WD My Passport drive does not spin up, tries to spin but clicks, or is not recognized at all when it is connected to a USB or

thundergyrrl · May 27, 2015

I have an external 3TB WD external drive that suddenly kacked.. it tries to spin but clicks. It is recognized as a USB device in Windows but can't access any files. My husband tried it on Ubuntu, no luck - called a data recovery place and WHOA! that's so costly! I know I should've had backups but with 3 very small children (yep, figures... the baby pic's are on this drive) I'm so fatigued, I never got around to backing up what I hoped was my backup. Any thoughts on how to do a data recovery myself instead of a data specialist? Thanks!

digitaldoc · May 27, 2015

The clicks are a definite sign that the drive is kaput, but you figured that out already.

You should realize that this is not really a DIY kind of project. That being said, the links below may be helpful to you.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/how-to/a3086/hard-drive-recovery/

http://lifehacker.com/5982339/diy-data-recovery-tricks-for-when-your-hard-drive-goes-belly-up

D_Know_WD · May 28, 2015

Hi there thundergyrrl,

Sorry that you are facing issues with your WD drive.

Sometimes, clicking sounds, could e result of not enough power supplied to the drive. Have you tried attaching the drive with a different USB cable? In not, you can do so. You can even use one of those Y type of USB cables.

If this does not work though, you need to keep in mind that:
- The model is most probably hardware encrypted. This means that you will not be able to recover the data in case the drive is taken out of the enclosure. It may have some proprietary connectors as well.
- In case you open the drive up(not the enclosure), you will expose the platters to dust contaminated environment.
- It seems that there is something physically wrong with either the drive itself or the enclosure. This is why the software solutions didn't work.

In case the drive is still under warranty, you can just contact WD's Support and RMA the drive.

I guess it will not hurt to contact WD's Data Recovery Partners and see what they will tell you(in case you haven't done that yet).

It may be a good idea to wait for some more data recovery ideas as well.

WD's Support: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=tpYeDc
WD's Data Recovery Partners: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=KgqWn4

Hope this will help,
D_Know_WD

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WD My Passport drive does not spin up, tries to spin but clicks, or is not recognized at all when it is connected to a USB or

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