How to recover WD HDD Unknown, Not Initialized, Unallocated

[mikeum]

I am sorry for asking a n00bie question, but I've had 2 USED WD USB HDDs full of data come to me in this condition. Spins up fine, but it shows Unknown, Not Initialized, and Unallocated without any Drive letter assigned. It lists under "Other devices" with a yellow explanation mark on the Device Manager. Driver automatic update doesn't work.

I've tried SATA conversion following
https://www.dolphindatalab.com/how-to-c ... interface/
but it the drive isn't detected on the Device Manager.

What would be possible reasons and repair steps to follow?

TIA!

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[Zero Alpha]

You should check the logical structure first to find out if its enrypted, damaged file system, non windows file system or no access to data area or system area. Is this a real customers job or are you ok to experiement like this?

[mikeum]

Thank you for your reply.

Are there any n00b's way of checking these things?

This (ex-working) drive got to this stage by being left plugged in with a bad connection and it was spinning up and made a tick noise, spin down. -repeat until now it shows this.

This is my church's HDD. It's got many pictures and videos of my church members.

[Zero Alpha]

ticking noise that spins down is a very complex problem. I'm not confident this can be solved with any noob solutions.

[mikeum]

ticking noise that spins down is a very complex problem. I'm not confident this can be solved with any noob solutions.

It was only doing that when my pastor left it plugged in with a long thin cable. (I'm sure it was just low on voltage during this period of time)

It doesn't tick and spin down anymore.

It spins up fine now but shows unknown / not initialized

[fzabkar]

Can you show us a SMART report:

https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecoverysoftware/wiki/index/smart/

Can you show us the Partitions tab in DMDE?

https://dmde.com/

Tick the Advanced checkbox and show us what you see in the RH pane.

[Lardman]

Isn't that a drivesavers recovery label ?

[mikeum]

Can you show us a SMART report:

https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecoverysoftware/wiki/index/smart/

Can you show us the Partitions tab in DMDE?

https://dmde.com/

Tick the Advanced checkbox and show us what you see in the RH pane.

I finally got to doing it. Please let me know!

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