My 6TB hard drive failed, any ideas?

My 6TB hard drive failed! I have 2TB of music on it. I called Western Digital, they said I could return the drive but they don't help with reclaiming the data on the hard drive. Have you had to deal with this issue before, if so, did you find a way to copy the data off of the drive? I spent a lot of money downloading some of these songs (HDtracks, Pro audio), and dred replacing them. Below is a photo of the hard drive....


WD Black 6TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 128MB Cache3.5 Inch - WD6002FZWX
List Price: $299.00
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Oh man, sorry to hear. I don't want to be obvious here but you didn't have a backup? I had a crash about 15 years ago and lost so much. I even had most of it on a backup drive that crashed too. Now I have at least two back up drives for anything important.

 

Yeah I got a dead one too sitting on my bench, and have had it there for 12 months.
I'm in the same dilemma, plus a heap of personal files etc etc.
They can sometimes be repaired, may only need a new controller chip which if it is,
your laughing in luck, it's not too expensive, just gotta find someone who can do it.
If the hard drive is 'clicking', it's a more serious issue. It can be sent off to try and recover
it in a special room and environment that they do this in.
Also, where I'm able to send mine here to, is also US730.00! dollars to attempt recovery.

 

Yeah, it's expensive with no guarantees. I was going to try it with my crash too...send it off, controlled room, etc. Mine still sits in my desk too in hopes that I'll figure something out someday or else just pony up.

 

Man that sucks. I'm with Wasabi got any of it backed up? I had one get messed up and lost all the data once. Tried data recovery software without much luck. Do you have a HDD enclosure you might try opening the files from another computer.

 

I have no faith with data like music and movies other stuff maybe. I have one 6tb drive but have been using 4tb WD mybooks for most everything else and always have a new one lying around if one ever starts making noises of acting funny. I try to keep everything on 2 drives but its hard to keep track of whats on what.

 

For future reference https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/

It's $2.50 a month for complete peace of mind. No data limits. I always have a local backup for a quicker recovery, but an off site backup is always recommended.

 

There are numerous programs to mirror drives and folders automatically. I prefer Goodsync.

 

Just store in the cloud. Crash-proof.

 

I had a 2TB WD My Book that "failed." I took it out of the case and installed it in an empty bay inside my desktop and IT'S A FESTIVUS MIRACLE!

Worked like a champ, still going strong with no issue many months later.

In other words, it was the USB interface.

 

Is the drive clicking or it just won't power on? If it's clicking then your data recovery will be expensive but EVERYTHING can be recovered. If' it just won't power on then the board is most likely just fried and you can swap that out to power it back on. I just recently did this with a 300GB WD successfully. You need to match the model # & LBA/MLC off the board. I do this stuff for a living so...

 

Off site is a good idea for sure but your link says 10 a month per device. Did not look to see exactly how the define device.

 

Thanks, I'll look into this for future use.

 

My bad. I must be getting some promotional rate. I was on their previous "personal" platform and had too large of a backup for them to transfer to their new small business platform when they nixed the personal plans. I made a huge stink about it and got a year practically free and my monthly payments since that year ran out have only been $2.50. Not sure why.

 

I had a usb drive fail the usb interface got fried and like you just ripping it apart and dropping it in a enclosure solved the issue.

 

No clicking. It started out by failing after about an hour of use, now it doesn't even show in the Finder.

 

As others have stated back up is a must. There are a million threads on this and you gotta have a plan in place (weekly, monthly, offsite etc.)

Disk space is cheap - get two ext drives and rotate them (one offsite) and be diligent on performing differential backups. You should always be able restore everything without loss

Can you provide some details on you library size and how long did the initial upload take?

 

Want to start by saying I didn't know I was getting a discount. It's $10 a month. That's my mistake.

My library is 8TB+ (music, movies, TV). It took like a year for my initial upload, lol. My upload speed is only 5mbps, so it's slow going. Yours may be better.

 

Has anyone ever tried removing the disk and putting it in another drive?

 

Ha! That's exactly what mine is doing, doesn't click or recognize. Does it have a blinking light when the power is connected
to the hard drive? That looks suspiciously like the controller circuit.

 

Newer drives are generally not repairable by swapping boards/chips, and larger HDs get very expensive to recover. If the drive is crashed or damaged what you get back may not be very useful as it will be missing parts of the data. If it is clicking or stuttering, (It doesn't work as well with newer drives) you can try freezing them. Put the drive in an anti-static bag, place the bag in an air tight container filled with some kind of desiccant. Leave it for at least a few days to a week. When you get ready to try the drive you need to realize it will heat up fast so be quick about everything. Also the drive will want to collect moisture, so keep it well outside the PC and dry it as needed. (It goes without saying you don't move a running drive) Sometimes getting the drive past the initial spinup will give you all the time you need, but not always. Also realize that abusing the drive this way makes a professional recovery less likely. So don't do it.

 

It's an external? You can't remove the actual platters, but if it's an external, you can remove the hard drive and put it in an external case.

 

BRB

 

That's what I was talking about...

 

I was gonna say $2.50 would be mighty cheap for unlimited.

I'm assuming you're kidding about the year comment? but any idea how long it took?