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

Lawnchairman

Lawnchairman

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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.
 
* 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.
 
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/
 
SouthBit said:
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/
Click to expand...

What would you advice as a better 2.5inch portable drive alternative?
 
WD drives always given me issues. Seagate much better. Thanks for the assistance.
 
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