WD External Drive Slow, Then Not Detected: 1 of 4 Heads Failed, Family Video Recovered

Can a slow WD external drive that stopped detecting be recovered? In this case, yes. Boren’s 2.5 inch Western Digital drive had one failed head out of four. Our data recovery engineer imaged everything the three good heads could reach, then fitted donor heads to fill in the rest, and years of family video came back.

Sound familiar?

• Your external drive has been reading very slowly for weeks or months.
• Copying or opening large videos takes forever, or stalls.
• Now the computer does not show the drive at all.
• It holds years of family video you want back.

Same problem? Call 1300 444 800 or request a free assessment.

Years of Family Video on a WD Drive That Slowed Down and Stopped

Boren in Queensland had been using a Western Digital 2.5 inch external hard drive to store years of family video. For a couple of months it read very slowly. Then it stopped showing up on his computer altogether.

What he wanted back most were the large video files. That mattered a great deal for how the job had to be handled, as you will see below.

Western Digital is one of only three hard drive makers still standing, alongside Seagate and Toshiba. Once there were dozens. When a brand ends up in a club that small, its drives end up everywhere, and portable WD drives like Boren’s are among the most common we see.

The Problem: Why Does a WD External Drive Go Slow, Then Stop Detecting?

Our data recovery engineer ran a full diagnostic. The drive had four read heads inside, one for each platter surface. Three were fine. The fourth had failed.

That pattern explains the symptoms. A head that is weakening still reads, but slowly, retrying the same spots again and again. To the owner, the drive just feels sluggish. When the head finally gives out, the drive can no longer get ready, and the computer stops seeing it.

The months of slow reading were the warning. Every hour the drive kept running on a weak head was more wear on a part that was already failing.

The WD External Hard Drive Data Recovery Process

Many portable WD drives have the USB connector built straight onto the drive’s own circuit board, with no normal SATA port. The data recovery engineer converted Boren’s drive from its USB board to a SATA board. That gave our imaging equipment direct control of the drive, instead of working through the USB circuitry.

The plan then ran in two stages.

Stage one: image everything reachable with the three good heads. That secured the bulk of the data first, while the healthy heads were doing the work.

Stage two: in our dust free laminar flow cabinet, fit a matched donor head assembly from our donor library and go back over the drive. This time the target was only the areas that the fourth head alone could reach.

Why Large Video Files Needed Every Sector

A partial image was never going to be enough here.

Large video files are spread across a huge number of sectors. With one head out of four failed, roughly a quarter of the drive’s surfaces could not be read by the original heads, and that missing area runs through the middle of files rather than neatly around them. A video with gaps in it often will not play at all.

So every sector had to come back. That is why the job did not stop after stage one, and why the donor heads went in to finish what the three good heads could not reach.

WD External Hard Drive Case Study: The Results

With imaging complete, the files were extracted, verified and saved to a new drive.

Boren received a full file listing and a video preview, so he could see exactly what had come back before anything was sent. Once he was happy, the new drive went to Queensland by express post.

In the end, years of family video came off a drive that would not even show up a day earlier.

What Should You Do If Your External Drive Is Slow or Not Detected?

Stop using it. A drive that has turned slow is often reading with a weak head, and a drive that has stopped detecting may have lost one. Each time it runs, the failing part takes more wear.

Do not keep plugging it in to try again, and do not run recovery software on it. Software makes a weak head read the same surface over and over, which is the opposite of what a failing drive needs. Do not open it either.

Turn it off and send it in for a free assessment. Tell us which files matter most, as Boren did with his videos, and we plan the imaging around them.

There is never a guarantee with data recovery. Based on thousands of drives with damaged heads, we estimate about an 80 percent chance on a drive nobody has opened. In 8 out of 10 cases the platters are undamaged or have minor damage we can work around. In 2 out of 10 we find severe platter damage after opening.

Why People Choose Payam Data Recovery

A failed hard drive needs an experienced data recovery engineer, and often a matching donor part. We work on 10 to 15 drives with failed heads every day.

• We are a specialist data recovery lab, not a computer repair shop. We have been recovering data since 1998, from over 300,000 devices.
• The best equipped data recovery lab in Australia: an ISO 5 certified laminar flow cabinet for head replacements, an anti-static lab, microscopes and microsoldering stations for circuit board work, the Ace Lab PC-3000, Atola Insight Forensic and DeepSpar Disk Imager, and over 30,000 donor parts, including around 20,000 donor hard drives. When your drive needs a matching part, it is usually already on our shelf.
• Over 2,000 IT companies and computer shops across Australia send us their customers’ complex cases, and data recovery labs and IT companies in more than 50 countries have sent us their difficult cases over the past ten years.
• Rated 4.9 from more than 2,300 Google reviews.
• About 90% of our jobs are no fix, no fee. The hardest 10% carry an attempt fee.
• See your files before you pay. You tell us which files matter most. Before you pay for the recovery, we’ll send you a list of your recovered files so you can check them. If any of the files you listed are missing, tell us and we’ll search again.
• There is no card surcharge. Pay by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Afterpay, Zip or bank deposit (EFT).
• Everything is done in our own labs in Australia and never outsourced overseas. Call or visit us, and you can speak with the data recovery engineers who do the work.

We are not the cheapest. We are the best in Australia at this work. We know what to do, how to do it, and we will do our very best for you. Your best chance of getting your data back is with us.

Hard Drive Data Recovery Pricing and Services

Every hard drive case starts with a free assessment and a written quote. We test the drive, then email you the problem we found, how we can help, the cost and the time involved, for your approval before any chargeable work.

