External Western Digital hard drive (USB) not fully mounting

I am trying to mount my external NTFS-formatted HDD in Windows 7 Ultimate, but it is getting stuck. The system remains responsive, but the 'mounting progress bar' never goes to completion and the light on the drive continues to blink. No access to the drive is possible (e.g. attempting to view the contents). The screenshot is here:

I thought of trying to run chkdsk, but chkdsk won't run until it's fully mounted.

Attempting to mount in Debian leads to the following dmesg output:

[  329.386037] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 6 using ehci_hcd
[  329.494160] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[  329.494284] scsi6 : usb-storage 1-1.2:1.0
[  329.494357] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[  329.494359] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[  330.493837] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       Ext HDD 1021     2021 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[  330.496311] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[  330.497885] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 1953519616 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
[  330.499817] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[  330.499823] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 17 00 10 08
[  330.501796] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[  330.501802] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  330.506777] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[  330.506783] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  330.526297]  sdb: sdb1
[  330.533958] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[  330.533963] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  330.533969] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[  332.942365] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code
[  332.942372] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=invalid driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  332.942378] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  332.942385] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  332.942392] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 10 00 00 08 00
[  332.942407] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 2064
[  332.942413] quiet_error: 54 callbacks suppressed
[  332.942418] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 2
[  335.215232] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code
[  335.215237] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=invalid driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  335.215243] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  335.215249] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  335.215255] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 10 00 00 08 00
[  335.215267] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 2064
[  335.215274] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 2
[  337.486626] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code
[  337.486632] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=invalid driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  337.486641] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  337.486650] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  337.486660] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 10 00 00 08 00
[  337.486679] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 2064
[  337.486689] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 2
[  339.803371] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code
[  339.803377] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=invalid driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  339.803383] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  339.803389] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  339.803395] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 10 00 00 08 00
[  339.803407] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 2064
[  339.803414] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 2
[  342.074889] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code
[  342.074895] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=invalid driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  342.074901] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  342.074908] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  342.074916] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 10 00 00 08 00
[  342.074931] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 2064
[  342.074938] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 2
[  344.347321] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code
[  344.347327] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=invalid driverbyte=DRIVER_SEN[  339.803395] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 10 00 00 08 00
[  339.803407] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 2064
[  339.803414] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 2
[  342.074889] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code
[  342.074895] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=invalid driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  342.074901] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  342.074908] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  342.074916] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 10 00 00 08 00
[  342.074931] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 2064
[  342.074938] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 2
[  344.347321] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code
[  344.347327] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=invalid driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  344.347334] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  344.347341] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  344.347348] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 10 00 00 08 00
[  344.347363] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 2064
[  344.347370] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 2
[  346.664026] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code
[  346.664031] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=invalid driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  346.664036] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  346.664042] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  346.664049] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 10 00 00 08 00
[  346.664061] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 2064
[  346.664068] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 2
[  348.935584] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code
[  348.935590] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Result: hostbyte=invalid driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[  348.935595] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
[  348.935601] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
[  348.935607] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 10 00 00 08 00
[  348.935619] end_request: critical target error, dev sdb, sector 2064
[  348.935626] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 2

Debian at least recognizes a problem and bails out (the HDD's external light stops blinking).

Any thoughts how to proceed?

Solution 1:

I think a good place to start with is a drive test. If at all possible pull the drive out of its enclosure and hook it up directly to a spare machine (hopefully you have one).

Then test the health of Hard Drive. One simple but effective tool I like to use is Drive Fitness Test. This will tool will essentially go through the drive checking for bad sectors as well as performing a number of other checks in the process.

If DFT reports that the drive is failing (diagnostics in red box) you should check to see if the drive is still under warranty and if possible file an RMA claim to get it replaced.

If it does not report any problems (green ok) then you don't need to worry for the time being about Hard Drive health and should look elsewhere for the problem.