WD Passport Essential showing in Device Manager, but not disk management

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
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I know this issue has risen before, and I’ve looked at them all with no solution.

My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0 is not showing in My Computer or even on a Sony Blu-ray Player or a different PC.

I’ve tried the Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics and it passed both the Quick and Extended Tests.

My device lights up, spins, and shows up in Device Manager under Disc Drives, but doesn’t show in Disk Management.

I’ve tried un-installing all USB drives from device manager, rebooting and re-installing, installing recent SES Driver.

I’ve also tried updating the firmware, but the software keeps failing.

I’ve also tried a different cable, and giving it a “love tap”.

I’ve also sent email to WD and they can’t fix it. I contacted one of their trusted partners, and they estimated $700-$1000, which is ridiculous.

Any ideas? Thanks.

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Hello,

So the drive is showing on Device manager but not on disk management and it passed the DLG test.

Mike, you have an strange situation. Were you using the drive is security software?

Check again on Disk Management to see if you have any unknown device.

How to access Disk Management in Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 to manage hard drives

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1284/session/L3RpbWUvMTQxNzg4MjU1NC9zaWQvMTl5TElkOW0%3D

1 Like
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Yes you’re right it’s hidden there. Next, should I click on “Initialize Disk”?

I never set a password/pin for the drive; so I don’t believe it’s encrypted, also I’m currently running Norton.

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i have same problem 
please help 
i have very important data 

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I ended up sending it to DataRecovery.com, I wanted one that was close to Canada.

They were extremely helpful, and way better compared to all the other listed “trusted” wd partners. They evaluated my drive free of cost + free shipping.

Unfortunately the drive is not recoverable. The head had severely scoured the disk, that weird clicking noise I was hearing was what caused it.

Next time your drive does not show up and begins to make weird noises, disconnect it immediately.

I know better next time to have a backup. Now I keep my files on at least 2 HDD’s.

Hopefully my WD Passport doesn’t fail again. Aside from this, I’ve usually have a good experience with them, so I’ll give them another chance. Definitely higher life duration than Seagate, but it’s a shame how fragile these things still are. Maybe in a few years, SSD’s will be cheaper and in larger capacities.

I would definitely use datarecovery.com again though.