WD Passport not showing on My Computer

[Kyuri]

WD Passport not showing on My Computer & Disk Management ( no option to partition ) but check the Device Manager under disk drives and it's there. I tried to to format(desperate) the Drive via cmd but there were no drives assigned to it... so i won't be able to do that. Also updated every firmware hardware everything and still not working for me.. i'm definitely sure the Drive is still working it has light on it and sure is vibrating..

Some one.. Please help me.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey Kyuri. I'm sorry to hear you're having such issues with your drive. Do you remember doing something in particular before this happened? Do you hear any unusual noises/sounds coming from it? I'd recommend that you try the drive with a different USB cable (not longer than 12") because yours might have become faulty. Other than that it wouldn't hurt to try it with a different computer to see if the same thing happens.
I'd recommend that you try accessing the drive via Linux Live USB/CD to see if it's recognized. And you could also try some data recovery programs such as the ones listed in this thread: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html

If you manage to recover your data or if you don't need the data from it, I'd recommend that you download DLG (Data Lifeguard Diagnostic) to test the drive and see if it's recognized and if it has any errors or bad sectors: Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows

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

 

[_Tiki_]

If the LED lights are on and there are vibrations coming from the drive, my sense is that it is receiving power to it and is spinning up. I've seen external drives where they are detected in Device Manager, but not in Disk Management. For the drive to be functioning properly, it should be detected in both Device Manager and Disk Management.

In Device Manager/Disk Drives, have you tried to update the drivers? I would also recommend trying a different port and computer to see how the drive reacts. If that doesn't change things, the drive may be faulty. Do you have a backup of the data? Is it still under warranty? Have you considered opening the enclosure and connecting the drive internally? But check with WD first, that may void the warranty.

 

[Kyuri]

Hi Sir boogieman!

Thank you for the quick response. i have tried the

your suggestions

i used pandora recovery and it won't allow me to recover anything showing nothing

tried also the data lifeguard and it is being recognized but unable to do anything. it says that my WD Drive capacity is 0mb but its a 500gb wd.. and im sure i did not format the drive yet so there should be something in it..

 

[Kyuri]

Hi Sir _Tiki_

yes, i've tried on different ports as well as on my PC at work and laptop but still to no avail

the drivers are also up to date.. unfortunately i lost the receipt so im afraid warranty is not my option anymore.. and NO i do not have any back ups 🙁

 

[_Tiki_]

Hi Sir _Tiki_

yes, i've tried on different ports as well as on my PC at work and laptop but still to no avail

the drivers are also up to date.. unfortunately i lost the receipt so im afraid warranty is not my option anymore.. and NO i do not have any back ups 🙁

Grr I'm sorry to hear that. I'm pretty sure recovering the data is the most important part now. If data recovery software doesn't do the trick and if the drive is out of warranty/is not an issue, you may consider connecting hard disk internally to a computer. Sometimes external enclosures can become faulty. I'm not certain this is the case, but if it was me, that would be an option I would perform. Otherwise, profession data recovery may cost big bucks 🙁

Remember always have multiple back ups to avoid data-loss.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

I would strongly disagree with the advice, which @_Tiki_ gave you about taking the drive out of the enclosure (he probably didn't know about the hardware encryption). Would you please tell me which model you have exactly so that I could check if the drive has hardware encryption, because if it does, taking it out of the enclosure will make the data irretrievable. It has to be in the enclosure for you to be able to recover it.
In the meantime you could check your warranty here: Warranty & RMA Services - all you need is the serial number of the drive.
You could also take a look at our data recovery partners here: WD Data Recovery Partners

 

[_Tiki_]

If the drive is encrypted, the hardware encryption would be handled by the a chip located on the circuit board of the drive. The chip would not be located on the enclosure of the drive, would it? To get to the chip, you actually have to open the hard disk and that is not what I suggested. Therefore, I don't see how it would be an issue. The issue would be if you manipulated the actual circuit board where the chip is located.

But that is besides the point, my suggestion was to connect it internally to at least determine if a system would recognize the drive. Like I said, it may be the enclosure, although I cannot say for certain. If you do have encryption enabled, that would be something else to contend with. By the way, I don't recommend you mess with any components on the actual hard disk, I was only speaking about the enclosure

At the end, I would suggest you call WD directly and see if they are kind enough to offer free data recovery for their faulty drive. Believe it or not, sometimes it can happen.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well the thing is that even if he doesn't damage the chip, he wouldn't be able to connect the drive. The newer models have proprietary connecters and it would be impossible to connect them to the mobo.
He could still contact customer support directly and explain the situation.
Here's a link for the WD Customer Support page: Service & Support