A hard drive with damaged heads needs donor parts and work in the laminar flow cabinet, so it carries an attempt fee that forms part of the total price. You pay the attempt fee to begin, and if we are successful, you pay the remaining balance. Current prices are on our hard drive data recovery page. Priority and Emergency service cost more and are faster. Your quote confirms the exact price.

If you need to know sooner, an urgent written quote within 1 to 2 hours is available for a fee. We can supply a destination drive, or you can send your own.

Our hard drive data recovery service covers every brand and size, portable and desktop, including all Western Digital drives.

How Our Process Works for International Customers

International customers are always welcome. The easiest way to reach us from overseas is by email at help@payam.com.au, which works in every time zone. Start with the free quote form. If the indicative pricing suits you, we send job instructions and you post the drive to our main data recovery lab in Rhodes, NSW by a tracked courier. Recovered data comes back on a new drive.

Frequently Asked Questions

My WD external hard drive was slow and now it is not detected. Can the data be recovered?
Often, yes. On Boren’s drive, one of four heads had failed. The data recovery engineer imaged everything the three good heads could reach, then fitted donor heads and went back for the rest. Years of family video came back. Stop plugging the drive in and have it assessed before the other heads wear.

Why does an external hard drive get slow before it stops working?
A weakening head still reads, but it has to retry the same areas again and again, so everything feels slow. When the head finally fails, the drive cannot get ready and the computer stops showing it. Months of slow reading are often the early warning of a head failure.

Can you recover data if only one head has failed?
Yes. On this drive three of four heads were fine. We imaged everything they could reach first, to secure most of the data while the drive was reading well. Then a matched donor head assembly was fitted in the laminar flow cabinet to read the areas that only the failed head could reach.

Why is a partial recovery not enough for video files?
Large videos are spread across a huge number of sectors. If one head of four cannot be read, the missing areas fall in the middle of files, and a video with gaps often will not play. For Boren’s family video, every sector had to come back, so the job continued with donor heads.

Should I run recovery software on a slow external drive?
No. If the drive is slow because a head is weakening, software makes it read the same surface over and over, adding wear to a failing part. It cannot fix a failed head either. Turn the drive off, do not open it, and send it in for a free assessment.

If you cannot recover my data, is there nothing to pay?
Yes. The assessment and quote are free, and for most faults there is nothing to pay unless we recover your data. See your files before you pay. You tell us which files matter most. Before you pay for the recovery, we’ll send you a list of your recovered files so you can check them. If any of the files you listed are missing, tell us and we’ll search again. The one exception is cleanroom and other high risk work, where part of the quoted price is a non-refundable attempt fee paid upfront so we can begin. That covers the data recovery engineer time and donor parts we commit whatever the outcome. If an attempt fee applies to your job, it will be stated clearly in your quote before you approve anything.

Can I send my drive from Queensland or overseas?
Yes. Boren sent his drive from Queensland and received his files back by express post. We work for people all around Australia, and international customers are always welcome. Request a free quote first, then post the drive by tracked courier. From overseas, email help@payam.com.au, which works in every time zone.

About Payam Data Recovery

Payam Data Recovery has been recovering data since 1998, with more than 300,000 devices recovered. Apple lists us as one of three recommended data recovery providers. For hard drives the lab runs the Ace Lab PC-3000, Atola Insight Forensic and DeepSpar Disk Imager, and head replacements are done in an ISO 5 laminar flow cabinet. Everything is done in Australia and never outsourced overseas. Head office and full service lab in Sydney CBD, with our main data recovery lab for complex cases in Rhodes, NSW, full service labs in Melbourne and Brisbane, and secure drop-off offices in Adelaide and Perth with free overnight express delivery to Rhodes, NSW. You can read more about Payam Data Recovery.

Request a Free Hard Drive Data Recovery Assessment

Related Case Studies

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• WD 10TB bad sectors data recovery case study
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• Clicking Seagate 4TB, donor heads fitted
• WD My Passport showing 0MB, bad sectors cloned
• Dropped WD drive with a head crash and encryption
• Dropped Seagate drive, one failed head replaced
• 49,500 photos saved for a Melbourne photographer

Video Transcript

Hey, Mike here, back at Payam Data Recovery in Sydney, Australia. This morning, I sat down with one of their data recovery engineers as he worked through a case that had come into the lab. The customer, Boren from Queensland, had been using a Western Digital 2.5-inch external hard drive to store years of family video. For a couple of months, it had been reading very slowly, and eventually, it stopped detecting on his computer altogether. What he wanted back most were the large video files, and that mattered a lot for how the job had to be handled.

Here is something worth knowing about Western Digital. Once upon a time, there were dozens of hard drive manufacturers competing worldwide. Today, there are only three left standing, and Western Digital is one of them, alongside Seagate and Toshiba. When a brand ends up in that small club, its drives end up everywhere, which is why units like Boren’s are among the most common ones coming through the doors at Payam Data Recovery.

The engineer ran a full diagnostic and found the drive had four read heads inside. Three were fine, but the fourth had failed. He then converted the drive from its USB board to a SATA board, which gave him far more control over the imaging process. The plan was a two-stage recovery. First, image everything reachable with the three good heads. Then, in the clean room, swap in a matched donor head assembly and go back over the drive to fill in the areas only that fourth head could reach.

With large video files, a partial image was never going to be enough. Every sector had to come back. That is the kind of job Payam Data Recovery has been doing since 1998, with a huge donor library and a full clean room on site. Once the imaging is complete, the files are extracted and verified, then saved to a new drive. Boren gets a full file listing and a video preview so he can see exactly what came back. And once he is happy, his data is shipped to Queensland by express post.

In the end, years of family video came off a drive that would not even show up a day earlier. If your drive is slowing down or has stopped detecting, stop using it and send it to Payam Data Recovery in Rhodes, Sydney for a free assessment and quote.