Drive humming but not recognized

[revdanj]

The drive on my laptop is not recognized by the BIOS. I put it into an external USB case and attached it to another computer but it did not detect it. It feels like it is moving on the inside. There is a slight humming noise and you can feel a bit of vibration when you plug it in to the USB and are holding it.

I believe that it might have overheated as my wife used to keep the laptop on the bed blanket and it would cover the ventilation holes.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey revdanj and welcome to the community. Overheating could damage the drive indeed, but there's no way for me to tell for sure if this is the cause for the drive to be acting up like this. Good job on trying the drive externally. You could also try downloading the drive manufacturer's diagnostic tool (or a third party diagnostic tool if the manufacturer doesn't offer one) to see if it's able to recognize the HDD, so that you can run the tests and find out what's the situation with it. Unfortunately, if the drive isn't recognized, there's not much you can do. I'd recommend that you contact the laptop manufacturer's customer support and ask for assistance (and RMA, if the laptop is still under warranty).

Hope that helps. Let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD