Problems opening portable WD hard drive

[sara t]

Hello,
I have a WD passport with all my photos on it, not backed up naywere else! (I know I know stupid or what). anyway when I plug the WD in, the device manager does not even recognise it's presence and hence i cannot open. The WD makes a funny clicking sound inside. Can anyone please advise? thanks

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi Sata, & Welcome to Tom's Hardware!

Two things I'd do before going to a recovery utility.
Go into the BIOS and see if the removable drive is recognized there. Have to have the WD passport plugged in initially to do that.

If not, change the USB port, and the cable. If you have a choice use an external power block, or try a USB 3 port which can supply more power to the drive.

If you are trying it on a new computer, try it on the computer that it originally worked on. Also try it on a Win-XP computer if available.

Report back for next steps if needed.