western digital passport (ehd) stopped working suddenly - not recognized

[tkjazzer]

Hello,

I have a western digital passport ehd with HFS+ formattnig on my mbp.

It was working fine for months. I tried always to properly eject it, but occasionally I would meess up and improperly eject if like the HD fell off my lap and the cord came undone or something.

Anyway, I think I really got myself in a pickle now.

I was either downloading something and then forcequit which caused it, or restarted finder, or something where now my EHD is not even recognized.

when plugged in to the usb it looks like it is recognized on system profiler as "vendor-specific"

on disk utility it was recognized once and I didn't take the opportunity to try and repair, but instead tried to save data... bad move - now it doesn't even pick up on disk utility - just shows my internal hd.

I tried resetting the PRAM - i don't know exactly what that does but I read I should try that somewhere.

I tried starting in safe mode... didn't do much.

What other options do I have?

Thank you!

[brand]

like the HD fell off my lap

That could have something to do with it.

[tkjazzer]

no, probably not. it is spinning just fine, always landed on thick, thick carpet or on to my bag which gives it a huge impuslse (j) so it is not likely due to physcial dmg.

if disconnecting at odd times causes a data error, then yes maybe it is.

[tkjazzer]

ever heard of removing the casing and trying to slave the external hd directly to a motherboard?

idk how that works, but it might be worth a shot since I don't feel like paying 10k dollars to retreive info.

[BlueRevolution]

no, probably not. it is spinning just fine, always landed on thick, thick carpet or on to my bag which gives it a huge impuslse (j) so it is not likely due to physcial dmg.

Probably. Running hard drives are fairly sensitive to physical shock.

ever heard of removing the casing and trying to slave the external hd directly to a motherboard?

Not an option on a laptop. You could try buying a new 2.5" enclosure, though.

idk how that works, but it might be worth a shot since I don't feel like paying 10k dollars to retreive info.

You don't have a backup, I take it?

[tkjazzer]

Probably. Running hard drives are fairly sensitive to physical shock.



Not an option on a laptop. You could try buying a new 2.5" enclosure, though.



You don't have a backup, I take it?


it's funny though because after I dropped it still worked. It started acting funny when firefox jammed when trying to do a download where firefox was going to ask me where do I want the file and the last file downloaded was put in the download folder was on the EHD. after that it started jamming up and not wanting to eject. I don't know what that "symptom" points towards...

well, i used the HD mainly for internet downloads because ididn't want them going straight to my native HD. i also put a computer game on it and some videos. i can replace most things - just not the music - i recently transfered my itunes library to it... that will stink becaus eit will wipe my iphone when I update it to 2.2... sigh...

[BlueRevolution]

If it were a software problem, it would show up in Disk Utility, even if it were corrupted.

Try:

1) Check the cables, outside and inside the enclosure.
2) Try a new enclosure.
3) Bin it and buy a new drive to go with your new enclosure.

There are software solutions to allow you to recover music from an iPod, you know.

[skorpien]

Senuti will get your music off your iPod/iPhone for you.

[wizzracer]

If you can see it mounted use the WD disk recovery tool that came with it.