I have a WD MyBook Essential 1 TB drive. Windows XP Home/SP 3. Serial number: WD-WCASJ1372927 AND Firmware number: 01.01B01. When I bought it there was no advice to change it from Fat32 to NTFS. So, it's in FAT32 format. In Computer Management/Disk Management both C drive (Disk 0)and MyBook E drive (Disk 1) are showing a "healthy" status and both online. My Book has an option to "mark partition as active" but not sure what that will do. I get a message on taskbar icons "Yellow triangle with exclamation point" says "Windows/Delayed Write Failed..unable to save all the data for the file E:\autorun. The data has been lost". But I'm not running anything! I have 3 E:\autorun files: an MS-DOS Batch File(modified on 3/1/06), Setup Information(modified 11/5/05) and the 3rd is a"RUN File"(modified 4/1/08). This error comes up even when I'm not using the My Book Essential . This “Delayed Write” message has been referenced to other files on My Book as well as “autorun”. My system event viewer repeats the message "An error was detected on Hard disk 1 during a paging operation." My Book is using virtual memory? I have 3 GB ram. I have virtual memory on my computer manually set for 4700MB. If I try to open a file in MyBook drive it says "File reading failed: Could not read the file. If I try to move/copy a file from MyBook to desktop I get "Cannot copy file:The drive cannot find the sector requested". In my reading I read someone say that the drive may have a corrupted cache file as the drive may not have been "ready" when the USB cord was pulled and after power outages shutting off abruptly. I tried it in another computer and the same thing happens. Device manager states everything is working. USB controller seems fine. I also disconnected my multiport USB hub which I read can cause problems w external drives.I didn't apply the Microsoft HotFix because I couldn't see anywhere on the page how to download it! haven’t tried any of the programs under “Essential Tools” such as JSTART, RESTART, SETUP, WDSETUP or the SETUP program in the diagnostics folder. I thought these were all run when I bought the drive but I didn't know the affects they would cause. I just got another Delayed Write Failure stating that Windows was unable to save all the data for the file E:\ & the data has been lost. Note that I don't have E drive on autorun at all. The SMART Disk information for My Book gave 16 different categories with values but they all had green checks. I ran DLGDIAG quick test days ago and it came up with an Error code 11-Cable Test (Read diagnostics sector error!) where I replaced the cable and I thought that would solve it. I do have a firmware update Release 2.003 and Software Update 1.2.1.26. But I did not run these updates because I read that someone had done this and it turned into a nightmare. As of right now I can open the drive and see all of the files I have saved. If I click on a file to open it I get “The disk in drive E is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?”. Every once in a while E drive starts to process something as the light flashes and you can hear the hard drive inside spinning. Many of my folders on the drive are now showing Empty! How can these files disappear? I bought this drive to permanently save valuable files because my PC's hard drive is 5 years old. This drive is just a year old!! Some of the information above may not apply but I wanted to let you know of everything I’ve tried. If you can help me you'll be my hero!
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Hi when you buy a hard disk you do not get instructions on how to change from FATS to NTFS. Your hard drive is set to FATS by default,which limits you tranferring files up to 4GB.If you changing to NTFS does 2 things. 1.you can transfer bigger files.
2. You will lose all data on the drive so you have to save any files to another drive ect
To change to NTFS, go to Start then Right-click on My Computer and select Manage. Under Storage click on Disk Management. Now find your hard drive in the list and Right-click on it and select Format. Under File System change the Answer to NTFS and leave the Allocation Unit to default.Click on Perform Quick Format if you want. click OK and confirm your OK with losing all data on the drive,and your done.
Regards Bill
Hi sorry your still having problems. From what I have experienced it seems the only sure way is back up data to 3 or more hard drives, that way you will have your data is safe,but then that is expensive.I'm afraid it's like back to the old floppy disks way ,copy onto 3 or 4 disks .
Regards
Bill
PS. Sorry I should have added that a cheaper way to back up data is to back up your data to Cds and or Dvds,
Regards Bill
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Thank you for help but these external drives are advertised as "plug and play". I didn't think FAT32 was even used anymore by most standards except for MAC, I believe. They should ship out as NTFS as the default file system. I ran a recover program yesterday to attempt to save the hundreds of files I had saved to this disk, the disk that was meant to be a safe and permanent shelter but Western Digital's site suggests buying a new drive? That's it? This ran fine for the past year under Fat32 so what happened?
Well the recovery program ran for about 18 hours! It only recovered 2...that's TWO files and when I tried to get those 2 files the program said it was out of memory. At last check it was using 739,544K of ram! So much for the program "Recover My Files".
Jestamac I do appreciate your advice but I don't want to reformat if I don't have to. Something went wrong and Microsoft said this could happen if you use a USB multihub and they have a fix for it. But I disconnected my hub that had only 3 other USB devices on it and it continued to lock out my external My Book. I've read about registry fixes, trying the device on other USB ports and even plugging it into another computer which I have tried. A common problem seems to be as simple as the cord used being damaged or even too long which I replaced. I've ran Windows program "WinDlg" and the SMART status says the drive is healthy with all green checks in each category.
While I'm working on my PC using "C" drive I get an error window that pops up and says, ...Write delayed failed on My Book's Autorun, files lost? But that drive does not have autorun enabled and how can files be lost without my deleting them? Something is wrong...something is really, really wrong. It's not just a matter of FAT32 because it's been fine for a year. I want to try everything I can before I throw in the towel and lose family albums, tax statements, receipts and other valuable files.
I think that Western Digital should not simply blame the consumer for pulling the plug without safely removing it using the remove hardware program. What happens when a storm comes through and cuts off the power to your house? Should we send the bill for another drive to Mother Nature? Also, get this...WD also states that you can send your dead "My Book" to one of their partner sites that recover data from hard drives with a 10% discount...Are they kidding? That's upwards of hundreds of dollars. No, I think WD could have made a more reliable external drive. I may have bought it to save data and documents because my PC's drive is 5 years old, but now I'm trying to recover what's left on my "My Book" to the very drive I was backing up. Someone must know or have experienced this before. I'm so discouraged right now. As the song goes, "Give me something to break". If anyone knows how to solve this before I reformat, Please let me know. I can't reformat because it's unreliable and I'll never use this "My Book" for anything other than a doorstop.
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