My Passport Ultra clicks and blinks - drive not shown in explorer and data cannot be read

Dear community

My ~6 year old My Passport Ultra has been running well so far.

But recently, when being connected to the USB on my PC, it just clicks several times, pauses, clicks again several times, and then goes silent. The light blinks constantly.

The PC recognizes that a WD hard drive was connected, but the device does not show up in explorer and data cannot be read. In decive manager, the WD hard drive is even shown with 0 storage size.

I tried different USB ports and different PCs as well as changing the USB cables, no difference.

Does this mean, the hard drive has a physical damage, like the reader is not working properly?

Many thanks for your advice!!
Michael

Hi.

You are in the wireless passport forum :slight_smile:

But before you panic; try a different data cable. I have had a few go bad over the years.
Then think about your drive backup strategy.

Hello!
All may not be lost. In these days of saving pennies wherever we can some power supplies are right at minimum output. On aging computers the power supply may be failing.
There is hope!! :blush: All three of my drives failed at the same time… What are the odds. Statistically NOPE. I bought a POWERED USB Hub and suddenly all my drives worked again.
I believe many of our USB powered drives are not receiving enough power to run the drive motors. They show a light and may click but they don’t “Run”. By supplying the power they need, they are generally happy to do the work.
POWERED USB 3.0 Hubs are available from about $16 US and higher in cost. Remember that unless the hub has a separate power supply you are reducing power for worse results. With your hub plugged into BOTH the computer and a SEPARATE power supply, you are likely to be back and operating. I accidentally disconnected my Hub from power and my drives failed again, plugged in the separate power and it was like a miracle. All my drives worked when I gave them enough power.

unpowered hub gets ALL it’s power from the computer USB bus. . . which will limit the hub to 5ma.

That will limit you to ONE unpowered usb drvie. . .max. If you have more than one. . .you need a powered hub.

Well, there can be various reasons for an HDD to become unresponsive. It can be a hardware issue or some technical issue in the software. Reconnecting the HDD won’t help in most of the cases. The HDD remains visible and may be detected by the system if you connect it to another PC, but it doesn’t respond.

Below are few possible reasons for HDD being unresponsive:

  • A Lot of bad sectors
  • Infected File (Virus or Malware)
  • Driver issue
  • Mechanical failure

You can try the below options to resolve the issue:

  • Run CHKDSK
  • Use an Antivirus & Anti-Malware tool
  • Re-install the drivers

Further, I suggest you to check out the below link to know the possible solutions for this issue: https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/how-to-fix-not-responding-hard-drive/

Hope this will help.