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Summary :
External hard drives are widely used to store private and confidential businesses data. Besides, they are good choices for data backup. Since they are used so frequently, problems ensue; a lot of people desire to acquire external hard drive recovery software free. Here, I'll introduce one and tell you how to recover data from external hard drive.
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WD External Hard Drive Data Recovery
Western Digital hard drive is one of the most popular drives among users due to its performance. But it's disappointing that many problems could be detected on a WD hard drive: WD external hard drive not working, WD passport not recognized Windows 10, etc. Therefore, how to fix the problem and finish WD external hard drive data recovery become the concerns of people.
MiniTool Solution is so considerate that it provides one-stop service for disk configuration, data backup & file recovery.
Why External Hard Drive Is Used Widely
There are 3 main reasons why you need an external hard drive.
- Convenience: undeniably, the external hard drives are using by more and more people mainly due to its convenience.
- Capacity: the external hard drive is a better choice than removable flash drive mainly because of its capacity; it allows you to carry terabytes of data wherever you go. In this way, you can get access to them any time you want.
- Data transfer: an easy and quick way to share files among different devices is using an external hard drive. Saving & transferring files using an external hard drive is safer and more economical than using the Cloud.
Here's A True Example
Hi, I have one 3 TB WD my book external hard drive it gets unallocated. I can't access in windows but in the disk management, I can see it. It shows as unallocated. Please guide me to recover the data from this state of hard disk.'– by mafzal2000 at Tom's Hardware
This message requiring help is posted by mafzal2000 on Tom's Hardware forum. Obviously, his hard drive becomes unallocated now and he wants to find useful ways in short time to recover data from WD external hard drive.
Is that possible? Luckily, my answer is positive. I can promise you that WD hard drive data recovery in such a case is not a difficult task. I need to warn you two things:
- Please don't try to create new partitions & save new data onto that hard drive.
- Please don't choose any unreliable WD repair tool from the internet since it may bring additional damage to your data.
Attention please! For users who care about how to complete Seagate data recovery, they should read this page:
Maybe in the past, Seagate hard drive data recovery is a troublesome task for you. But, things are totally different now.
Taking those factors into consideration, I suggest users, experienced or not, get MiniTool Power Data Recovery for hard drive data recovery. It is 100% clean, and easy-to-use.
Possible Causes of Data Loss on External Hard Drive
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is useful for the following cases:
- You deleted important files from WD external hard drive by accident.
- You suddenly found useful files are not showing up in WD external hard drive.
- You connected WD external hard drive to a computer and found it shows as unknown.
- Your computer got attacked by virus/ransomware suddenly.
How to recover data from HDD shows as unknown:
On discovering your disk shows as unknown, uninitialized or unallocated, you must take actions at once to recover all valuable data from it.
In summary, your data could get lost from a WD external hard disk due to the following reasons:
- Unintentional file deletion or drive formatting (how to recover files from formatted hard drive?)
- Virus attack/invasion (how to recover files deleted by virus attack?)
- Corrupted file system (how to recover data from volume not contain a recognized file system?)
- Broken computer/system (how to recover files from the broken computer?)
- Damaged partition table (how to finish partition table recovery?)
- Unexpected power failure or surge
- Unknown reasons
No matter which is the reason that drives you to recover data from external hard drive, MiniTool can help! For people who need to finish Western Digital data recovery, MiniTool Power Data Recovery is definitely a good choice; you can download and install it immediately to another drive to be well prepared.
When the installation of this advanced disk recovery tool is finished, please launch it to restore data from external hard drive.
How to Use Western Digital Hard Drive Repair Software to Recover Data
After entering Power Data Recovery, you'll first see 4 options, which are designed for different storage devices. Except for the CD/DVD Recovery, other modules can all be used to recover data when WD drive runs into problems: WD external hard drive stopped working, Western Digital hard drive not showing up, WD hard drive is clicking, etc.
Now, I will show you how to use those 3 options to complete data recovery from WD hard drive. Then, I'll also introduce CD/DVD Recovery to you.
Option One – This PC
I advise you to choose This PC to regain important files/folders after you deleted them mistakenly (you can retrieve deleted files on PC). Besides, if you find the files located in a local partition/partition on external disk are lost, you should select this module.
