Drive Damaged???

[gatepc]

Ok so first off let me state I do have backups of (important stuff ) but not all of it and would like to avoid this if possible.

situation I have had my WD Mybook ( 750gb usb ) for about 1 year and its worked ok ( Slow and have had some problems compared to my Lacie drive )

in the last month or so I have been having to eject the drive and re connect after it stopped working sometimes or having to reboot or unplug the drive. this has never happened to me until recently during this month it has happened like 5 times. but before that it never happened. Now comes the bad part after rebooting today it didn't show up and so I did what I normally did but this time its different it is showing up in disk utility as an unformatted drive that is 2tb!!! and its only 750! what should I do? should I just reformat it and see if it continues to work or start saving for a new drive? or both lol

on another note I think next time I am going with Lacie I have had my Lacie 320gb USB drive for 3 years with no problems what so ever its also faster then my Mybook and takes up less space on my desk as well as it matches my mini more lol.

just noticed (look at usb serial number )

 

[madog]

There is a possibility that the enclosure for the drive is going bad. That's not usually the case, but it is entirely possible.

If you have another external case you could try to swap out the drive. Most external drives have stickers which will notify the manufacturer of it being opened and void your warranty (if it's still under it), though. All have at least a 1 year warranty, and after that some have 3 year, and then a few have 5 year warranties. I would check yours.

If the drive is going bad, and you do reformat it, it could just temporarily fix the issue for however long (a couple minutes or a couple months). Once a drive starts physically dying or is dead, it can't be repaired.

All drives fail, it's just a matter of time. A good/high average I would say is about 5 years. Also, Lacie is just an external case manufacturer and uses other company's drives such as Hitatchi (or whatever at the time).

 

[BlueRevolution]

I believe WD drives have at least 3-year warranties.

 

[Freis968]

All drives fail, it's just a matter of time. A good/high average I would say is about 5 years.

I beg to differ. I have had drives that I purchased 8yrs ago that are still working. What do you base this statement on? Personal experience or are you just making this statement for the heck of it?