External Hard Drive Powers Up But Not Recognized

'My 1TB WD external hard drive is not working on my Windows 10 PC and I can do nothing to the drive since it fails to show up in This PC.
I've changed the USB port but it still not working.
I don't know what reasons have made the drive not responding, and neither I know any solutions. I've saved quite a lot of important files inside the drive. If you have any methods to fix my issue and make the WD external hard drive work again, please help me. Thank you.'

• Installed Hard Drive Not Recognized
• Hard Drive Not Recognized Windows
• External Hard Drive Powers Up But Not Recognized As A
• External Hard Drive Not Showing Up
• External Hard Drive Connected But Not Showing

Though it's no longer a new problem that external hard drive fails to work or suddenly fail to show up in PC. But it's still a tough issue for ordinary users when their external hard drive, USB or SD card etc devices suddenly become unrecognized, not working or responding in PC. Here below, you'll find 1 quick fix and 4 methods to fix WD external hard drive not working issue. If your external hard drive or storage devices are having this issue, relax and just follow to get your problem fixed right here now.

I have a Silicon Power Portable External Hard Drive Armor A60 Shockproof USB 3.0, that is not being recognized by my laptop computer. I actually have 2 of these. One is recognized fine no problem, the other is not recognized at all. It's like I have not even plugged it in. Applies to: Fix hard drive or external hard drive not showing up caused by an unsupported or corrupted file system. When your external hard drive or internal hard drive is displaying as RAW, or it shows as Others in disk management, it means that your hard drive contains a file system error. This may have ended up in the PS4 external hard drive not recognized or stopped working. In some cases, the user might get an alert message saying that 'The USB storage device is not connected'. In some cases, there won't be any messages when the PS4 system stops responding to the external HDD connected to it.

Quick fix WD external hard drive not showing up/unrecognized/responding error

1. Click Start > Type: devmgmt.msc in the Search box and hit Enter.
2. Open Device Manager > Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
3. Right-click on the USB Root Hub > Select Properties.
4. Go to Power Management and uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.

After this, reboot PC and reconnect WD external hard drive to your PC, then you'll be able to use the drive again.
If this quick fix doesn't work, relax and just follow below-offered methods to repair not working WD external hard drive or devices now.

Fix WD external hard drive not recognized error

Here you have two methods to follow and fix WD external hard drive not recognized or undetectable error in Windows 10/8/7:

Method 1. Reboot PC into Safe Mode to make WD external hard drive recognizable

• Go to Setting > Update & security.
• Tab on Recovery > Advanced Startup > Restart now.
• PC will automatically boot into another Startup Settings screen.
• Press F4 to initiate PC reboot into Safe Mode.
• Then check whether the WD external hard disk can be detected or not.

Method 2. Change drive letter to make unrecognized WD external hard drive detectable

The other way is to change the drive letter with Disk Management tool so to make unrecognized or undetectable WD external hard drive to show up in PC:

• Right-click on This PC/My Computer > Select Manage.
• Go Disk Management > Find your external hard drive and right click it by choosing Change Drive Letter and Path..
• Assign the drive with a new letter that doesn't exist in your PC and mark the Partition as Active.
• Click OK.
• Restart PC and your External hard drive will show up and work again.

Fix WD external hard drive not working/responding issue

Installed Hard Drive Not Recognized

When WD external hard drive, USB or other brands of storage devices are not working or not responding to any operations in your PC, don't worry. You can follow below-offered methods to get problems fixed right now:

Method 1. Update WD external hard drive driver to make it work

1. Click on Start > Type: devmgmt.msc in Search to open Device Manager by hitting Enter.
2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers > Right-click every USB device found there and select Uninstall.
3. Then check out whether any devices show up as unrecognized or not:

• If WD external hard drive shows unrecognized, go to drivers tab and delete/uninstall the driver; Then check out whether the external hard drive shows up in My Computer/My PC or not.
• If it doesn't show up, reboot or restart PC;
• If it shows up but disappears later, repeat above steps and go to Disk Management, change the drive letter of your WD external hard drive and reconnect it to PC to let PC detect it again.

