I'm having a real headache with my 5TB WD Easystore hard drive. Whenever I plug it in, Windows acts up big time. I can't access any drives—installers won't open, Disk Management takes forever to load, and even Check Disk is unresponsive. Event Viewer shows bad blocks, but that doesn't seem like it should stop Check Disk from working. Plus, my computer struggles to boot up fully when the drive is connected; it just gets stuck on the loading screen. I'm wondering if the issue could be due to the cable, since it seems odd that a drive would affect the OS like this.
2 Answers
It sounds like there’s not much you can do if it's your drive (model WDBAJP0050BBK-WESN). The USB port is built right into the drive, so you're mostly limited to swapping out the cable. You can use a standard USB micro B cable, but cables rarely fail unless they’re physically damaged. If you're still experiencing issues with a different cable, it might be a sign the drive is dying. If you need to recover your data, check out resources on data recovery communities. If not, planning to replace the drive might be your best option.
I have the WDBKUZ0050BBK-EA model, and I've faced similar issues.
This could definitely be linked to bad blocks or read errors in the filesystem. If the drive can't read the info it needs to confirm there's a bootable OS or identify partitions, Windows can freeze up. Your system won’t be able to manage the disk or display it correctly in Disk Management or File Explorer, which can really throw a wrench in things.
The thing is, my OS is on a different drive. As soon as I plug in the 5TB, my whole computer freezes until I unplug it!
I’d replace it too, but unfortunately, I have some irreplaceable data on mine.