Or, never, ever again leave yourself with no backup of your data.
Bill, I believe that that was what he was trying to do by setting up a set of files on the WD. Stop being such an smartass. As you can see not everyone here thinks that WD is reliable enough to backup your system with after what’s happened, right.
The problem here seems to be that the majority here, as well as I, have the problem with the WD My Passport just giving up. It seems like the symptoms are the same, not being recognized, and what we are trying to determine is how we can retrieve/restore our data from the defect harddrives and not to find a culprit or reason for this to have happened. We want to be solution oriented and not problem oriented in our discussion.
Please help!
2 Likes
What a worthless and stupid reaction …
I wrote that i bought the **bleep** device to back up files from a laptop, then clean the laptop and put the important files back.
If i follow your worthless reaction a bit i should have bought a second external disc to back up all the files that i want to put on that worthless wd device, so in the end do everything double because wd is not capable of delivering a decent working device …
Like selling somebody a brand new Audi of 50.000 Euro and then advising him to buy a second one because the first one can break down any moment and stop working.
Seems wd is definately NOT the brand to go for if you want to secure any data whatsoever at all …
Best regards,
Eric.
2 Likes
Huskyf1 wrote:
This is indeed one of the most worthless devices i have ever bought in my whole life.
The story that it is because it might have dropped is complete bull**bleep**.
I have another drive for 2 years now that has always travelled with me and never ever had any problems, this WD piece of garbage i heve for 10 days now and has not been dropped whatsoever, yesterday it was ok and since today not a single computer is recognising it !!!
On the website there are only software updates and no complete software, but if the piece of garbage is not recognised at all how the hell can just an update help me then ???
I have copied around 200 GB on it and then cleaned the original pc where the data came from now leaving me with all the data gone.
This is a very expensive lesson, never ever buy anything of this brand in my whole life again !!!
Okay, first of all, my intent was not to be a smartass. So, if I came off that way, I apologize. However, if you read the second to the last sentence of huskyf1’s post, he makes no mention of putting data back on the original pc, which means he no longer had a backup. he only had his data on one drive. Now, please understand that I’m still not being a smartass, but if I ever need to clean up my pc and then restore important data back to it, I never count on that data being put on just any one drive. I always back up my data to two drives, at least, before cleaning up my pc like that. So, yes, never own just one drive if you plan on commiting critical data to it. I own Seagate drives. I own WD drives. I own the original Maxtor drives. But I’ve never trusted my data to just any one of those drives. The more, the better. That, I had to learn the hard way.
Now, for helping. I don’t see anywhere where huskf1 is either asking for help or listing what the problem is. As a matter of fact, he’s still ranting about how worthless our drives are if he has to buy two of them. The original poster of this thread dropped their passport a good distance, and damaged it so it wouldn’t work. Do you honestly think they meant to? Of course not. For that reason, I make multiple backups on different drives. Anything can happen. Now if huskf1 would like to give us an idea of what’s happened to his drive - what he is or isn’t experiencing, and what he has or hasn’t done to troubleshoot it, I’d be more than happy to try and help figure out what may have happened.
1 Like
Awesome! I totaly agree on huskyf1's approach being contraproductive but, his frustruation set asside, I can imagine that he is super eager to know how he can retreive his lost data. I also agree with you on that one shouldn’t rely on only one source for backup (the risk of common cause failures and all that). However, if the unite has dropped to the floor it’s most likely damaged and there is a small possibility to retrieve the data, and if not, there might also be the problem with power supply to the unit, right? In my case for instance I know that the USB-cable is a bit wobbly. So, in those two cases, based on your experience, what are the possibilities of retrieving the data or get the drive to show up in explorer, and might there be other reasons for the WD My Passport not showing up? In my case I have searched forums for info, checked downloadable files on this site, used the device manager, tried the HD on different computers and different OS:s with no success.
Thank you for your previous, good answer!
Dropping included, you have several kinds of issues that arise that can cause a drive not to read.
- The drive itself is broken, which means you can only possibly retrieve your data through data recovery - where they have clean rooms and are capable of taking the drive apart to see what’s actually physically wrong with it.
- A power issue, the drive isn’t getting enough power. This can include passports. Try the drive on other pcs to see if it shows up on them. Or, purchase a power booster cable that connects to two usb ports for added power.
