WD My Book external hard drive Not Recognized by PC

cangrione

Prominent
Jul 12, 2017
1
0
510
Does not show up in Disk Management top portion to adjust drive letter (only at the bottom where it says disk is unknown and if I right click it tells me to initialize disk). Only shows up in Device Manager simply as the letters "WD". It passed a quick test with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnositics but failed an extended test stating "test found bad sectors that may be repairable". Another note the blue light on the device is on and working. How would I proceed? I tried use recovery programs like Recuva but since device is not recognized on my computer the programs dont find the drive.
 
Solution
For it to be detected, you'll need to initialize it. But I'm assuming you need to recovery data?
If you don't, just initialize the drive.

If you do, that's a little tough. Is it detected on any other system? Have you moved it back/forth between Windows & Mac?

You should be able to mark the drive as "active" within diskpart, but I have no idea whether that is a guarantee of losing data or not.

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
For it to be detected, you'll need to initialize it. But I'm assuming you need to recovery data?
If you don't, just initialize the drive.

If you do, that's a little tough. Is it detected on any other system? Have you moved it back/forth between Windows & Mac?

You should be able to mark the drive as "active" within diskpart, but I have no idea whether that is a guarantee of losing data or not.
 
Solution