Western Digital Elements portable hardrive not detecting in Windows 7&10

[Raphael123]

My portable WD Elements hardrive is not being detected in Windows. I have tried it on 4 other pc's and laptops with the same issue. I can hear the hardrive spin up when i plug it in and the light on the back does not come on. I have tried the Data revovery programs such as Recuva, PC Inspector etc and they all cannot detect the hardrive. The drivers do automatically install as a mass USB device however. If anybody knows how I can repair this drive i would really appreciate it.

 

[phly]

* watching thread for solutions/suggestions. Mine does the same. I mostly use Mac and so that's not an issue on a daily basis but when one needs to work on windows system then one is out of luck. And it's also too full of precious stuff to just reformat.

 

[SouthBit]

These drives do not have a SATA PCB, only native USB, so removing it from the plastic casing doesn't help unfortunately. They suffer from bad sectors, bad/failed head/s. I've yet to see one with a faulty PCB, it's always an issue pertaining to platter degredation or a head failing.

I'd offer some advice for things to try, but there's really nothing to do outside the realm of professional recovery if you need the data. You can have a look here how it works for these drives: https://www.southbit.co.za/western-digital-elements-external-hard-drive-data-recovery/

 

[phly]

These drives do not have a SATA PCB, only native USB, so removing it from the plastic casing doesn't help unfortunately. They suffer from bad sectors, bad/failed head/s. I've yet to see one with a faulty PCB, it's always an issue pertaining to platter degredation or a head failing.

I'd offer some advice for things to try, but there's really nothing to do outside the realm of professional recovery if you need the data. You can have a look here how it works for these drives: https://www.southbit.co.za/western-digital-elements-external-hard-drive-data-recovery/

What would you advice as a better 2.5inch portable drive alternative?

 

[SouthBit]

What would you advice as a better 2.5inch portable drive alternative?

One that is backed up

 

[backstreetboy]

What would you advice as a better 2.5inch portable drive alternative?

Buy an internal drive with a case.

 

[Raphael123]

WD drives always given me issues. Seagate much better. Thanks for the assistance.