My girlfriend's external USB drive - a Western Digital 500 GB (part number wdbabv5000abk-00) has stopped being recognised by the system (Win 7) when plugged in.

When plugged into her Win 7 laptop, it makes the usual USB notification noise, but then an error message appears, saying that the USB Device is Not Recognized. It does not appear as a drive in the Device Manager. Its only appearance in the Device Manager is within USB Controllers as an Unknown Device.

I've already uninstalled all the USB devices within Device Manager and restarted to see if that was the problem but to no avail. When I plug the USB drive into another Win 7 laptop, I get exactly the same problem, so it's not the fault of the host machine. When I try it in Ubuntu and on a Macbook, there is no error message but the drive is not recognised or mounted.

The drive is spinning normally when I plug it into a usb slot, with no clicks - just whirring quietly if I hold it against my ear. The white led light on the drive stays illuminated.

Girlfriend insists it hasn't been dropped or had any hard knocks. It was last used at work 4 days ago on her usual workplace machine (Windows 98 or XP - she's not sure). She never unmounts the drive correctly from the systray - she just unplugs and goes, alas. I doubt that this is the cause, but mention it anyway.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received. I've thought about opening the plastic external enclosure and connecting the drive to a different pcb controller within a different case, but hope to hear from experts before going down that path.

Many thanks,

Niall

Hi Niall

Unfortunately this is not an option, because your drive is an Elements SE 2.5" with USB embedded on the drives' board. Otherwise I'd suggest you to remove the case and connect it as SATA, but for this drive it is not an option.

I would start by checking the USB connector, these are known to create such problems.

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Thanks for the reply. You sure that the drive can't be reconnected to another board as SATA? Here's a 2 minute video on Youtube showing how to open the case and pull out the drive of the exact same model that I've described:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd4rG8_8YOk


I've already tried 2 other USB cables - is that what you mean, or are you talking about the usb socket on the drive?

The video you suggested shows the disassembly process of a different model, which is a SATA drive (WDBAAR5000ABK-00). You said your model is wdbabv5000abk-00, which is a USB drive. That means that if you break open the plastic case, you will end up with a USB drive. You can try it if you wish, but this will void warranty.

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My apologies - I stand corrected. It is indeed a different model.

What can be done with the USB socket? There is some slight movement possible when I rock the cable to and fro in the USB drive.

BTW, the drive is out of warranty since Sep 2012. My interest is only in recovering the data, not the replacement cost of the drive.

Thanks very much for your help.

Sometimes the connectors of the USB port work loose over time. You can try putting pressure on the connector (as per picture) to try and rule this out. If it's not the connector then there's little else available relating to DIY unfortunately.

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Ditto...

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Many thanks to Nick and Northwind for your answers and help. Much appreciated.

If you have electronic experience, search forum for the location of SATA test points on the PCB. Main contoller is still SATA, having extra USB bridge chip. You can bypass USB bridge and attach directly.

... and find yourself with a bunch of encrypted data.

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Better than nothing

And you guys know about how to decode. It was posted on the forum not so long ago.

I have got the same problem?
Any solution yet?