Portable hard drive not accessable

[giovelez]

Hello,

I am not tech savy at all but i hope someone can help me. I have a portable WD 320gb essential drive. Recently i tried connecting and it makes a click sound and the lights flash. It does not connect. I have important data on there and would like to know of a way to get it back. Can this be done?

Thank You very much

 

[house70]

Does the drive have a dedicated power supply, or does it take the power from the USB port?

 

[giovelez]

Does the drive have a dedicated power supply, or does it take the power from the USB port?

takes power from usb port. What can I do? It makes a sound and clicks.

 

[icy dock]

Hey Giovelez,

Does the drive light stay on after you plug it into the computer? One thing you can try is switching the USB cables with another one if you happen to have a spare. Also, check to see if the same problem occurs on a different computer. If none of these helps, you may want to check with WD to see if they have any further solutions trying to recover your data.

Hope this will help you!

 

[house70]

ok, it needs a "powered" USB port. not all ports are created equal. Some of them, but not all, are capable of providing the necessary power to ...power up some energy-hungry devices, like an external drive. They are usually marked with a voltage sign next to the port, like a 5V or something similar. Some of them are not marked any different than the others. You might want to try different ports on that computer and also unplug any other USB devices from the PC when you try them. Also, you can try the drive on a different PC, one that has powered USB ports for sure, like a desktop. If you are unlucky, the laptop will not have any powered ports, and the drive will not be usable on that laptop. Hopefully you are lucky, though...