WD Elements hard drive suddenly not recognised by Macbook Air

[alexicon]

The WD Elements external hard drive on which i back up my MacBook Air now fails to appear anywhere on the desk top or anywhere else (disc Utility etc). Kinda urgent, if anyone has any ideas, much appreciated!

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, Alex!

I'm sorry to hear about your issues with the WD Elements external drive! 🙁 I'd advise you to try using a different USB cable with the HDD and try plugging it to a different USB port on the MacBook. If you have access to another Mac OS computer, you should also try connecting the WD Elements there to see if it will get recognized properly.
Does it power up when you connect it, though?

Keep me posted with the troubleshooting!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[alexicon]

thanks supersoph, yep, tried another cable and another mac and the light does come on; hard drive deceased?

 

[JeromeHubert]

Hi Alexicon and SuperSoph_WD,

Funny (or not), I have exactly the same issue since this morning.
The WD hard drive (My Passport Ultra 2To) fails to appear on both Macbook Pro and Imac 27''. The light is on.
When launching the app "WD Drive Utilities", the hard drive is recognized but I can't launch the check test. Did you try this ?
I also tried with a different cable but it doesn't work.
I just recorded the sound : http://goo.gl/Ka3XeU
Does it sound bad ?

Thank you !
Jerome

 

[alexicon]

Hi Jerome, i don't have the app so not sure, but i do get a clicking sound. think i'm going to take a hit on all the back-ups, ditch it and get another one. and for sure another brand. (slaps forehead).

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

This sounds pretty unfortunate for both of you, @Alex & @Jerome! 🙁

The clicking noises indicate internal hardware failure on the external HDDs. Sadly, this is something that cannot be fixed.
I'd strongly recommend you to check your warranty status and get in touch with our Customer Support either by phone or e-mail. In case both of your external WD drives are still covered by the warranty, you should be able to send an RMA request and get replacements.

If you have important data that you wish to recover, make sure you refer to the Data Recovery partners on our website.

I'm sorry that you are encountering such issues with our drives, though.
Hope I was helpful. Let me know if you have any additional questions.

SuperSoph_WD