Method 2. Repair corrupted system files/bad sectors on not working WD external hard drive

Corrupted system files or bad sectors on WD external hard drive or other storage devices would block your device from working or responding in Windows PC.

Professional partition manager software from EaseUS will repair bad sectors and fix corrupted system files to make your WD external hard drive work again. Free download, install it and follow below guide steps to fix bad sectors and corrupted system files on your drive now: Microsoft excel for android vba.

Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.

Step 2: In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.

Step 3: The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.

Extra Tip: WD external hard drive recovery

After fixing not working external hard drive on your Windows PC, you may continue using it for storing fancy data again.
But if you lost files or valuable data on the drive, don't worry. Professional WD external hard drive recovery solution offered by EaseUS hard drive recovery software is what you exactly need. It will simply restore lost files from WD external hard drive within 3 simple steps on Windows 10/8/7 etc PC.
If you lost files after fixing WD external hard drive not working issue or cannot access saved data in your storage devices, just free download EaseUS hard drive recovery software and let it help now.

When you have lost access to your data one of the first and most useful steps you can take towards determining the cause of the hard drive failure is to listen to your hard drive. The sounds that it makes when power is first applied may provide a great deal of information regarding what has gone wrong.

The purpose of this short article is to provide sound samples of hard drives which have suffered some of the more common forms of physical hard drive failure. The sounds here are from hard drive recovery tasks where all access to the user data had been lost. If your hard drive is making strange sounds but you still have access to your data then first of all copy all of your vital data to a second location (you can then investigate the strange sounds at your leisure).

The first task is to remove the failed hard drive from the computer chassis in order that you can listen to it without the distractions of cooling fans / other hard drives within the computer. The easiest way way to do this is simply to run the power cable to the hard drive as shown below (if the power supply cables are long enough to permit it).

Where this isn't possible either get your ear as close as possible to the hard drive or you could invest in a cheap stethoscope (a few pounds will get you one on ebay).

What Does a Healthy Hard Drive Start-up Sound Like?

When power is applied the drive should spin the platters inside the chassis first, this will typically sound like a low hum which rises in pitch as the speed of rotation of the platters increases. This will be followed by a short burst of ticking/scratching sounds as the heads leave their parked position and start to search the platters, you will usually have to get your ears very close to the drive to detect this. The heads will not make a move until the platters have reached their full rotation speed, the delay between the hum as the drive platters begin to spin-up and the heads making their first move can vary from seemingly almost instantaneous, up to 10 seconds or more depending upon the type of drive. The initial burst of noise from the heads should last no more than a few seconds and then the drive should quieten down. At this point the sounds from a healthy drive will be a steady hum from the platter rotation and the occasional ticking/scratching sound from the heads at irregular intervals.

There are two sizes of hard drive (that is to say physical chassis dimensions rather than storage capacity). They are usually referred to as laptop (or 2.5') and desktop (or 3.5'). each has a different power-up sound and each is more vulnerable to different forms of physical hard drive failure. The following are examples of the start-up sounds from healthy 2.5' and 3.5' drives. Click on the links below to hear them (you will need the volume set high)

Toshiba 2.5″ Hard Drive

Seagate 3.5″ Hard Drive

Different models (even different individual hard drives of the same model) will have variations on these sounds, but the same sequence of sounds will broadly apply for all healthy hard drives. There is a selection of other healthy hard drive start-up sounds at the end of this article.

What Does a Hard Drive that has suffered a Physical Failure Sound Like?

As you might imagine that will depend upon the nature of the hard drive failure. For the purposes of this article we will consider 3 scenarios:

1. The hard drive is suffering from damaged read/write heads.

2. The platter motor which should spin the platters inside the hard drive chassis has become seized.

3. The read/write heads have crashed into the platters and are now preventing the hard drive from spinning-up.

For a quick introduction to hard drive anatomy have a look at our article here.

