My Passport recently stopped booting. It makes the normal sound, and the light is solid white. However, my MacBook is not able to recognize it. I took it to a data recovery service, and they confirmed that the arm of the drive is not working. When trying to retrieve the data, they are being asked for a password in PC-3000 that is not my WD Unlocker password or my MacOs start-up password. I am not sure what else it could be. Are there any other options for me?
Hi @rm1900,
Please check the below article on Western Digital Hard Drive Noise:
If further assistance is needed, please open a case with our support team at the following:
https://support-en.wd.com/app/askweb
Mostly there are 4 probable causes for the clicking noise of a hard drive:
- The insufficient power supply is a very common cause of noise in the hard drive. It mostly happens when you have connected multiple devices (including the HDD) to a single port.
- Physical depreciation of the hard drive which results from either simple issues or damage such as a physical shock or trauma.
- A hard drive may be failed due to faulty data cables, or incorrect drivers installed.
- A crashed hard drive.
Subsequent fixes people have used to overcome the issue are:
- Check whether the hard drive is getting enough power or not. You can do it by plugging the power adapter directly into the power supply.
- Replace the data cable with the new one and turn on the drive. Now, if it does not make any noise, then the data cable might be faulty.
- In case the drive still makes noises, then there is a high possibility the drive is failing and needs to be replaced.