My WD Passport hard drive seems to have died and I need to know if data recovery is possible. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. When I connect the drive, it (very quietly)beeps 5 times, then goes absolutely silent. The drive does not sound like it is spinning, nor does it vibrate and the computer does not recognize it. I’ve tried Windows 7 Pro and Fedora 15. In Windows 7, both Device Manager and Disk Management fail to even notice any hardware has been added. The computer is set to automount drive when they are added and I have tested that this works with other drives. I’m using the original USB cable that came with the drive. Anyone know any cool tricks to make this thing work again one last time?
It’s possible that it is the cable. Try another one and eliminate that possibility. If the drive is still in warranty contact WD they’ll probably send you a new one. There’s a link to identify the cable type http://www.wdc.com/en/products/resources/drivecompatibility/ If that doesn’t work there is professional data recovery but it’s not cheap.
I tried another WD cable this morning and had no luck, same symptoms as before. I’m not that interested in getting a new WD drive because I wasn’t very impressed with them, I just want my data back from this one. This is the second one to die on me without much use/abuse(which is why I had the extra cable). I’m leaving professional data recovery as an absolute last resort.
What really confuses me about this is that the drive doesn’t even seem to spin at all, it just beeps. Any ideas as to what could cause this?
Try a USB Y-cable. Some USB ports can’t supply enough power to spin up a 2.5" drive, so a Y-cable is sometimes necessary to pick up power from two ports.
If this still doesn’t do it, then I suspect your drive may have a stiction fault (heads stuck to platters), in which case a typical data recovery fee would be US$650. If you are willing to accept the risks, then sometimes a little “percussive maintenance” can get the drive spinning again.
Thanks for the Y-cable idea, unfortunately it didn’t help in my particular case. Sounds like you might be right, heads stuck to the platters. I might try your “solution” if I can’t find any backups, I don’t think the data is worth the $650 for the pros. Thanks a bunch!