The Hard Drive Failure was Caused by Read/Write Heads Having Failed:

Where this has happened the hard drive will typically first spin-up the platters. Once these are up to speed the heads will attempt to read from the platters. They will of course fail to read and the drive will typically reset the heads. This results in a hard click as the heads hit a physical backstop in their parking area and then move out to try to read from the platters again. This sequence will often (but not always) be repeated until power is removed, leading to a repetitive clicking sound:

Samsung 3.5″ Drive with Failed Read/Write Heads

Western Digital 3.5″ Drive with Failed Read/Write Heads

Sometimes the platter motor may also restart between boot-up attempts and the motor will rev:

Western Digital Raptor Drive With Failed Read/Write Heads

It can also be the case that the hard drive failure takes the following form, it spins-up, the heads attempt to read, fail to do so and the drive then simply shuts-down:

Hitachi 3.5″ Drive with Failed Heads

It is important to understand that there are other possible causes of these sounds besides damaged read /write heads.

The corruption of a hard drive's firmware can result in the same repeated-attempt-to-boot behaviour and therefore of course identical start-up sounds. Firmware is a highly specialised area of data recovery, for more information have a look at this article. Suffice to say that it is essential that corrupted firmware is eliminated as a possible source of these sounds before any more drastic action is taken.

The worst case scenario is that these sounds are caused by physical damage to the platter surfaces. This could be as a result of either the heads having impacted the platters (typically when the hard drive was knocked or dropped) or through degradation of the platters surface resulting in flakes of the platter itself breaking off. Platter damage is particularly bad news because usually the damaged area of the platter will in turn wreck the read/write heads. The platters are typically spinning at anywhere from 4,200 to 10,000 RPM just a tiny fraction of a millimetre below the heads, the slightest damage to the platter surface is therefore like smashing the delicate heads into a brick wall at high speed. Platter damage means that there is little point in replacing the failed heads because the new set of heads will suffer the same fate when they hit the damaged area of the platter.

When your hard drive is making these sorts of sounds there is not much that can be done for hard drive recovery either at home or via a non-specialist data recovery company. The requirements for such a drive are:

-Confirm that the hard drive firmware is intact (this requires specialist equipment and experience).

-Inspect as much of the platter surface area as is practicable for physical damage (of course this must never be done out-with a clean-room environment).

-Where applicable obtain a closely matching donor hard drive and carry-out a read /write head swap.

Hard Drive Failure Due to a Seized Platter Motor:

This is almost always the result of a physical knock to the drive although many people are shocked when they discover how slight a knock is required. We have seen drives suffer a seized platter motor when the hard drive has simply fallen over onto its side (as opposed to having been dropped from a height). It is much more common for an external hard drive rather than one fitted within a computer chassis to suffer from this form of hard drive failure for the simple reason that such drives are more likely to take a physical hit. It is also much more common for 3.5' desktop hard drives to be affected. The laptop sized 2.5' drives rarely suffer from seized platter motors.

Where this has happened the motor bearing has literally seized and on application of power the drive platters cannot spin-up. Typically a pulse can be felt through the chassis every second or two as the drive tries (but fails) to get the platter motor to start. This pulse is usually accompanied by a short humming sound:

Seagate 3.5″ Seized Platter Motor

Hard Drive Not Recognized Windows

If a drive has suffered a seized platter motor then to achieve a hard drive recovery it will be necessary for an expert with access to a clean room environment to perform a procedure called a platter swap. The platter motor is built into the chassis of almost all hard drives and so the requirements are to acquire a closely matching donor hard drive and relocate the data platters, read/write heads and the printed circuit board from the original defective drive to the donor chassis in order to use its platter motor. This is a challenging procedure even for the experts and only has a realistic chance of success if there was no platter damage caused by the original impact on the hard drive.

The sounds and feel of a hard drive with a seized platter motor are almost indistinguishable from the last of the physical failures covered in this article:

Hard Drive Failure through the Read/Write Heads Becoming Stuck to the Platters:

Sometimes the read/write heads can impact with and subsequently stick to the data platters (for a more detailed account of this problem please refer to our article here ). As the heads are literally stuck to the platters they prevent them from spinning-up when power is applied.

Western Digital 2.5″ Drive Heads Stuck to Platters

This failure mode is much more common with the laptop (2.5') as opposed to the full size hard drives. While these sounds are commonly encountered with failed 3.5' drives, nine times out of ten the cause will be a seized platter motor.

