[GreatShogun]

I'll preface this by saying forgive me if this is an already-answered question; I haven't been able to find a solution so far.

After moving house, one of my external HDDs, a 2TB WD drive, is failing to show up on My Computer. The computer is making the two tone and the hard drive is powering on when I connect it, and is also displaying in Device Manager, but not Disk Management.

I'm running Vista SP2, the drive works on other computers and my XBox, and I've tried multiple cables and multiple USB ports. The drive is also not found on TestDisk.

Any help anyone could offer would be great.

Thanks, Jamie

 

[epshatto]

Is it identified in BIOS?

Can you use the DISKPART command to see it in command prompt?

 

[GreatShogun]

Negative for BIOS. I only have a passing knowledge of DISKPART, how would I identify it there?
Thanks

 

[GreatShogun]

Scratch that, figured out DISKPART, it shows the drive as online, but having no free or used space (0 B for both).
After checking this, it still lists all the data on my XBox, so I'm unsure how to proceed

 

[epshatto]

Next step would be to try to use Western Digital's Data Lifeguard diagnostic software.

Download the ISO file and burn it to a disk. Boot from the disk and run the tests on the drive.

Since you said you moved my concern is the platters in the disk are damaged.

 

[GreatShogun]

I've just done that. These were the results:

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST Model Number: WD Unit Serial Number:
Firmware Number: 1.75 Capacity: 0.00 GB SMART Status: Not Available Test Result: FAIL Test Error Code: 08- Test Time: 23:04:52, March 17, 2011 Test Option: QUICK TEST Model Number: WD Unit Serial Number:
Firmware Number: 1.75 Capacity: 0.00 GB SMART Status: Not Available Test Result: PASS Test Time: 23:05:10, March 17, 2011

Wasn's sure where to find something to tell me exactly what the error code represents

 

[epshatto]

Your drive failed the long test. Your drive has failed and needs replaced.

Do you have data on the drive you have not backed up?

It's possible it's a false positve. Reinstall the drive and see if it works. Run the test a second time.

 

[epshatto]

Btw, for the sake of clarity, what I mean by "false positive" is that the drive itself might be working fine, but the USB controller might have failed. I say that because I noticed you said the drive works on other devices.

Attempting to use another USB device (an external drive, flash drive, anything) would tell us whether the USB port/controller is working.

 

[GreatShogun]

Not sure if this changes anything, but the hard rive is now popping up in Disk Management as an un-initialised drive. The problem now is that when I try to initialise it, it comes up with the error "Incorrect function", regardless of whether I attempt an MBR or GPT initialisation.

 

[epshatto]

I had a similar problem to this fairly recently with a drive we determined was in fact DOA.

Your symptoms all indicate a hardware malfunction, either in the drive or ports you use to install it. I'd like to see whether Windows would find a flash drive if you attempt to use one.