My Passport Can not be found as an External drive

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
1

I’ve just had the problem where I plugged out My Passport from the computer and when put it back, there was no external drive displayed on my computer, but the device is displayed as a connected device.

I have all my data inside, what should id do?

Anmar

2

Interesting, I just posted about this:

Hi all,

Just read 13 pages of what happens to be the same problem I was having. I have the answer to your problem: it’s the way it’s connected. I have a WD Passport Essential 250GB. When I plug it into any computer, it makes a clicking sound like the old computers of 12 years ago did. The light is on as well. If your WD Passport HD is doing the same thing and not being recognized by your computer, simply push the USB cable connection harder into the WD. It’s a power issue. It’s the copper connector and after plugging and unplugging, you are wearing away the copper. I bought mine 2 1/2 years ago and will be replacing mine since it’s under warranty.

I just got it to be recognized by pushing harder until the clicking stopped. Just finished backing it up onto my desktop.

So your data is most likely safe as well as the hard drive. No need to send it to a data restorer company.

Best of luck,

BA

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3

His solution may break the port off and make the drive unusable.

Joe

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4

If its a power issue they do make power booster cables so you dont need to hold the usb cable.

5

Anmar,

Read these two posts if you have time… I am sure you’ll find your answer.

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Passport-for-PC/How-to-eliminate-potential-problems-on-USB-Powered-Drives-and/td-p/118262

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Passport-for-PC/FIX-For-Drive-disappearance-issue-on-Vista-amp-Win7-XP-Scenario/td-p/125674

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6

The poster wants to solve the clicking noise your post shows how to prevent it.

Power booster cable buddy

call wd for the that request

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7

I don’t think it’s a connection issue becuase both the computer and the hard drive are brand new, and I’ve just pulgged it from a computer to another and it didn’t work, I’ve read similar threads, and installed HDD Regenrator and it tells me that all the the sectors are bad, and I just want to retreive the data.

when I used the software provided by WD for My passport, I was being asked for password and I didn’t use any password for the drive so I thought if there is a defualt password, but I can’t find anything like that, Any I deas?

Thank you all

Anmar

8

Anmar,

I think you use Windows 7 PC. If this is the case, get hold of a XP machine and try to access your data. I am not promising anything but sometimes it works. If you were able to access, copy back your data and repartition and format (NTFS) your drive using Disk Manager on that PC. Make sure to assign drive letter W or anything higher.

AND DON"T USE SMARTWARE DURING ANY RECOVERY PROCESS!

To access Disk Manager - Press WIn Key + R and then type diskmgmt.msc on dialogue box.

If all fails, you can try TestDisk from XP machine to recover drive bad sectors.

If unsuccessful, you may have to return the drive for replacement or refund. Data recovery may be possible via WD approved Data Recovery Agents but it is costly.

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Sorry but didn’t work, the disk managment says it is right protected, do anyone has any idea about what will be the defualt password.

thank you all

10

There are no known methods of recovering My Passport, when you prompted with password  entry.

Give this one last try before retuning the device. While device is connected, open Device Manager. Now look for the device driver corresponding to your drive. Right click and choose uninstall. Disconnect the device ASAP. Shut down your PC and disconnect AC cable and the battery if applicable. Wait for two minutes. Reboot your PC and wait for Windows Start Up completes. Now connect back your drive and enter in to Disk Management and see whether you get the same Right Protected Prompt.

Good Lock!

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