Dead My Passport Elite (not detected as a USB device)

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
1

Hi

I have a My Passport Elite 250GB (wdbaac3200ach) that isn’t being detected, not even as a USB device when plugged in. The drive itself seems to spin up etc…

Does anyone know if there is a hard drive with a SATA interface inside? Or is the USB connector directly on the drive? I’m hoping I can just break the enclosure, and disconnect a possibly fried controller board, and connect to the drive via SATA directly. :frowning:

Thanks so much

2

The drive is encrypted therefore removing from the enclosure does not guarantee retrieval of the files.

Make sure to try the steps on the following link:

WD external drive is not assigned a drive letter by Windows or Mac OSX and data on the drive is inaccessible

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1164

If that does not work, we recommend to contact a data recovery company.

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3

Thanks John.

Would the drive be encrypted if encryption was never turned on?

Do you know if the drive inside has a SATA connector?

Thanks again

4

The data is encrypted by a circuit board, it’s nothing you turn on and off. You might be able to find another bridge board on Ebay. This explains a bit about the boards http://community.wd.com/t5/Off-Topic-Discussions/Bridge-Boards/td-p/353839 I assume you’ve tried another cable, port and PC. Also don’t use a hub to connect or a cable longer than the one supplied.

Joe

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5

As Joe_S stated the data is encrypted by the circuit board.

The drive has a proprietary connector but as mentioned before there is nothing you can do by connecting the drive since data is encrypted.

Try the steps provided on my first post and if that does not work you can consider a data recovery specialist.

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