed) wrote

Warranty is expired; I keyed in the serial# on WD site and the warranty expired Jan 08.

I'm running two other external drives..one a 160G Western Digital and the
other a 300+ Seagate. Both work fine, so I guess the drive just died on me.

Yeah, looks like it.

I used HD Sentinel and the program said there were 664 bad sectors
and the drive's health was 15%, so I guess it just crapped out on me.
Yep.

I DID have it backed up!
Great.

Thanks for your help.

No problem, thats what these technical newsgroups are for.

Thanks for the washup, too rare in my opinion.