External portable hard drive

[trish 71]

hello, we have a portable hard drive (Western Digital My Passport 1TB), our problem is that when the appliance is plunged into a computer power runs to the hard drive symbolising that the cable is carrying power and is able to carry data, but the appliance is not detected by the computer. we have also checked that the cable is in working order through connecting an appliance that is in working order to the cable checking that it was in working order and it is. so as i have stated our problem is that our hard drive is undetected by our appliances (TV,computer,laptop). we have important memorabilia one the hard drive and we were wondering if it was salvageable and/or fixed.khj

[

 

[canadian69]

I have a problem often (with these passports) where the drive isn't getting enough power from the USB feed to get the drive working properly, they are voltage/power starved. In some cases this can be rectified by using a powered USB hub (ebay) or by disconnecting all other USB devices from the PC.

You seem to be indicating that the drive fails to detect on several devices (TV, laptop, PC) which points to bigger problems. On the PC/Laptop do you get a USB icon in your system tray? Sometimes USB will detect the unit but list it as unrecognized as opposed to "USB mass storage" or similar which it should be.

Unless you can disassemble the unit and plug the drive internally into your PC, I think your next step is to contact a data recovery lab. Western Digital support can put you in touch with one of their partners.

Probably a good idea to check the warranty and to post this question on the WD portable drives forum too.