Help!
My 4TB Passport external drive (purchased recently via Amazon) is no longer recognized when I plug it in. I’ve tried this on three different computers, with different operating systems (Win10, Win7, Linux) and using different cables, always with the same outcome. When plugged it, it will spin up. A minute or two later, on my Win10 machine, a “This Device is Not Recognized” error will pop up.
When I open Disk Management, it sees the drive as “Disk 1”, Basic, 3.77GB, Online, with 3.77GB “Unallocated.”
The main HDD on my computer crashed during a Win10 update and I had to hard-power it down. I lost everything on that (very old) drive, and I thought “no problem - I have my brand new WD Passport here with everything backed up on it.” I get Win10 reinstalled (a new internal drive), plug in the external, and was shocked to see the error above. It doesn’t make sense - my computer was not writing to my external when it crashed while doing a Win10 system update on the primary, internal drive. Yet here I am, with my backup now appearing as “Unallocated.”
Asking Windows to check for updates for the driver (R-clicking on the drive in Disk Management, selecting properties, and going to the Driver tab) results in no updated drivers found. At the same time, it says the driver date is 6/21/2006 - how can that be right? Is there something I can do that would help?
I’ve heard that some people sometimes have luck by updating (or even rolling back) firmware. Might that help me? Could it completely brick my drive?
Please help!
