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Western Digital My Passport portable drive hangs after connecting to laptop


With my Western Digital 1 TB portable drive I had an issue, as soon as  I connect the WD portable drive to my laptop ( Windows 7), it hangs and I can’t access “explorer” or My computer and I can’t see the task bar.
I tried to re-connect portable drive and troubleshoot few times to multiple different devices without luck.
 Then after some research, I decided to install WD external drive diagnostic tool i.e. Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics too and investigate the issue further.
You can download free Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics from here with the instructions.

After download, Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics installation is straightforward. Next, next and OK ….. :-)
After installation of Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics tool, launch tool from start

WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics
It will launch the following WD Diagnostic tool as follows and then I right click on 1 TB portable drive and select “Run Diagnostics”
WD 1 TB Portable drive troubleshooting

In next step, I have selected “Quick Test” to see if there are any disk errors or any other issues.
WD portable drive, windows hangs

Result of the “Quick Test” is as follows.


Test Option:
QUICK TEST
Model Number:
WD My Passport 0748
Unit Serial Number:
WX81AA2E8155
Firmware Number:
1019
Capacity:
1000.17 GB
SMART Status:
PASS
Test Result:
FAIL
Test Error Code:
06-Quick Test on drive 2 did not complete! Status code = 07 (Failed read test element), Failure Checkpoint = 97 (Unknown Test) SMART self-test did not complete on drive 2!
Test Time:
07:24:26, September 22, 2013

So it proved something gone very badly with my WD portable drive and then I tried “Extended Test”
 But “Extended Test” never finishes, its keep running but “Estimated Time remains the same. Extended test is just under “Quick Test” option when you select “Run Diagnostics” in previous step.
Then I called Western Digital call centre, seems call landed in other part of the world i.e. Caribbean Island. Seems Western Digital have call centre at Caribbean Island. I have spoken to a lady, she was really helpful and suggested two options, one is either send the WD portable drive to them so that they can fix as my drive is still under 3 year warranty or just format and see if it resolves the issue.
As I have backed up my data in to other drive, I have chosen to format and see if it fixes the problem. As advised by WD call centre representative, I have decided to format using the WD Diagnostic tool as below.
You need to select “Write Zeros” to format WD portable drive and result is as follows.
Westren Digital drive fail

Test Option:
WRITE ZEROS
Model Number:
WD My Passport 0748
Unit Serial Number:
WX81AA2E8155
Firmware Number:
1019
Capacity:
1000.17 GB
SMART Status:
PASS
Test Result:
COMPLETE
Test Time:
07:22:03, September 22, 2013

This resolved my laptop/ system hanging issues as soon I connect WD portable drive to my computer but I lost all my data :-)
Now I always properly disconnect my WD portable drive before pulling USB cable from laptop. I learnt good lesson :-)
So in summary, this article explained how to install WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics and troubleshoot portable drive issues.

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