External Harddisk Device was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.

Question

I'm running Windows 10 Pro 32 bit Winversion 1909 and have a Western Digital My Book  Essential external harddisk connected via USB. Windows explorer cannot detect it but its detected in device manager, disk management, diskpart and taskbar safely remove device.

In diskpart, its shown as status online,  size 0 B, free 0 B.

In disk management  its shown as disk 2, unknown, not initialized. Right clicking it "initialize" is greyed out and under properties general settings shows "This device is working properly". Under "Volumes"  it shows type unknown, status not initialized, partition style not applicable, capacity 0 mb, unallocated space 0 mb, reserved space 0 mb and events shows.

"Device USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_WD&Prod_\202020202020202020202020202020&0 was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.

Last Device Instance Id: USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Vodafone&Prod_Storage_(Huawei)&Rev_2.31\7&348d87e5&0

Class Guid: {4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

Location Path: 

Migration Rank: 0xF000FC000000F130

Present: false

Status: 0xC0000719"

I have run sfc /scannow and no problems were detected. Please advise further actions to resolve this. Thanks.

Answer 1

Yeah, I'd replace it.

Answer 2

That means there's bad spots on the physical disk itself and not just the file system which is what Disk Check finds and fixes. You can run a second test to confirm this: https://www.lifewire.com/free-hard-drive-testin...

To try to rescue files you can try plugging it into another PC to see if it's recognized, which could point back to Windows account or install problems. If not then you can see if you can rescue the files using one of these methods:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

But there isn't much File Recovery that can be done with a failed physical disk. This is a reason why it's important to have secondary backups of important data. Here is my recommendations for backup which cover it completely without any/much cost and complication:

Your files should always be backed up because a hard drive can die at any time without notice. Some suggestions to help ease into this habit:

1. You can sync your Desktop, Documents and Pictures folder using OneDrive Backup, or just drag valuable files into OneDrive folder, offering 5gb free with additional space for cheap: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/116029-turn...
2. Google Drive has a new Backup that allows you to choose User folders (Documents, Pictures, etc.) to sync up to 15gb for free to their cloud in real time so it always has the latest version. https://www.google.com/intl/en-GB_ALL/drive/dow...
3. In addition I'd have an on-site hard copy backup. The best way to do this is to sort all of your files into their User folders and then drag or copy them to another hard drive, USB external or flash drive. Here's how to drag, copy or move large groups of files: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2086566/the-man...
4. Besides your files you should save a System Image back up to use in place of reinstall in 20 minutes. The best free alternative is Macrium: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7363/macrium-ref... You can even use the Macrium program to mount and extract files from this image so it can serve as both image and file backup too.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

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Answer 3

That doesn't look good. Can you determine the hard drive maker for the External and run it's diagnostics to see if it can be fixed, or run Seatools again to see if it repaired anything (doubtful). Usually only the manufacturer's tool can repair disk surface problems, and I would never trust the drive again anyway.

Can you do another Disk Check from Command Prompt?

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/running-a-check-dis...