How to recover (please connect WD external hard drive before recovery):
- Select This PC from the main window.
- Select the target partition on WD hard drive and click on the Scan button to detect deleted/lost files/folders.
- Check all the needed files during or at the end of the scan and click on the Save button to set a new storage place for them.
Option Two – Removable Disk Drive
Situation one: WD hard drive not showing up.
I found people are asking how to recover data from WD external hard disk which is not detecting. Actually, you should figure out whether the WD external hard drive is really not recognized by the computer. Sometimes, the WD external hard drive is only not showing up in Windows Explorer; when you open Windows Disk Management, you'll see it.
Example:
Hi, My WD 1TB external hard drive has suddenly stopped working. On my laptop, TV & every other device it used to. It does not appear in the 'This PC' menu anymore yet it does show up in disc manager & device manager. I tried to map it but failed. However, when I tried to initialize it, I got 'Access Denied' even though I am the administrator. I've uninstalled, restarted, tried a different cable, deleted the Bus, and every other solution I have been able to Google. I have some very important files I do not want to lose.- said Primm on Tom's Hardware
This post tells exactly how to fix WD passport external hard drive or other external hard drives of WD when they can't be recognized:
The problem – external hard drive not showing up/recognized/detected – can be fixed easily by following ways.
Situation two: WD external hard drive light on but not working.
There are also many other people saying that their WD external hard drive not working or partitions are lost from the WD external hard drive. In this case, they can also use the recommended data recovery software to restore data from external hard drive.
Example:
My WD external hard drive isn't working anymore? My cable has always been a problem (it's a little loose). Usually, it works fine, I just have to twitch or bend it a little and it'll work. However just now when I plugged it into my MacBook as usual, I get an error saying that disk utilities cannot fix the hard disk. I ejected it and tried to plug it in again. Now, the LED light lights up but the hard disk doesn't spin/start up. I searched my whole house and found some cables that fit the hard drive but still nothing works, the LED lights up but the hard drive doesn't start/spin. What could be the problem and how do I fix it? I have a lot of things inside the hard disk that I need. Also, does this help?- asked xshae on Tom's Hardware
If your WD external hard drive is not working, you can try to recover data from it with MiniTool Power Data Recovery. As for how to recover files from the dead external hard drive, you should read this page carefully:
If you are stuck in finding ways to recover files from dead external hard drive efficiently, this passage will be very helpful.
If you're one of the victims, you should select Removable Disk Drive or Hard Disk Drive to recover data (the former is also suitable for USB flash drive while the latter is only designed for the hard disk drive).
To recover data from lost partition on WD external hard drive, you should complete the following operations:
- Click on Removable Disk Drive from the main interface.
- Select the WD hard drive and click on the Scan button to detect partitions and files & folders in them.
- Check all the files needing to be recovered from the scan result and recover them by pressing the Save button & setting a storage path.
Please note that you can also select Removable Disk Drive when you find that some of your useful files are not showing in WD external hard drive suddenly, without damaging the using of the disk.
Option Three – Hard Disk Drive
If your WD external hard drive is formatted as a large partition, you may need to turn to Hard Disk Drive since the disk will be presented as a whole.
The recovery process of selecting Hard Disk Drive to recover data is almost the same as that of using Removable Disk Drive. So please refer to the previous part to have a look.
Option Four – CD/DVD Drive
The CD/DVD Drive option is not suitable for recovering data from hard drive. However, it is still useful when people need to get back missing files from a CD/DVD.
This option is suitable when you need to recover multimedia files like photos, music tracks and videos from compact discs. You need to connect the CD/DVD to your computer and make sure it appears after clicking on the CD/DVD Drive. Then, you should double click on the CD/DVD to start to scan and detect files in it.
That's all about Windows data recovery. If you care about hard drive recovery Mac, please use MiniTool Mac Data Recovery instead.
How to recover data from a failing hard drive on Mac:
Please don't waste time; just get files off failing hard drive on Mac immediately since they may disappear at any time.
One Special Reason Why WD External Hard Drive Is Not Detecting
If you're running a Windows XP and find that the WD external hard drive can't be displayed in Windows Explorer, you should enter Disk Management to take a look. You may found it finally showing up here. However, it can't be used straight away and you might lose access to all data in it, right?
