WD Passport stopped being recognized in Windows

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Boymeetsmill

Boymeetsmill

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Jun 16, 2014
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I have a 1.5TB WD Passport purchased in Aug of '13. I was using the drive all weekend and on Sunday night I decided I really need to make a backup of the drive. So I hooked the 1.5TB to my desktop PC where I have an older 2TB USB 2.0 drive I could backup to.

This time when I plugged the drive in I got the typical windows tone recognizing a connected device. The drive spins up and lights come on... BUT it won't initialize. I can look at the device manager and see a "Passport" device. The drive isn't listed in my computer or in disk manager.

I tried the USB3.0 cable with another drive and it worked. I tried the drive on another PC (no luck) and on my Macbook Pro (no luck either).

I really need the data on this drive. Can anyone help?
 
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D
Trust me it's not a driver issue. If it worked before, and stopped working, it's hardware related. These newer passports have an incredibly high failure rate. I get a ton of them here in my lab.

I don't know of anyone really close to you there in Oregon who I'd trust and has decent prices. Unfortunately most companies on the west coast want to charge outrageous prices like DriveSavers does.

My usual rate for these is about $700 plus parts. Though in some cases (such as when the drive loses it's internal encryption key) it might be more like $950. Call around your area and see what kind of quotes you get. You shouldn't have to pay thousands for recovery except in rare cases these days.
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DataMedic

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Nov 22, 2013
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WD passports are particularly difficult to recover from. That model has the USB interface built right onto it, not a SATA to USB bridge as with many externals. You will need professional recovery, there's nothing you can do yourself if Windows isn't recognizing the drive.

What country are you in? I can probably recommend a good company in your area to you that won't cost a small fortune to get the data back.
 
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dextermat

dextermat

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Sep 21, 2007
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Didi you try going into device manager and try to update the driver manually?
It has worked for me a couple of times.

Saddly passeport has a pcb direcly on the drive for usb3 and cannot be taken out of the case.

If your data is worth it, you might want to contact WD and ask them how much it cost for data recovery.

 
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DataMedic

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Nov 22, 2013
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Trust me, you don't want to pay for data recovery from WD. Overpriced, and really crummy service. I can recommend much better services, as this is what I do professionally. I just need to know what country you're in to know who to recommend.

 
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Boymeetsmill

Boymeetsmill

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Jun 16, 2014
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Yeah I realized that once I started digging through Youtube videos on passport disassembly. My hope was that I could tear the drive apart and mount it inside my desktop. Once I realized there was no internal SATA connection there wasn't much point in taking the drive apart. I live in the US, specifically Portland, Oregon.

What I don't understand is how my 750GB Passport can be such a trooper for the last 2-3 years and have no problems. Yet in less than a day with no mis-steps on my part (other than not backing up first) the drive can fail.
 
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Boymeetsmill

Boymeetsmill

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Jun 16, 2014
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No I didn't update the driver. When I was checking/testing the USB 3.0 cable I used my other drive which mounted just fine. I didn't see any reason for it to be a driver issue, but I will try it when I get home.
 
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D

DataMedic

Honorable
Nov 22, 2013
384
0
10,960
Trust me it's not a driver issue. If it worked before, and stopped working, it's hardware related. These newer passports have an incredibly high failure rate. I get a ton of them here in my lab.

I don't know of anyone really close to you there in Oregon who I'd trust and has decent prices. Unfortunately most companies on the west coast want to charge outrageous prices like DriveSavers does.

My usual rate for these is about $700 plus parts. Though in some cases (such as when the drive loses it's internal encryption key) it might be more like $950. Call around your area and see what kind of quotes you get. You shouldn't have to pay thousands for recovery except in rare cases these days.
 
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