My Passport Essentials 500gb problem

[CkyTx]

Im not all that much of a “computer geek” so hopefully I explain properly.

When I plug it in via usb, it turns on.

For some reason it doesnt show up or gets recognized under My Computer. When I look under disk management, it shows its there and is working just fine. Even using the Data Lifeguard tool, it shows it and says its working fine.

At this point Ive had it with this thing and would like to get the data off of it before I get rid of it.

My problem is since its not recognized under My Computer, I cant access it at all.

Are there any work-arounds to getting into it?

Im running windowx XP media center edition on a Hp Pavillion.

Any help is appreciated!

[ThePizzaMatrix]

Hi there, if the drive is seen on disk management… Then how is it seen? Healthy but with no file system and letter? Raw? Unallocated? o.o

[nijuuf]

Hey I hear you as I had similar problems this week, faced the loss of all of my very precious data, photos, etc. My WD My Passport was showing up but the file system was corrupted. I was sent to all kinds of different data recovery companies and was quoted anywhere from $1,395 to $3,300 to get the data back. HOWEVER - someone here on this forum told me about this FREE data recovery software: http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/, and when I tried it, I got almost all of my data back! I had over 31,000 files on my drive and I lost only a handful from the bad sectors and those were not critical. Without ths software I would have been sunk! Give this a try and hopefully you can access and recover your data (be sure to recover it to a different location, not to the same bad drive).

I’m now shopping for another drive as I need to replace mine that went bad, and I will not choose WD again - service and warranty leaves a lot fo be desired! Good luck!

[DR_RD]

Hi there, same issue with my Passport SE 1 TB. Before it was working normal, Im using it very seldom, then one time my laptop / desktop doesnt recognize. Meaning after connecting, it takes 2-4 mins before the WD Smartware pops up or clicking it manually on my installed software. Password pops up rarely and after loging in, it hangs and nothing happens.

Please anyone out there if you can help me here I would really appreciate it. Wanna save all the data’s I have…

Thank you very much.

[CkyTx]

Pizza, sorry I dont have it in front of me at the moment but going by my memory, when I brought up device manager and went in that way it shows its there, and says its healthy but no file system and letter. I checked back in before I left my wi fi spot and someone just recently posted a passport crashing and someone popped in and posted a data recovery tool that I snagged. Its working getting the stuff off of it, albeit 1 file at a time but its serving the purpose and once I get everything off of it, Im gonna beat the ■■■■ outta this passport lol. Ive hated it since the day I bought it on clearance at circuit city.

[ThePizzaMatrix]

CkyTx wrote:
Pizza, sorry I dont have it in front of me at the moment but going by my memory, when I brought up device manager and went in that way it shows its there, and says its healthy but no file system and letter. I checked back in before I left my wi fi spot and someone just recently posted a passport crashing and someone popped in and posted a data recovery tool that I snagged. Its working getting the stuff off of it, albeit 1 file at a time but its serving the purpose and once I get everything off of it, Im gonna beat the ■■■■ outta this passport lol. Ive hated it since the day I bought it on clearance at circuit city.

You might want to check on your computer. When a drive (Internal or external) is healthy, but with no file system or letter that that means that the drive and the data are fine, but a system error killed the file system… And yes, I was about to suggest a data recovery software as well, I use TeskDisk, which is free…

Just like an antivirus and a system optimizer, a data recovery tool should always be on your computer, just in case… And never let your data alone on a single device, if it is so important and valuable then you should have a backup (Meaning having the data on at least 2 different places, in case one fails).

[CkyTx]

Pizza, I could be wrong but I gotta think its not the computer because I use a few WD externals and this is the only one Im having issue with. Its entirely possible my comp is having problems with just this one but I cant even begin to think why.

I guess since Im using a data recovery program on it to get everything back off Ill consider this a dead topic. Thanks for the replies everyone!