- A cable issue. the cable is damaged and the computer can’t read the drive. This includes using a longer than 22 inch cable on a Passport drive. There will be too much resistance and the drive won’t get enough power to spin up. This also includes connecting to a USB hub. The Passport drive should always be connected directly to the PC.
- A drive case issue. The casing holding the drive has been damaged or has failed somehow. This may require removing the internal drive to see if can be connected directly to the pc and then maybe show up in Explorer. However, doing this will void the warranty on the drive.
- Finally, data or partition corruption to the drive. Incorrectly removing the drive from the pc can cause data corruption. You cannot just pull the cable and run with the drive, especially after you’ve copied data to it. This will guarantee corruption on the drive. A corrupted partition won’t show up in Explorer, but should show up in drive management, usually as raw. You will need to find a partition or file recovery software to retrieve this data.
I hope this helps.
4 Likes
This was a very helpful and concise answer. First solid one in a long time after been reading a bunch of different posts on different forums.
I recognize some issues among your bullet points you listed and my HD has had problems with the (4) case “popping up” showing a small gap which I have resolved by just “clicking” it back as soon as possible, however, not while it was running. Furthermore, in the last couple of days, before the unit stopped showing up, I also experienced some odd behavior with it not being recognized after my laptop went into power save mode and then up again. In those cases I had to restart it for the WD to show up again. As I have an “old” HP Compaq 6715b I thought it to be, as always, the problem to what was happening. Could this be infact an power issue or a beginning of a more extensive corruption of the data on the HD?
I will let it rest for the evening and then try to use the drive management tool and see if I can get hold of it. I gladly take part of more help if you have the time.
Thanks!
My quite agressive reaction was the result of a device broken so fast as i have never had before and the smartass reaction (i saw it like that) i got on it, i am glad that at least now advice is given and the (smartass) reaction was a misunderstanding. I have used several external drives before and never encountered problems till now, my Toshiba last already for more then 2 years without a single problem.
I have on that disk a lot of info that is only there, i understand the risc of that but since it never broke till now maybe i trust it too much.
However, with the wd device i did not even had the chance to put the information back since at the moment i tried to connect the device to put the important info back it was already showing the problem.
I have used it only 3 or 4 times on different days to put info on it, the files came from 2 different computers and after that was done i was too bussy with production problems here in the factory to put the info back.
When last Monday i finally had time to do that at all the computers i tried i got the message “USB Device Not Recognized”
I tried it on 4 or 5 different computers (as well Windows 7 operated as XP) but all gave the same message, i connect it with the original cable that was delivered with the device and the white light is burning after i connect it but the disk does not show up in explorer.
I always used the “Safely Remove Hardware” option on the pc.
I also downloaded some recovery software but also there the disk does not show up unfortunately.
The device was never dropped, it was all the time in my laptop bag (next to the Toshiba disk) and also the bag was never dropped.
I hope this info can tell you more about what can be done about it.
Thanks,
Eric van den Abbeelen.
mlarsson wrote:
This was a very helpful and concise answer. First solid one in a long time after been reading a bunch of different posts on different forums.
I recognize some issues among your bullet points you listed and my HD has had problems with the (4) case “popping up” showing a small gap which I have resolved by just “clicking” it back as soon as possible, however, not while it was running. Furthermore, in the last couple of days, before the unit stopped showing up, I also experienced some odd behavior with it not being recognized after my laptop went into power save mode and then up again. In those cases I had to restart it for the WD to show up again. As I have an “old” HP Compaq 6715b I thought it to be, as always, the problem to what was happening. Could this be infact an power issue or a beginning of a more extensive corruption of the data on the HD?
I will let it rest for the evening and then try to use the drive management tool and see if I can get hold of it. I gladly take part of more help if you have the time.
Thanks!
If the drive is dropping out when your laptop is going into power saving mode, it’s most likely powering down the USB port the passport is connected to. If that’s the case, it won’t show up when your laptop comes out of sleep mode. You will have to unplug and reconnect the drive for it to show up. Rebooting does the same thing. Check in Disk Management to see if the drive shows up and what condition the partition is in.
Huskyf1 wrote:
My quite agressive reaction was the result of a device broken so fast as i have never had before and the smartass reaction (i saw it like that) i got on it, i am glad that at least now advice is given and the (smartass) reaction was a misunderstanding. I have used several external drives before and never encountered problems till now, my Toshiba last already for more then 2 years without a single problem.
I have on that disk a lot of info that is only there, i understand the risc of that but since it never broke till now maybe i trust it too much.
