External Drive Inaccessible

[jimlau]

I have a WD Passport external drive. I can unlock it, but then the light keeps blinking and apparently cannot read anything. It's not listed in Disk Management.

Tried on 2 computers with 2 USB 3 cables

Is it a lost cause?

Thanks.

 

[Onus]

How old is it? Was it dropped, soaked, or otherwise abused?

 

[seagate_surfer]

jimlau, does it show up in the BIOS? Most likely it has gone South.

 

[richardvday]

The external case may have issues, if its out of warranty or you dont care open it and install in a PC directly to see if the HDD itself is ok

 

[jimlau]

It is 4 years old. Did nothing obvious to it.

It is now seen in Disk Management as RAW.

EaseUS is finding the files. Is there free data recovery software that would work well in this case? I tried Recuva but it failed.

Any idea what might be the issue?

Thanks.

 

[captaincharisma]

The external case may have issues, if its out of warranty or you dont care open it and install in a PC directly to see if the HDD itself is ok

that might not be possible. most WD passport drives have the USB connection integrated on the drive.