I was using my Western Digital MyBook external HDD, all of a sudden it disappeared in Windows. I tried unplugging and plugging it back in, but it didn't help. Tried restarting the PC, didn't help either. The light on the drive came on as normal. The drive is not visible in Disk Management.
I then realized the drive was totally silent. I tried with a different power adapter (I have a total of six of these WD Element external HDDs), same problem.
Also tried a different USB cord, even though obviously that wouldn't help but just so I could say I have tried that. I tried it on a different PC too.
Btw, I am plugging the harddrive directly into the PC without any USB extension cords, and while the AC adapter normally goes into a "power strip" thing with 8 outlets, I have now tried it directly to the wall socket to no avail.
It seems the power is fine, I think the drive itself is the problem. Could there be some kind of connection between the power supply and the drive that has somehow gotten "unhooked"?
I am very pissed off now because this is the second time this happens to one of these WD MyBook drives. I lost alot of data thanks to it. I do have many WD Passport type drives as well, which powers up with USB power and don't require AC power, and none of those drives have failed me so far. Makes me wonder if I should just copy the remaining WD Element drives' contents to passport drives and get rid of those awful MyBooks, because this makes me paranoid.
Please, if you have any suggestions what I could try, do share. My priority is to save the disk's contents, I could care less about the useless HDD itself.
Thank you so much for reading.
I then realized the drive was totally silent. I tried with a different power adapter (I have a total of six of these WD Element external HDDs), same problem.
Also tried a different USB cord, even though obviously that wouldn't help but just so I could say I have tried that. I tried it on a different PC too.
Btw, I am plugging the harddrive directly into the PC without any USB extension cords, and while the AC adapter normally goes into a "power strip" thing with 8 outlets, I have now tried it directly to the wall socket to no avail.
It seems the power is fine, I think the drive itself is the problem. Could there be some kind of connection between the power supply and the drive that has somehow gotten "unhooked"?
I am very pissed off now because this is the second time this happens to one of these WD MyBook drives. I lost alot of data thanks to it. I do have many WD Passport type drives as well, which powers up with USB power and don't require AC power, and none of those drives have failed me so far. Makes me wonder if I should just copy the remaining WD Element drives' contents to passport drives and get rid of those awful MyBooks, because this makes me paranoid.
Please, if you have any suggestions what I could try, do share. My priority is to save the disk's contents, I could care less about the useless HDD itself.
Thank you so much for reading.
Unfortunately, it is possible that something in the connectivity has failed. However, I'd definitely NOT recommend you to tamper with the drive physically because it will void the warranty. Besides, these external HDD models incorporate a hardware encryption which would make the data inaccessible without the original enclosure. Have you checked if the HDD appears in Device Manager & DiskPart, though?
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