Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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External HDD not showing up

July 17th, 2012, 14:07

Hello,

I have external usb HDD of WD and facing the following problem from today:

When I plug the HDD in USB port, the light on the drive flashes and stay stable. I can see it's icon in the task bar near clock,which gives option to remove it safely.

It's also showing as USB Mass Storage Device under Universal Serial Bus controllers in Device Manager.

Hard drive folder was used to pop out automatically when I plug the drive but it's not opening and not even showing in My Computer.

I searched a lot on this issue but everyone said try to assign drive letter from Disk Management but it's not even showing there as well.

I tried plugging the HD in 3 different computers and the problem is same.

I also tried to uninstall the driver and re plugged it for the fresh install and it said successfully installed but still same.

I have important data which I can't afford to lose.

Please help :(

Re: External HDD not showing up

July 17th, 2012, 21:45

Plug the external in once more and carefully and closely listen to the drive's internal mechanism operating!

Do you hear any continuous clicks?

Do you hear the drive spinning for a few seconds, then spin down?

Re: External HDD not showing up

July 18th, 2012, 17:04

I tried to hear it closely and yes I can hear the sound of spinning.

Re: External HDD not showing up

July 18th, 2012, 18:01

Depends on external drive model number. Open enclosure and plug it directly to the computer (on some models it won't work). If drive is recognised in BIOS use cloning software, but boot from CD and run cloning utility from CD, don't let Windows write to the disk.

Re: External HDD not showing up

July 18th, 2012, 19:05

netbug wrote:I have important data which I can't afford to lose.


In this case dont risk your data by trying DIY.
Best advice is to seek a dr pro & get a quote & then decide.

Is it a WD My Book or My Passport?
If so the drive could be encrypted but it depends on the model
Also My Passports have a USB PCB

Loki
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