My drive became unreadable. I bought new cables etc. . . The drive doesn’t make a sound, no lights or anything. I thought maybe it was the usb drive on the unit itself (not my mac) So I bought new cables. Still no access. Before I break open the drive casing and use a drive reader . . . just wanted to see if anyone had a simpler solution. I just need my data. I don’t care about the case or drive.
Have you tried it on another MAC ? Have you tried another USB device on the MAC to make sure the USB port(s) are working ?
What type of WD External drive do you have ?
If you have a WD Portable USB Drive … then removing it from the case wont achieve anything since they do not use a standard SATA connection. Only a hard wired USB connection.
If you have a WD My Book …then removing it from the case wont achieve anything as the contents of the drive are encrypted and you won’t be able to recover your data. (but have read it is possible to break the encryption keys using Linux)
You can recover data from this drive however you need to check if the drive is still showing in the Disk Utility panel? Such troubled drive appeared greyed out in the disk utility which left opens the possibility for data recovery with a software.
