WD 4TB Elements not recognized

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

Earlier today, when starting my computer, my 4TB Elements external drive was recognized. I was able to access the drive. Now, it is not recognized. It is listed in Disk Management as Disk 2 Unknown Disk, Not Initialized. Windows 10 does recognize the drive under Device Manager, but is not listed with the other drives. What can I do to initialize the drive and regain access?

Thanks for your help.

2

I don’t know what the problem is … but some advice

If Windows ever asks you to initialize a disk … be aware this will format it, and you will lose all your data.

3

Thanks for the advice. Whatever the problem maybe, I’m pretty much locked out of doing anything. Try any action, I receive the message “the request failed due to a fatal device hardware error”. Either there’s a problem at the interface or the drive has died.

4

When “the request failed due to fatal device hardware error” occurs, your device turns inaccessible. This error usually occurs while attempting to transfer/copy files and suddenly the Windows OS fails to recognize the input or the output devices. In addition, this error could also be due to a fault in the systems hardware, inappropriate configuration, loose connections, etc.

To fix the error you can try the below DIY methods:

  1. Check the SMART status
  2. Run an error check
  3. Run CHKDSK scan
  4. Initialize the disk

Further, you can check the below blog to know more troubleshooting methods that can help resolving the issue and also helps to recover data from such drive:

Hope it helps!

5

Hi,

Your question seems less elaborated. I would like to see the disk status under disk management and device manager. if you can provide us the screenshots then It would be helpful to understand your question more clearly .