A WD My Passport formatted with Mac file system will be a dud on the Windows and vice-versa. Thankfully, MS-DOS FAT32 and ex-FAT formats have survived to date, and these are the file system to make your WD My Passport work with a Mac and a Windows PC simultaneously.
I have been using a WD My Passport 1TB USB Portable for almost 2-3 months now. I am currently in college so I have A LOT of school files and document stored in it. Earlier while i was doing some school stuff. My device suddenly stopped working, then I replugged it several times and my Laptop just coudn't recognize it. Im using Windows 8.1 btw.
Any suggestions or solutions would be great. I just want to access my files and save the drive. I would prefer solving this technically, without having to replace the drive.
Thanks in advance! That's very unfortunate. At least try finding another USB cable to exclude the possibility that yours has become faulty and I'd also suggest that you try testing another external HDD with the same USB port to see if there's a problem with it. You could also try updating or rolling back the USB drivers. In the worst case scenario you may have to go with a data recovery company and RMA. Here's a link with our data recovery partners: But before we go there I'd recommend that you try all of the suggestions, so that you're sure what's going on exactly. Hi, shishir sanjeev.
This really sounds unfortunate. Have you tried the drive with a different USB cable (12' or shorter) and a different computer, to see if it's recognized and if you can backup your data? You could also try accessing the drive via Linux Live CD/USB, to see if it's properly recognized and if you can get to your files, or try some of the data recovery options from this thread: However, the most reliable solution for data recovery remains, a data recovery company - you can find the link from my second post in the thread. If you manage to recover your data, or if you don't need to recover any data, I'd suggest that you download DLG (Data Lifeguard Diagnostic) and run both tests (Quick and Extended), to see what's the situation with the drive. Here's where you can download it from: and here's how to test your HDD with it: Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes. Hi guys, I had this problem.
However, in my case the solution was odd. My drive had been put in storage for 5 months. It was working when I put it away but when I took it out and tried to get some files off it it wouldn't work. Drive showed up in Device Manager - but not in Disk Management.
Computer made the 'connecting' tone when connecting it but it wouldn't work at all. Tried it with 3 computers - same symptom.
Drive sounded like it was working but was 'clicking softly'. I thought that the drive was faulty and was ready to bin it but none of this made sense.
Out of sheer desperation, I tried the 12V power supply from one of my Lacie drives. Everything suddenly worked! I measured the WD power supply under load and off load and my measurements said that it was delivering 12V so it's a real mystery. If I re-connect my WD supply it won't work. Looks like the supply can't deliver enough current for the drive. Since this was a very odd fault I thought it might help someone out.
Hope it does. It solved my problem. I had important files on the drive! Hi guys, I had this problem. However, in my case the solution was odd. My drive had been put in storage for 5 months.
It was working when I put it away but when I took it out and tried to get some files off it it wouldn't work. Drive showed up in Device Manager - but not in Disk Management. Computer made the 'connecting' tone when connecting it but it wouldn't work at all. Tried it with 3 computers - same symptom. Drive sounded like it was working but was 'clicking softly'. I thought that the drive was faulty and was ready to bin it but none of this made sense. Out of sheer desperation, I tried the 12V power supply from one of my Lacie drives.
Everything suddenly worked! I measured the WD power supply under load and off load and my measurements said that it was delivering 12V so it's a real mystery. If I re-connect my WD supply it won't work. Looks like the supply can't deliver enough current for the drive. Since this was a very odd fault I thought it might help someone out.
Hope it does. It solved my problem. I had important files on the drive! I'm having the exact same problem! And I have some pretty important files in my WD disk.I'd like to try your solution but i don't really understand what do you mean by '12V power suply', can you show me a link or something?
So I know where i can find one.thanks! This is very important for me!! He's talking about a 'wall wart' or 'power brick' that plugs into a wall socket and has a 12 v. Output cord that plugs into the HDD. You might be able to find one at Fry's or similar electronics store. Hi NotATechGuychs.
This is unfortunate indeed. As you've already mentioned, one has to be careful with a hard drive, especially if there's valuable data on it.
