Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB External USB 2.0 - WDH1U5000N 500 GB Hard Drive Logo
Posted on Mar 10, 2009

Help!! Western digital 500gb external hard drive ticking noise

Hi,

My Western digital 500GB External hard drive when plugged in shows the green light, but it does not have usual boot sound but has some clock ticking noise and my computer does not recognize it. When I called the WD CSR he said the read/write part of the hard drive has failed and the best thing to do is recover the data. What is the easy way to recover the data and how much does it usually cost. Please help me because I have my one year old's pictures and videos since he was born in the external hard drive.

  • 3 more comments 
  • svenssonz Mar 21, 2009

    I have the exact same problem DID you solve it??

  • Anonymous Mar 28, 2009

    Has anyone solved this problem?

  • Anonymous Apr 06, 2009

    I did it to but the disk is still broken. I have sent it to a recovery company. I hope thay will not charge me to much.



  • j_hartley83 May 04, 2009

    I have the same, stupid ticking sound, the drive is recognised but I get requested to format the disk every time... no way do I want to format it! I just tried freezing it and plugging it back in again nine hours later, but no joy, I might try agin tomorrow, but am open to any ideas rather than spending a fortun with a recovery company....

  • Anonymous May 17, 2009

    Having the same problem with a WD 500GB ... this seems to be a systematic problem with WD drives.
    Please, if anyone has a solution other than putting it in the freezer, do help us.
    Thank you!

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  • Posted on Apr 05, 2009
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Yes. This is going to sound strange. Put the drive in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer. Next day, take it out, hook it up, and see if it is recognized.

If so, under My computer, right click on the drive - click Properties - then Tools, then Error Checking. Check box Automatically Fix File System Errors. Let it run. If everything shows up, be ready to transfer wnat you want off of it.

Freezing shrinks the metal parts . Microscopically, but often enough to get stuck parts free enough to get working.

I just went through this with a 750Gig Book. now i have reformatted the drive (after transferring all over to new drive) and the clicking is gone and all disk checks are fine and i wonder whether to trust this device ever again... Hate to just throw out a large drive.

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Anonymous

  • 1 Answer
  • Posted on Mar 10, 2009

SOURCE: Western digital 500gb external hard drive ticking noise- Help !!!

There is a number of data recovery solutions online. Just google it. I would recommend one that sends out a static sensitive bag for transportation. But the customer service rep you spoke with, is probably right. The actuator arm has probably locked up and is failing to move back and forth reading and writing to the platters. Good luck and i feel for you with it being your new born on the hard drive.

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