The first task to be carried out is to remove the read/write heads from the drive. Needless to say this should only be done by an expert in a clean-room environment, trying this at home will almost certainly mean the end of all possible hope for data recovery. The heads must be removed without causing additional damage to the platter surfaces.

External Hard Drive Powers Up But Not Recognized As A

More often than not the heads will have been damaged in the impact with the platters and will need to be replaced with heads from a closely matching donor drive.

The sound samples featured in this article are representative only, each drive has its own unique sound on power-up. Here are some more examples:

-Confirm that the hard drive firmware is intact (this requires specialist equipment and experience).

-Inspect as much of the platter surface area as is practicable for physical damage (of course this must never be done out-with a clean-room environment).

-Where applicable obtain a closely matching donor hard drive and carry-out a read /write head swap.

Hard Drive Failure Due to a Seized Platter Motor:

This is almost always the result of a physical knock to the drive although many people are shocked when they discover how slight a knock is required. We have seen drives suffer a seized platter motor when the hard drive has simply fallen over onto its side (as opposed to having been dropped from a height). It is much more common for an external hard drive rather than one fitted within a computer chassis to suffer from this form of hard drive failure for the simple reason that such drives are more likely to take a physical hit. It is also much more common for 3.5' desktop hard drives to be affected. The laptop sized 2.5' drives rarely suffer from seized platter motors.

Where this has happened the motor bearing has literally seized and on application of power the drive platters cannot spin-up. Typically a pulse can be felt through the chassis every second or two as the drive tries (but fails) to get the platter motor to start. This pulse is usually accompanied by a short humming sound:

Seagate 3.5″ Seized Platter Motor

Hard Drive Not Recognized Windows

If a drive has suffered a seized platter motor then to achieve a hard drive recovery it will be necessary for an expert with access to a clean room environment to perform a procedure called a platter swap. The platter motor is built into the chassis of almost all hard drives and so the requirements are to acquire a closely matching donor hard drive and relocate the data platters, read/write heads and the printed circuit board from the original defective drive to the donor chassis in order to use its platter motor. This is a challenging procedure even for the experts and only has a realistic chance of success if there was no platter damage caused by the original impact on the hard drive.

The sounds and feel of a hard drive with a seized platter motor are almost indistinguishable from the last of the physical failures covered in this article:

Hard Drive Failure through the Read/Write Heads Becoming Stuck to the Platters:

Sometimes the read/write heads can impact with and subsequently stick to the data platters (for a more detailed account of this problem please refer to our article here ). As the heads are literally stuck to the platters they prevent them from spinning-up when power is applied.

Western Digital 2.5″ Drive Heads Stuck to Platters

This failure mode is much more common with the laptop (2.5') as opposed to the full size hard drives. While these sounds are commonly encountered with failed 3.5' drives, nine times out of ten the cause will be a seized platter motor.

The first task to be carried out is to remove the read/write heads from the drive. Needless to say this should only be done by an expert in a clean-room environment, trying this at home will almost certainly mean the end of all possible hope for data recovery. The heads must be removed without causing additional damage to the platter surfaces.

External Hard Drive Powers Up But Not Recognized As A

More often than not the heads will have been damaged in the impact with the platters and will need to be replaced with heads from a closely matching donor drive.

The sound samples featured in this article are representative only, each drive has its own unique sound on power-up. Here are some more examples:

Some more examples of healthy hard drive sounds:

Healthy Seagate 3.5″ Drive

Healthy Fujitsu 2.5″ Drive

Healthy Seagate 2.5″ Drive

Some more examples of hard drive failure sounds:

External Hard Drive Not Showing Up

Hitachi 2.5″ Drive with Head Damage

Seagate 3.5″ Drive with Head Damage

Western Digital 2.5″ Drive with Head damage

Hitachi 2.5″ Drive with Heads Stuck to Platters

External Hard Drive Connected But Not Showing

While it can be seen that there isn't much scope for DIY recovery work when your hard drive is making the noises described in this article it will hopefully be of use in determining what has happened to cause the physical hard drive failure and subsequent lack of access to your critical data.

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