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Western Digital Passport not recognized/accessible

  • 14-02-2012 11:09am
    #1
    Cmar-Ireland
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,340 ✭✭✭


    Hi folks,

    My 500gb WD passport was working fine up until the other day. Now when I plug it in, the pc make the device connect sound, then unconnected and repeats this. Sometimes the drive will show up in my computer for a few secs. Also a prompt to format the drive sometimes comes up if I leave it plugged in for a while.
    the drive is spinning up and makes a high pitched whirr/click sound.

    I have over 400gb of data on this. Is there any way to recover it or is it fubar'd?

    I've already taken the drive out of the WD enclosure and plugged it directly into my PC. This doesn't make any difference though, still the same sounds etc.

    Anything I can do (besides getting a hammer :) )


Comments

  • #2
    yoyo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,017 Mod ✭✭✭✭yoyo


    When you take it out of the enclosure have you tried connecting it directly to the motherboard via SATA or using a caddy? Caddies can be unrelyable so I would try connecting it direct and see if it works briefly. Clicking does sound like the drive is dead though!
    If data is very important you should get a specialist to recover it. Costs a fair ammount.
    If not you could try putting the drive in a air tight bag in the freezer for a few hours and see if it works after, don't do this if the data is particularly valuable as it has potential to make matters worse!

    Nick

    My Beer Glass collection site 🍺

    My Irish Callcards site



  • #3
    Cmar-Ireland
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,340 ✭✭✭Cmar-Ireland


    I connected it directly, no caddy. But it made no difference. Reading up on it, I don't think it would have helped anyway. The WD pcb that interfaces between the drive and the usb connection is supposed to act as some kind of encryption, so I assume the data wouldn't have been readable?


  • #4
    yoyo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,017 Mod ✭✭✭✭yoyo


    Cmar-Ireland wrote: »
    I connected it directly, no caddy. But it made no difference. Reading up on it, I don't think it would have helped anyway. The WD pcb that interfaces between the drive and the usb connection is supposed to act as some kind of encryption, so I assume the data wouldn't have been readable?

    First I've heard of it, likely the PCB in the caddy checks for a WD drive but I'm fairly sure the drives inside are standard WD desktop ones with a standard pcb

    Nick

    My Beer Glass collection site 🍺

    My Irish Callcards site



  • #5
    Cmar-Ireland
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,340 ✭✭✭Cmar-Ireland


    Maybe I picked it up wrong then. Anyway I've contacted WD about an RMA on the drive and am waiting to hear back. Still won't recover my data tho...


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