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Western Digital HDD 1021 isn't recognized by Windows 7 anymore

Hello guys

I've got massive problem with my external HDD for several months now.

It's long story.. Problems started when we attached it to my laptop and laptop was on Linux (Linux that's installed on USB stick and booted on) because internal hdd in laptop couldn't even start and we wanna backup files from it to this Western HDD using Linux.. It didn't work (actually my internal hdd was psihically corrupted so it stopped responding.. we shutted down all) and after several days.. when I bought new internal HDD and install Windows 7 64-bit on it, I attach Western Digital HDD on it. Then I open My Computer and it stopped responding.. after while it wrote that I need to format External HDD in order to use it..


Then I 'google' a bit and find out it's bit more complicated.. I even ran chkdsk using command prompt of course and restart laptop while external hdd was attached on it.. It worked out actually once, as I managed to save a lot of pictures from external hdd (it recognize him in My Computer obviously) and I saved some videos and programs installations from it.. after day or two when I plugged it again .. it doesn't respond.. again the same: Format it, if I wanna use it, says Windows.. and I didn't wanna that ('cause I had a 500 GB of films remaining on it - because I couldn't save those films once it worked, because on that occassion it also stopped working after copying pictures and family videos) .. So I was angry, I then decided, let's format it. I did that in command prompt.. well I start it at about one o'clock in the afternoon.. It has worked in CMD for about twelve hours .. then I shut laptop down, without exiting from cmd and from formatting the F drive, I just click on Start and shut PC down.. Because I was tired and because in one o'clock in the morning it has still wrote: Progress 0 percent complete.

Frustrating, isn't it?

So it was aborted as I described.

And yesterday..after that unsuccessfull external hdd formatting, I plugged it on laptop again. Now it seems like it's does not recognized in My Computer but in Devices and printers, it's okaj, let's say.. I was frustrating once again.


I surf the Net again and find out it hasn't a letter anymore.. So I open.. Control Panel - Storage , bla bla picture will say more:



here is it, Disk 1. I even tried to refresh this in Action tab.. doesn't work, Disk 1 doesn't pop out where it should be, below WDC which is my new internal HDD

so I tried to initialize disk, like on the picture and it says:



I clicked ok, then:






So I was confused at least.. I tried to attach it on home PC where is Windows XP installed, and there I tried chkdsk also.. everything almost.. but nothing, with chkdsk both on laptop and PC it writes something like cannot lock the drive, drive is in use by another process and so on, it offer to do it on next restart i said yes, then restart PC and then it simply checks C: not F: as I ordered to him, because I supposse there is no letter anymore to my external HDD associated, am I right?


And one more thing.. I even tried to put it offline on right click there on pictures, here is what it says:

(PS once in autumn last year my sister overturned it from about 1.2 meter heigh on floor.. but it was turned off when it occured and works fine after that incident .. since this conflict with Linux happen at the top of my tiresome text



I would appreciate any kind of help, simply beacuse I'm desperate now. I'm gonna to smash my external HDD in thousand of pieces rather than paying 300$ on repairng it.

Hello Irfan,

Thank you for posting your question on Microsoft Community.

I would like to update you that  you may be getting write protected error as a result of this hard drive being encrypted on Linux computer, in that case you need to connect the hard drive to Linux computer in order to decrypt it. However I would suggest you to try assigning a drive letter to hard drive and check if it appears in Windows Explorer:

Refer,

Change, add, or remove a drive letter

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-add-remove-drive-letter#1TC=windows-7  

Hope the information helps. Please revert in case of any further queries related to Windows.

Regards,

Jayant Narang

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Sounds though the drive has failed, and if that's the case its a data recovery specialist, if important to you http://www.krollontrack.co.uk/data-recovery/

Contributor since 2006
Currently win11 Pro & O365 Bus, multiple devices

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Yeah .. it seems like

Especially today.. I downloaded several apps from Western Digital to diagnose problem.. and to sum up = it says to much bad sectors.. so it's gone :/

IrfanV

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Yeap :)
I also would like to change letter but as I describe using pictures and so on in my question, it's impossible to do that on regular way (Control Panel - Administrative tool - PC Managment - Storage and there .. because there is no WDD 1021 listed at all.. Just in bottom of that page in way: Disk 1 like on the picture I sent.

This WDC IRFINHO C: which you can see there is my INTERNAL HDD, also Western Digital but it's less important..

Anyway today I installed several apps from Western's site and results are too many bad sectors.. Literally that has been written on the screen..

Shame.

But thanks anyway

at least now I know how to change letter on hdd ;)

IrfanV

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Hello Irfan,

Thank you for your reply.

You can try running CHKDSK on external Hard drive and check if that helps. Follow the steps below to perform chkdsk:

  1. Double-click the "Computer" icon on the Windows desktop.
  2. Right-click the drive icon for the external hard drive.
  3. Select "Properties" from the context menu.
  4. Click the "Tools" tab at the top of the "Properties" dialog box.
  5. Click the "Check Now" button to begin the disk check procedure.
  6. Select the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" option.
  7. Click the "Start" button. This begins the external hard drive disk check and examines the disk for logical errors and physical sector failures. Upon completion, an error report is generated that details all errors and whether or not they were able to be corrected

Hope this helps.


Regards,

Jayant Narang

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Thanks, but I already know how to perform chkdsk, as I listed, external HDD is not even recognized in My Computer, so no chance on that way. However in command prompt I ve been trying even it has no assigned letter, I typr chkdsk /f

But nothing, it says something like hdd is read only or something like that.. less important

As I said, yesterday I came up with several Western Apps, they had recognized external hdd and when I put it to test for errors and so on, after a minute it prompt: Cannot continue, too many bad sectors

So, it's all gone :(

But, thanks anyway, I appreciate your allocated time,

Bye :)

IrfanV

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Hello Irfan,

Thank you for keeping us updated about the issue. Please feel free to contact us in case of any further queries related to Windows.

Regards,

Jayant Narang

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Last updated September 3, 2020 Views 888 Applies to: