Didn't eject external hard drive, now it won't recognize

[DangerGlobal]

I've searched for a solution, and I can't seem to find one that's quite the same as my scenario. I have a 1TB WD passport drive, using on my late 2014 MB pro Retina. I closed the MB, and when I opened it back up, I tried to use the ext. hard drive, and nothing would happen. So I pulled it and re-inserted it, but now it won't recognize it. It shows up in disk utility as being there, but verify and repair are grayed out. Plugged it into my Windows 10 desktop, and it freezes explorer and freezes disk management. There's a lot of data on there I don't want to lose. What's the best solution to try to get my data off of it? Thanks!

 

[popatim]

Best solution? Send it out for professional recovery.

Why? From your limited description of events, to me it sounds like you've caused hardware damage (head crash) that can only be repaired* by professional services. (*repaired long enough to get most of the data off)

Sadly this service is expensive.

In the future, keep in mind that important files should never be stored on just one device. The more copies you have of it on separate devices then the safer those files are. Even media such as optical disks, flash drives, other pc's, etc Count as 'Other Devices'. Sadly most of us learn this lesson the hard way, myself included.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, DangerGlobal!

I'm truly sorry to hear about your WD My Passport failure! 🙁 If you haven't tried this already, maybe you should attempt to connect the external HDD with a different USB cable. If it behaves the same way, you should most definitely consider contacting one of WD's Data Recovery Partners. @Popatim is right! Keeping only one copy of you data in one storage location is not really a backup solution. We've all been there.

Hope this helps you! Best of luck with the data recovery!
Let us know if you have more questions!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[DangerGlobal]

Best solution? Send it out for professional recovery.

Why? From your limited description of events, to me it sounds like you've caused hardware damage (head crash) that can only be repaired* by professional services. (*repaired long enough to get most of the data off)
.

I'd like to give you more info - can you tell me what additional info would be useful?

When I put it in my MBpro and open Disk Utility, the drive name (in my case, WDDrive, the name I gave it) shows up, though it won't mount. Also, when I ran WD LifeGuard, on the extended scan, it got about a third of the way thru scanning the drive, then froze for hours, so I just stopped it. Does that mean anything specific?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

This sounds unfortunate, @DangerGlobal!

What about trying the external WD My Passport with a different USB cable? I'd recommend you attempt to run the QUICK and EXTENDED tests from the Data LifeGuard Diagnostics again and see if you will be able to complete both tests after the cable swap. It's possible that the drive might have failed, so a professional data recovery is definitely something you should consider. Despite costly, they would be your best bet on getting your data back.

Keep us posted with the troubleshooting, though!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[DangerGlobal]

This sounds unfortunate, @DangerGlobal!

What about trying the external WD My Passport with a different USB cable? I'd recommend you attempt to run the QUICK and EXTENDED tests from the Data LifeGuard Diagnostics again and see if you will be able to complete both tests after the cable swap. It's possible that the drive might have failed, so a professional data recovery is definitely something you should consider. Despite costly, they would be your best bet on getting your data back.

Keep us posted with the troubleshooting, though!
SuperSoph_WD

Thank you, will do! As you can imagine, getting that test to run can take quite a while.
Would it be worth considering doing a format on the drive and using recovery software to try to get files off of it? Or is the likely issue with the drive not able to be overcome by that route?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Thank you, will do! As you can imagine, getting that test to run can take quite a while.
Would it be worth considering doing a format on the drive and using recovery software to try to get files off of it? Or is the likely issue with the drive not able to be overcome by that route?

Hey there again, DangerGlobal!

I'd suggest you not to attempt any data recovery by yourself, unless you determine the health and SMART status of your WD My Passport! Changing the USB cable might help you with the performance lags and freezes whenever you connect the external drive to a computer. However, if the drive acts the same way even after the cable swap, it might mean that the HDD is failing. In this case, data retrieving attempts could be dangerous for your files. That's why it's recommended to turn to a professional company for assistance. Physical damage cannot be fixed, but they could at least help you get the files off your drive.

SuperSoph_WD