At this time, please recover data from it at once by using the method I have introduced above. Then, you can try those steps to make it appear/detect on a computer:
- Stay in Disk Management and right click on the disk partition.
- Choose Change Drive Letter and Paths… from right-click menu.
- Click on Add and assign a drive letter to it.
- Press OK to confirm.
Now, you can recreate partitions on it and then go to check whether it can be displayed in Windows Explorer (what if the system says Windows Explorer needs to be restarted?).
If this doesn't help in your case, you can also choose to use MiniTool Partition Wizard to deal with GPT protective partition.
Last Words
Undeniably, the WD hard drive is used widely as an internal hard drive or external hard drive. Most people choose to save large amounts of important data on the external WD hard disk; in this way, they can take the data with them everywhere they go and access data conveniently. It's indeed a good idea to store backup copies or transfer data among different devices by using external WD hard drive.
However, accidents are unpredictable. Your files could get lost due to a lot of reasons: accidental deletion/formatting, virus attack, system crash, and so on. When that really happens, you should get the recommended software and follow the tutorials given in above content to complete WD external hard drive data recovery easily and quickly.
Dec 03, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
I got a WD external hard drive and connect it to my computer, but I found that the WD hard drive not recognized on the computer. Why is my external hard drive not showing up? How does fix my WD external hard drive not working problems and recover my all data back?
The WD external hard drive not showing up on the computer, it means you cannot access the drive to manage your data on the device. The solution to recovering our data from WD hard drive, you should fix the WD hard disk recognized and detected on the computer. On this page, we will offer the quick fixes to help you solve WD hard drive not recognized in Windows computer and then recover data from Western Digital hard drive with Recoverit Data Recovery software.
Part 1: How to Recover Lost Data from Western Digital Hard Drive
Accidentally deleted and lost files from WD hard drive, or the hard disk damaged errors caused the data loss. Recoverit Data Recovery software can help you retrieve all lost data back. Download and install Recoverit External Hard Drive Recovery software on your computer, and connect the drive to the PC. Follow the next 3 steps to get your lost data back:
Step 1. With Recoverit Data Recovery, select WD hard disk to get started.
Step 2. The hard drive data recovery will start scanning the device, it will take minutes to completed scan.
Step 3. At last, you can check all the recovered files. Then, select your files and click 'Recover' button to save all recovered files on a safe device.
Part 2: How to Solve My WD Hard Drive Not Recognized in Windows
Follow the next quick fixes to help you solve WD external hard drive not recognized in Windows and make your hard disk working on the computer.
1. Check WD Hard Drive with Disk Management
You can try checking the Disk management utility to see if the hard drive is showing up there or not. With Disk Management you can initialize WD hard drive or assign a drive letter to WD hard drive partition.
Step 1. Press Windows + R to start the Run command.
Step 2. Type diskmgmt.msc and press enter to start the Disk management.
Step 3. Locate the WD hard drive and right-click on it, select 'Initialize Disk' and choose the partition system between MBR and GPT.
Step 4. Then, right-click on the disk and select Create New Simple Volume.
Step 5. Also, right-click on your WD external hard drive and select Change Drive letter and path.
Step 6. Then, assign a new drive letter to your WD external hard and click OK to save the changes.
2. Turn on USB Root Hub to make WD external hard drive recognizable
To troubleshoot the problem of WD hard drive not working on Windows computer, you can turn on USB Root Hub to make it recognizable.
Step 1. Select Start, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter.
Step 2. Open the Device Manager and expand the USB controllers.
Step 3. Now, right-click on the USB Root Hub, select Properties, and then head to Power Management.
Step 4. Uncheck the box saying 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save the power'.
Use this process repeatedly to turn on all the USB Root hubs displayed on the list. After that, restart your computer and the WD external hard drive should appear on your PC.
3. Update WD hard disk device driver
You can try to update drivers using Windows Update to fix WD external hard disk not working on Windows computer.
Step 1. Go to the Settings.
Step 2. Click on Update & Security and then click Windows Update.
Step 3. Then, click the Check for updates button.
After these steps, try to connect your WD external hard disk to the computer and check what if the disk can recognize on the Windows computer.
