I have had a 1TB WD My Passport for awhile now, and it just randomly stopped working. One day I went to hook it up to the same computer I have always used it on, and the computer did not recognize it at all. I tried going to my computer and searching for it, but it was not found. The light lights up, and I can hear and feel it operating, it just doesnt get regonized. Now I don’t want to go out and buy a new one if this one is salvagable. I downloaded all the restore programs this site offers, and tried them, but none of them would work. Here is the results if it helps at all.
I have attempted to connect it to two other desktops, and a laptop. But it is not showing up at all on either of them. It just does the same stuff. The light comes on, it does the dull vibrate thing that shows its operating, and thats about it. There is no trace of it on my computer, or the other computers. I have no idea what the issue is.
I was trying to work with it last night, and downloaded the WD quick formatter, to attempt to reformat it, again. And it said “WD external drive format failed.”
I was also reading some different articles online, and I went to my Computer Management, and it shows up under Device Manager > Disk Drives. I right clicked it and clicked uninstal, so maybe I could reinstal all the drivers and such, and maybe get it to work properly. But when I clicked uninstal, it removed it from the list, and I unpluged the drive, and pluged it back in, and a balloon poped up at the corner of the screen saying it was Found New Hardware, and named it, then said Your new hardware is installed and ready to use. (This is the first time it has done this since it stopped working.) So I went to my computer to see if it was infact found, but it does not show up on the list, and I can not find it. So I am confused about that.
Oh oh oh oh. I just fixed it. I had to download Firmware updater, and Virtual CD Manager, and I did a firmware update, but it asked for my password, which I did not remember, so I whipped the hard drive (Which I was trying to do in the first place but it wouldn’t let me with the other programs.) and now it works. :)
I hope its not bricked.