New enclosure and now I can't access my data

Portable Drives My Passport
1

First - I am NOT tech savvy.

I have My Book Essential 2.0 T External Hard Drive. It has always served me very well.

A month ago the USB data port broke off inside the enclosure and I could no longer connect it to my computer. I called WD support and emailed them, and they told me they would not sell me a new enclosure and that I had to buy an aftermarket one. The IT director at my office said there was no way to repair it and that I only needed to order a new 3.5 inch SATA enclosure. He removed the drive from my old enclosure. I put it in the new enclosure, and now the 2.0 T drive doesn’t show up in the “My Computer” file. It show in the “Drive Management” area, but the whole thing shows up as unallocated space. There isn’t anything wrong with the drive itself, so why can I no longer access my data? I NEED to get it back.

My IT Director is now suggesting I buy another of the same drive and stick this HD into that enclosure so that I have the WD hardware and drivers.

Do I need to do that, or is there a driver I can download or something?

Thank you!

2

If this is a drive that came with Smartware the data is hardware encrypted by the board with the broken port. You might find a board on Ebay or from an identical drive. That is about the only option if the original board can’t be fixed. Did you try checking with a simple electronics repair place about soldering on a new port?

Joe