

But as soon as they start to appear, that’s a sign that the drive is probably on its way out and needs to be replaced soon.

Sometimes this can be avoided – “bad sectors” can be marked as such and the drive will know to avoid writing data to them. This can either happen due to errors in the filesystem, or because of physical corruption creeping in. 🔒 Corruptionĭata stored on a hard drive can occasionally get corrupted. If an application was writing to the drive right as you unplugged it, this could cause problems not just with that data, but with other files on the drive. This is usually easily fixable, though it could occasionally lead to corrupted data. Unplugging a hard drive from your computer without following the necessary precautions, like “ejecting” it from your operating system, can sometimes cause the drive to not be recognized afterwards. It requires specialized support from recovery experts, who usually do their job in a controlled laboratory environment. This type of problem is not something you can resolve on your own in most cases. Hitting a drive too hard can cause those plates to hit the magnetic heads close to them, which could dent the drive and damage it permanently. The technology is based on metal plates spinning in an isolated environment. Hard drives are very sensitive to physical damage. Some of those situations are easy to fix, while others can get quite tricky. Various things can lead to data loss from a WD My Passport drive. Common Data Loss Associated with a WD My Passport Drive Here are some tips that should help you extract your missing files with a little bit of luck. But there’s always a risk that something can go wrong and you find yourself without some valuable data. Looking to retrieve lost files from a WD My Passport on your Mac? These hard drives are built to last, and they can be quite durable.
