The WD My Passport (external USB disk) was initially recognised just fine by Windows 11. I could see all the files and folders and copied some data off it. Then, on a reboot, Windows decided to “repair” the drive (this took a l-o-n-g time). The drive no longer works. It also no longer work on my Windows 10 laptop. I’m worried that all the data has been lost, but that is hopefully not the case.
I can see the drive listed in the Device Manager as a “WD SES Device USB Device”, but it says no drivers are installed and there are not compatible drivers. Then it turns out I can’t download drivers from the WD site: they are only available through Windows. Seriously?
The drive is not assigned a driver letter. It is not recognised by the Add Hardware feature in Control Panel. There is no problem with cables. The Windows MSDT tool said a driver was missing and attempted to install it. This did not work. I have tried some of the WD Software tools, but so far without success. How can I recover the drive? Windows 10 or Windows 11 is fine.
