Just recently in november bought a new external USB 3.0 MyPassport when my older one started showing signs of death. Backed up most of the data and put some new data on it that is somewhat important.

I plugged into a USB hub that was plugged into one of the back 2.0 ports with another much older external TB drive that had an external power supply. I went to sleep, woke up and the externally power external drive functions fine but now the portable one I just bought is having problems.

I plug it in, the LED light comes on but does not blink or flicker. The HD spins but it's not recognized by the computer at all. No USB device sound, no activity in My Computer, not even recognized by the BIOS upon start up or in device manager. I've tried it on multiple computers and multiple cables but I have the same problem.

Was it a surge? Is something on the PCB shot? Drive doesn't make any odd sounds (a usual click and then regular sound) and spins up just fine. I'm prepared to take it to a professional, I'm not one to bite into the idea that it's going to take hundreds of bucks to recover, guaranteed, but I'm just curious as to what some experienced people think.

Could be a firmware issue, or media problems (bad sectors) preventing the drive from initialising.

Unlikely to be PCB related, given that it spins up ok.

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