Hello!
I have a 4TB External drive that I’ve been using since 2021 or ‘22 I think, always on my old desktop installed with Win 10. Now I got a new PC with Win 11, and when I first plugged onto the new PC, it recognized, but haven’t opened.
The system recognizes that its a WD Elements, the model also, but doesn’t open. Tried pluggin back in the old PC, nothing worked anymore. Tried softwares like Wondershare Recoverit and WD Utility, they do recognize it, but doesn’t work. In fact the whole system stop working while its plugged, nothing opens or show up, the softwares freeze and Wondershare only showed up some information when I unplugged from the system, and it finally finished loading (even recognized the storage info, for a moment).
I’ve tried uninstalling drivers on both PCs, everything, I don’t know what to do anymore. Its a WDBJRT0040BBK-EB
On WD Elements drives it’s very common for the USB bridge inside the casing to fail while the actual hard drive is still fine. That would explain why both PCs freeze when it’s plugged in and why recovery tools hang until you unplug it. Before doing anything else stop powering it on and off. Try a different USB cable and a rear motherboard USB port or a powered USB hub just to rule out power issues. If it still locks the system the practical next step is to remove the drive from the WD enclosure and connect it directly to a desktop via SATA or use a known good SATA to USB adapter. If it shows up normally then your data is likely intact and the enclosure was the problem.
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1. Check Disk Management First (Most Important Step)
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Press Windows + X → click Disk Management
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Look for your WD 4TB drive in the list
Now check what status it shows:
Case A: Drive Shows “Unallocated”