However, with the wd device i did not even had the chance to put the information back since at the moment i tried to connect the device to put the important info back it was already showing the problem.
I have used it only 3 or 4 times on different days to put info on it, the files came from 2 different computers and after that was done i was too bussy with production problems here in the factory to put the info back.
When last Monday i finally had time to do that at all the computers i tried i got the message “USB Device Not Recognized”
I tried it on 4 or 5 different computers (as well Windows 7 operated as XP) but all gave the same message, i connect it with the original cable that was delivered with the device and the white light is burning after i connect it but the disk does not show up in explorer.
I always used the “Safely Remove Hardware” option on the pc.
I also downloaded some recovery software but also there the disk does not show up unfortunately.
The device was never dropped, it was all the time in my laptop bag (next to the Toshiba disk) and also the bag was never dropped.
I hope this info can tell you more about what can be done about it.
Thanks,
Eric van den Abbeelen.
Okay, a couple of things: first off, check Disk Management to see if the drive shows up there. What color is the bar going across the top of it’s box? Secondly, you make mention that you tried it with the cable that was shipped with the drive, were you using a different, maybe longer, cable? Finally, were you, or are you, hearing any repeated clicking noises coming from the drive when you connect it?
Disk Management → Right-click on Computer >> Left-click on Manage >> Left-click on Disk Management on the left side.
Okay, a couple of things: first off, check Disk Management to see if the drive shows up there. What color is the bar going across the top of it’s box? Secondly, you make mention that you tried it with the cable that was shipped with the drive, were you using a different, maybe longer, cable? Finally, were you, or are you, hearing any repeated clicking noises coming from the drive when you connect it?
Disk Management → Right-click on Computer >> Left-click on Manage >> Left-click on Disk Management on the left side.
This post had some really interesting features regarding my case as well. I hear this humming sound as I connect it to the USB port. It’s basically three hums than it goas dead silent. Same thing everytime I reconnect it or restart my comp. In addition, I have another WD drive that I have been using for the last couple of 2½ years with great pleasure. No probs what so ever. However, I just connected it and now it wont show the content of the drive in explorer. In device manager I get the following message:
Is this what might have happened with my other drive I was talking about. If so, is this something that you recognize and have any idea of how to handle. Is it my comp who is destroying the indexing table or something?
Thanks for any input on this issue!
Best regards,
Magnus
bill_s wrote:
If the drive is dropping out when your laptop is going into power saving mode, it’s most likely powering down the USB port the passport is connected to. If that’s the case, it won’t show up when your laptop comes out of sleep mode. You will have to unplug and reconnect the drive for it to show up. Rebooting does the same thing. Check in Disk Management to see if the drive shows up and what condition the partition is in.
I believe that it might be my computer who is damaging the disks. I have since 2½ years back another WD drive and have starting to experience the same problem with that as well. I used the Disk Management tool (see screen dump below) where I can only see my older disk (however, not in Explorer) and my new My Passport is nowhere to be found.
Any ideas?
EDIT: I have also tried, based on a tip on another forum, to unplug all power sources on my laptop just to let the motherboard reset/reboot. This worked well, at least for the laptop. I have the same problem with my newest 750 GB WD My Passport Essential not showing up in disk manager, just humming, and the older 300 GB WD My Passport popping up as Unallocated in disk manager but not in Explorer. Hope this makes sense to you?
Best regards,
Magnus
Thanks for your reply.
* In Disk Management the disk is not showing up.
* I only used the 47 cm long cable that was included in the package.
* I don’t hear any clicks, the disk is “vibrating” after connection so maybe it is not completely dead.
Best regards,
Eric van den Abbeelen.
I was reading each post and trying this and that to get my wd passport to show up on my w2k computer (it did not show up on the xp pro computer either). Double clicking the little “remove attached device icon” ( lower right corner of task bar) said that the device was good. Meanwhile it did not show a drive letter in “My Computer” (either computer). Finally when I tried the “Computer Management” procedure the drive showed up “healthy” but still no letter. I don’t know how, but suddenly it got a letter (I had also used the “Tweak-UI” idea and un-checked all drives except the ones in use and the one I wanted. That one is the letter the drive now has.) Sorry, that is the best I can do to explain why now the drive seems to be working. I am moving data to another computer far away. I have decided to leave the data on the old computer and rely on a trusted friend here to erase it if I successfully move it to the new computer.
