WD Passport drive

Jimmy1983 · 26 Jun 2009 at 14:22

Ive got the 120GB one and its been plugged into my PC for a number of days without being accessed mind, and ealrier today its just started with a 'clicking' sound. I did noticed the last few times win7 asked to scan the HDD or not, I opted to ignore and to just use the HDD as per normal.

Its pretty full, but there are some files that I need really. Just asking for advice on what to do?

dalepearson · 26 Jun 2009 at 14:26

If its still working I would copy everything of it.
You might also want to run something like spinrite on it

farooqm · 26 Jun 2009 at 14:34

dalepearson said:
If its still working I would copy everything of it.
You might also want to run something like spinrite on it

Yep... agree, if you have the space, get the data off and run some diags on the disk.

Jimmy1983 · 26 Jun 2009 at 14:40

Whats spinrite? Freeware?

Just tried opening it this comes up

didnt scan, the HDD did open, now its hanging and clicking

miniyazz · 26 Jun 2009 at 23:48

Pfft personally I just ignore that message box, I get it all the time because I never use safely remove hardware, I'm too lazy and have write cache disabled anyhow for that very reason

But get your data off pronto, clicking = hdd death.

Jimmy1983 · 27 Jun 2009 at 01:01

miniyazz said:
Pfft personally I just ignore that message box, I get it all the time because I never use safely remove hardware, I'm too lazy and have write cache disabled anyhow for that very reason
But get your data off pronto, clicking = hdd death.

Yer got all my data off thankfully, do you think spinrite would fix the problem with the drive?

miniyazz · 27 Jun 2009 at 01:57

Try it and see. Personally, I've never heard of it. And it probably won't work, IMO. But you've got nothing to lose..

Jimmy1983 · 27 Jun 2009 at 10:15

Do you know if I can take out the HDD and replace it with a new one and use the enclosure?

miniyazz · 28 Jun 2009 at 00:47

Yep, HDD clicking is mechanical not circuitry related so in theory swapping is no problem. But be aware that some 2.5" drives draw more power than others, not sure which, might be power ratings on the product pages. But if you get one which needs too much power, it won't work plugged into just one USB port, and you'll have to get a USB Y-splitter cable for it.

Tomsk · 28 Jun 2009 at 01:03

miniyazz said:
Yep, HDD clicking is mechanical not circuitry related so in theory swapping is no problem. But be aware that some 2.5" drives draw more power than others, not sure which, might be power ratings on the product pages. But if you get one which needs too much power, it won't work plugged into just one USB port, and you'll have to get a USB Y-splitter cable for it.

I have a 320GB WD Passport.
I normally connect it to the same USB port on my works PC, and occasionally it starts clicking and the PC doesn't recognise it. Changing to a different USB port has always solved the problem.

miniyazz · 28 Jun 2009 at 01:16

Tomsk said:
I have a 320GB WD Passport.
I normally connect it to the same USB port on my works PC, and occasionally it starts clicking and the PC doesn't recognise it. Changing to a different USB port has always solved the problem.

Odd. Unplugging and replugging into the same port fix it too?
TBH it sounds like it could be a power problem, do you plug anything else into the same hub before it starts doing that?
Equally it could just be the computer deciding to start defragging it or something, and seek noises.