Need a Method To Extract Data From a My Passport External Drive

boweasel · 08 Oct 2013

My sister has a 500 GB My Passport that no longer shows up when attached with a USB cable to any computer. We've tried different cables and different PCs. The drive always lights up and gives that slight vibration and warmth that indicate it's connected. But it never shows up in Explorer or Manage drives.

My sister really needs that data, so I opened up the case and removed the drive, intending to attach it via enclosure to another PC. The drive itself is a Western Digital WD5000 and where the SATA connectors should be, is the socket for the other end of the USB cable. It appears to be permanently attached to the drive.

Anybody ever run across this scenario?

Golden · 08 Oct 2013

Hi,

Try this and see if Linux can read the data. Post screen capture images of what you see so we can help.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...cy-backup.html

boweasel · 08 Oct 2013

Linux does not recognize the drive, either

mjf · 08 Oct 2013

I understand many of the recent USB HDDs do not have a clear internal HDD-Sata interface. ie. WD have gone proprietary. If this is the case then I suggest you reinstall back into original enclosure.
If it isn't being recognized in Windows Disk Management even as offline then the HDD controller board may be faulty. Can you hear the disk spinning? If it is just offline then right click at the end of the disk display in Disk Management and set to online.

You can always try free Partition Wizard to see if it recognizes the drive. This is a long shot since a linux boot disk cannot recognize the drive.
If the HDD is not recognized on other PCs and with different USB cables then you may have very expensive solutions to recovering the data. Maybe check the USB cable options and possible connector pin damage again.
A computer shop may have an old compatible controller board they may let you try/buy.