External WD wont boot, how to troubleshoot

[luckydriver]

the elements 640 is 2 years old and it's always unplugged except when i backup, which isnt that often...and when it is plugged in is in my UPS

plugged it in today and the blue light flickers and it makes weird noises then it turns off and nothing after a few seconds. even If it's under warranty i wont send it in because i dont want anyone having my data

but if i cant even get it to boot, how do i try to fix it? it's not recognized at all in explorer etc so i cant even format etc?

 

[PhilFrisbie]

There are three things that may have failed: the power supply, the SATA to USB controller in the drive case, or the drive itself.

I would narrow it down by first testing the voltage at the power adapter; if you do not have a multimeter ask a friend if they can help you. the voltage will be labeled on the power adapter. If that is fine, I would then remove the hard drive from the case and directly connect it inside my PC. If it worked I would purchase a new external drive case and mount the hard drive in that.

 

[tokencode]

yea def take it out of the enclosure and connect it directly and see if it works, if so its your enslosure, if not it's most likely the drive.