Question WD My Passport not recognized

[888qqq]

I use a My Passport Ultra 1 TB external hard drive for data backup. I bought it new six years ago and have been using it continually ever since I bought it. My computer is a Lenovo H500S desktop with Windows 8.1 64 bit.

Oftentimes this external drive is not listed in My Devices, but the light on the external drive is always on. Also, File History always says that it does not recognize my external drive even though I have File History turned on, and data is continually copied to my external drive. Isn't data copied from File History onto my external drive?

Today I shut down my computer and plugged my external drive into the other USB port I use for this external drive, and when I turned my computer back on the external drive was listed in My Devices. The last time I switched USB ports my computer was able to recognize the external drive after turning the computer back on also. Whenever my computer has stopped recognizing the external drive, it is able to recognize the drive when I switch to the other port. Neither port consistently recognizes the external drive. When the external drive is not listed in My Devices, WD Smartware does not list the external drive either.

When starting my computer I regularly get the message:"An error occurred during execution or scanning. Please check and try again." and then the message:"Scanning for drive information." Are these messages referencing my external drive?

Thanks for any replies.









Lenovo H500S desktop, Windows 8.1 64 bit

 

[UsandThem]

You might want to run a drive health utility to make sure the external hard drive isn't beginning to fail. A drive beginning to die can display the issues you have described above. If it turns out to be healthy after running the utility, then you can look into other possible issues.

https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=3

 

[888qqq]

Should I do a quick test or extended test?

 

[UsandThem]

Should I do a quick test or extended test?

An extended test would be more thorough, so that would be the route I would personally go.

 

[888qqq]

I ran an extended test and it passed. SMART status is "Pass" also.

 

[UsandThem]

That computer is pretty old (CPU from 2013), so the problems could be something software/OS related (like Windows putting the drive to sleep after inactivity, and then it failing to wake it up properly), or it could be a hardware issues (chipset/USB port).

I looked at the tech specs of the computer, and it says it has one USB 3.0 port and four USB 2.0 ports. Do you get the same issues on all of the USB ports? If so, you might want to run diagnostic scan from Lenovo to see if it can detect any hardware issues: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/...ies-desktops/lenovo-h500s-desktop/diagnostics

 

[888qqq]

This message came up when I tried to run the scan:
"End of Development Support
This product is no longer being actively supported by development (End of Development Support) and no further updates will be provided. Any resources provided by Lenovo for this product are made available “AS IS” and without warranties of any kind, express or implied. In no case will Lenovo be liable for the failure of any provided resources to function as expected or intended and the loss of, or damage to, data." The hardware scan will not run.

I use two ports for this drive. I have had the same problems with both.

The error messages:"An error occurred during execution or scanning. Please check and try again." and then the message:"Scanning for drive information." do not refer to whiich drive is in error. Are they in reference to my external or internal drive?

 

[UsandThem]

Are they in reference to my external or internal drive?

It sounds like you might have motherboard/chipset issues. It still also could be something like corrupted Windows installation as well.

Try running the utility without the external drive connected, and see if there is still an issue.

Do you have another PC you could try the external drive on?

 

[888qqq]

I tried running the utility without the external drive connected and I got the same message. I don't have access to another computer.

 

[UsandThem]

I tried running the utility without the external drive connected and I got the same message. I don't have access to another computer.

It sounds like you could have some kind of hardware issue.

You'll have to test things like your memory, motherboard, video card, CPU, etc. to determine what the problem is.

I know in the past when I began getting random/odd problems with my PC (things like SATA drives / USB ), it was my motherboard was beginning to die.

Depending on your level of experience / access to spare parts, you might want to take it into a local PC repair shop. However, the model you have is pretty old at this point, and I don't know if it would be worth sinking much money into fixing/diagnosing. You could get a much newer refurb PC for less than you will likely pay to the PC repair shop.

 

[888qqq]

At the moment my external drive is listed in "Devices and drives", and my data changes are being copied onto my external drive. If I have hardware problems in the future I'll replace the pc before getting it repaired. I guess there is no way to diagnose hardware problems via programs for this pc anymore because it's so old. Thanks for the help.