If the drive is not detected in disk management that means it is not detected by computer. If it isn’t detected and it spins then problems could be either firmware related or physical. We covert these drives to SATA to repair firmware and then recover data. I will post up some pictures when we get a next case that requires that
I tried updating the firmware of my WD Passport drive and while updating, it suddenly disappeared from my Mac and when attempting to locate to update the drive it says the device cannot be found. I’ve tried disconnecting it… restarting my Mac and I get nothing. I looked under system information it shows my WD Passport drive as a Composite Drive so it sees it. But it’s not mounting it. It’s not showing up on Mac in disk utiltiy or in Finder. I spoke with a WD representative over the phone and she mention that the firmware ruined my drive. She mention that it’s a sensitive firmware and has the potential of causing harm. She did say there is away of recovering those files, but she couldn’t mention any recommended software. I’m under warranty and I can just send it in to get replaced. But I want to retrieve my files first, but I can’t really use any software due to it’s not even mounting. HDDRS, you mention that you convert the drives to SATA… could that help in retrieving the files? Cause it spins and everything. But it’s just not mounting. I do have a lock in place, but any help will be extremely appreciated…
There are a few good ways to recover data. I would try them before help others. Check out this guide
http://www.any-data-recovery.com/topics/photo/retrieve-photos.html
In my experience the methods in the guide have been as good and many times. Hope it can help you too.
Hey, Man! I feel much sympathy for you, because I had the similar trouble before, my Western Digital hard drive lost all the data because of suddenly power off, and I wanted to use free software as well, but I tried ti use some free recovery tools, but most of them can recover 100% data (at least, they can not recover what I want), finally, I asked for other recovery software which need to pay a little, such as Card Data Recovery is good ,it is worthy, you can know more here: Western Digital Data Recovery.
Half the battle is knowing when and when not to use Data Recovery software. If your stuff is super important like years of pictures and is the only copy - best course of action is a pro recovery service.