You could take a look through the posts and all the suggestions I've mentioned and hopefully something proves useful. However it does sound like there might be a mechanical fault here.
If the drive has been hanging most of the time in an awkward angle, this might have put extra strain on the motor thus resulting in the drive slowly getting to the point where if it spins you get this buzzing sound. Please let me know if you have any questions about the suggestions from my posts or if there's anything else I can help you with. I had the situation where my drive was recognized by Device Manager but not Windows Explorer or shown under 'Computer' Here is how I fixed it: Go to Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, then click on Computer Management. On that panel click on Disk Management. Scroll down to see if your disk is listed as a numbered disk at the bottom of the list. (Mine was listed as Disk 8.) If your disk is shown as a numbered disk, Right-click on it and select 'Change Drive Letter & Paths'.
You will be offered a drive letter to use; select what is offered or choose your own. After that the drive will be recognized. In my case the drive offered was the same letter as it had been before. The question mark most probably means that there's an issue with the OS trying to recognize the device. That mean's that there might be an issue with the driver isntalled for the device in questions (a hard drive in this case).
Would you please click with the right-mouse button on that device and select 'Properties', then let me know what it says there (in the tab 'General'). Also try the HDD with a different computer and a different USB cable to see if the same thing happens.
Please keep me posted. Hi guys, I had this problem. However, in my case the solution was odd.
My drive had been put in storage for 5 months. It was working when I put it away but when I took it out and tried to get some files off it it wouldn't work. Drive showed up in Device Manager - but not in Disk Management. Computer made the 'connecting' tone when connecting it but it wouldn't work at all. Tried it with 3 computers - same symptom. Drive sounded like it was working but was 'clicking softly'. I thought that the drive was faulty and was ready to bin it but none of this made sense.
Out of sheer desperation, I tried the 12V power supply from one of my Lacie drives. Everything suddenly worked! I measured the WD power supply under load and off load and my measurements said that it was delivering 12V so it's a real mystery. If I re-connect my WD supply it won't work. Looks like the supply can't deliver enough current for the drive. Since this was a very odd fault I thought it might help someone out. Hope it does.
It solved my problem. I had important files on the drive! I have no idea how the 12V cable work here. Kindly elaborate. I am having the same problem. Hi Guys, Chiming in as my WD My Passport Ultra 1tb has suddenly started to malfunction. Quick back story is that I was standing with my iPhone in hand over my desk, phone slips out of hand and falls into the drive (only a distance of a foot).
Either way not the drive is worrying me as I can only seem to view items on the drive and any attempt to move / copy / and or open a file to work on it yields a 'freeze' of the drive (best way i can describe it). I have two passports so I swapped the cables but that didn't fix the problem. Now I am attempting to test out simply copying some files off the affected drive onto the hard disk in my laptop but the process is almost impossible as the files and coming through extremely slowly (the drive will sit at 0 bytes/s for minutes at a time and then spike up to proper writing speed only for a few second. A job of copying amount of 113gb of data shows as a 'more than one day' execution. Any insight greatly appreciated! First, sorry to @jasky311 for not answering sooner, I guess I got mixed up due to the numerous posts in the thread, I apologies. @jasky311, as you've described the situation, it sounds like you might have damaged the drive, especially if you've dropped your phone on it while it was working (even from just a foot height).
If this is the case, I guess you should go for the standard data recovery options: Ubuntu Live USB and/or data recovery programs ( If that doesn't help you could always try a professional solution:. Let me know how it goes or if you've managed to recover the data by now. @Mojomaco02, is the drive still recognized when you connect it to a computer? If 'yes', would you be so kind as to post a screenshot of what you see there? Here's how to open Disk Management:. Do you have data which you need to recover from it? Basically at this point, if you don't have important data which you'd like to retrieve from that drive, I'd advise you to download DLG (Data Lifeguard) and run both tests (Quick and Extended), to see what's the situation with the drive.
Here's how to do it:. You could also give it a try with a different USB cable, to see if the same thing happens.
If you need to recover data, you could follow the suggestions I wrote above (for @jasky311's case). Also, here's an article on different sounds/noises a drive can make, to see if you'd recognize the one you're talking about:. Please keep me posted.