At Fixya.com, our trusted experts are meticulously vetted and possess extensive experience in their respective fields. Backed by a community of knowledgeable professionals, our platform ensures that the solutions provided are thoroughly researched and validated.
My brother-in-law gave us a laptop and an external WD harddrive. He couldn't remember his password for the external drive (hint: goof) and he has since passed away. I don't want to just reformat the drive (assuming I could, anyway) because, if there's something important on it, I'd like to save it for his surviving companion. Any thoughts?
Re: My brother-in-law gave us a laptop and an external WD...
Download a program call ERD. I don't remember if i had to pay for it or not but should be able to read the information off this drive with it. (usually have to boot from the ERD disk)
Testimonial: "Thank you, Alien X. How do I get you the $3?"
- If you need clarification, ask it in the comment box above.
- Better answers use proper spelling and grammar.
- Provide details, support with references or personal experience.
Tell us some more! Your answer needs to include more details to help people.You can't post answers that contain an email address.Please enter a valid email address.The email address entered is already associated to an account.Login to postPlease use English characters only.
Tip: The max point reward for answering a question is 15.
Scroll down to the second photo, and left-click on it. The case of the external harddrive is shown open. Inside is a 2.5 inch laptop sized harddrive. An aluminum tape strip covers the small circuit board, attached at the back of the harddrive.
The second photo down on this page, shows you the small interface circuit board, that the harddrive plugs into, with the aluminum tape removed.
(Another design has wires coming from the small circuit board, to an interface the harddrive plugs into )
It is this small circuit board that goes bad in a LaCie. QUITE common.
Solution?
Simple. 1) Obtain a 3.5 inch IDE external enclosure 2) Remove the 3.5 IDE harddrive from the LaCie's case. 3) Install the harddrive out of the LaCie into the external 3.5 IDE enclosure. An example of a 3.5 IDE (PATA) external enclosure,
Let's hope the spinning and clicking was caused by a bad circuit board in the WD Book, and not the Harddrive inside it.
To explain; Inside the plastic external enclosure (Case) of the WD MyBook is an ordinary harddrive as used in a laptop, or desktop computer.
There is a small circuit board inside the case, that the harddrive plugs into. (Or there are wires from the small circuit board, to the harddrive)
The other end of the circuit board, has a USB cable attached to it. The circuit board is an Interface Board.
It is this small interface circuit board that USUALLY goes out. Harddrives are pretty tough, but they are a mechanical device, and are rated in hours of usage. They can fail.
What I would suggest is to buy an economical external enclosure. Has the circuit board, USB cable, and everything needed, just needs the Harddrive.
Installing is easy. There are instructions included.
Now we come to the technical portion. What size harddrive is it, and what technology does it use?
Size: 1) There are two sizes of Harddrives. They are measured across the Width.
A 2.5 inch harddrive is a laptop size harddrive. (2 and a half inches across in width)
A 3.5 inch harddrive is a desktop size harddrive.
Once you open the WD MyBook case, and measure, you will know. Pretty easy. Technology: Looking at the harddrives label, will tell you if it is an IDE (PATA) model, or a SATA model.
If no nomenclature is readily apparent looking at the label, there will be a model number on the label. Put the model number in your search bar.
The information on how to open a WD MyBook case, is not something the external harddrive manufacturer states. For this we'll have to rely on videos that are made,
Could you confirm if the problem with the drive not being recognized is a problem with the USB cable? I have a 250GB passport and it worked fine with my XP. Once I decided to reformat it to NTFS and tried to do so by plugging into my new windows7 laptop the problems started.
Hi mjcole,
Couple things. What model WD drive do you have? Plugging the laptop adapter into the drive chassis may have fried the chassis. You can buy a new chassis and put your drive into it, or you can buy a new power supply in case the one you have has gone bad and you did not realize it. Not likely though.
The power requirements are very specific and the laptop power supply may have been to much for the WD drive.
Inside the case is a regular laptop size harddrive. Laptop harddrives are 2.5 inches across. (2-1/2 inches. Desktop harddrives are 3.5 inches)
I would suggest the external enclosure the harddrive is in, is defunct. I would suggest buying a new external enclosure, and putting this harddrive in it. Then just plug the USB cable in, (As you did before), and download your data, to be ready to transfer.
You need an external enclosure that is Sata, and is for a 2.5 inch harddrive. These are relatively inexpensive. Let me show you some examples: 1.http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2783&name=2.5-eSATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure&Nav=|c:2781|&Sort=0&Recs=10
×