As above we offer the quick fixes to solve the WD my passport not showing up the problem on Windows, if all fails to solve the error, the hard drive may get a physical failure, you should take it to the hard drive repair store or you need to replace a new one.
Part 3: Tips to Protect Your Western Digital External Hard Drive
While using an external hard drive, users may go through issues like hard disk not recognized. A variety of reasons can result in a Western Digital external hard drive not recognized. Some of the common troubleshooting are discussed below.
1. Do not add new data
Do not add any new files to the WD hard disk after data loss from the Western Digital external hard drive. This can overwrite the files that can be recovered from the WD hard disk and make all the data lost permanently. Hence, before you find out and recover all the lost data on your Western Digital hard disk, stop adding new content on it. This will improve your chances of WD data recovery.
To recover data from lost partition on WD external hard drive, you should complete the following operations:
- Click on Removable Disk Drive from the main interface.
- Select the WD hard drive and click on the Scan button to detect partitions and files & folders in them.
- Check all the files needing to be recovered from the scan result and recover them by pressing the Save button & setting a storage path.
Please note that you can also select Removable Disk Drive when you find that some of your useful files are not showing in WD external hard drive suddenly, without damaging the using of the disk.
Option Three – Hard Disk Drive
If your WD external hard drive is formatted as a large partition, you may need to turn to Hard Disk Drive since the disk will be presented as a whole.
The recovery process of selecting Hard Disk Drive to recover data is almost the same as that of using Removable Disk Drive. So please refer to the previous part to have a look.
Option Four – CD/DVD Drive
The CD/DVD Drive option is not suitable for recovering data from hard drive. However, it is still useful when people need to get back missing files from a CD/DVD.
This option is suitable when you need to recover multimedia files like photos, music tracks and videos from compact discs. You need to connect the CD/DVD to your computer and make sure it appears after clicking on the CD/DVD Drive. Then, you should double click on the CD/DVD to start to scan and detect files in it.
That's all about Windows data recovery. If you care about hard drive recovery Mac, please use MiniTool Mac Data Recovery instead.
How to recover data from a failing hard drive on Mac:
Please don't waste time; just get files off failing hard drive on Mac immediately since they may disappear at any time.
One Special Reason Why WD External Hard Drive Is Not Detecting
If you're running a Windows XP and find that the WD external hard drive can't be displayed in Windows Explorer, you should enter Disk Management to take a look. You may found it finally showing up here. However, it can't be used straight away and you might lose access to all data in it, right?
At this time, please recover data from it at once by using the method I have introduced above. Then, you can try those steps to make it appear/detect on a computer:
- Stay in Disk Management and right click on the disk partition.
- Choose Change Drive Letter and Paths… from right-click menu.
- Click on Add and assign a drive letter to it.
- Press OK to confirm.
Now, you can recreate partitions on it and then go to check whether it can be displayed in Windows Explorer (what if the system says Windows Explorer needs to be restarted?).
If this doesn't help in your case, you can also choose to use MiniTool Partition Wizard to deal with GPT protective partition.
Last Words
Undeniably, the WD hard drive is used widely as an internal hard drive or external hard drive. Most people choose to save large amounts of important data on the external WD hard disk; in this way, they can take the data with them everywhere they go and access data conveniently. It's indeed a good idea to store backup copies or transfer data among different devices by using external WD hard drive.
However, accidents are unpredictable. Your files could get lost due to a lot of reasons: accidental deletion/formatting, virus attack, system crash, and so on. When that really happens, you should get the recommended software and follow the tutorials given in above content to complete WD external hard drive data recovery easily and quickly.
Dec 03, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
I got a WD external hard drive and connect it to my computer, but I found that the WD hard drive not recognized on the computer. Why is my external hard drive not showing up? How does fix my WD external hard drive not working problems and recover my all data back?
The WD external hard drive not showing up on the computer, it means you cannot access the drive to manage your data on the device. The solution to recovering our data from WD hard drive, you should fix the WD hard disk recognized and detected on the computer. On this page, we will offer the quick fixes to help you solve WD hard drive not recognized in Windows computer and then recover data from Western Digital hard drive with Recoverit Data Recovery software.
Part 1: How to Recover Lost Data from Western Digital Hard Drive
Accidentally deleted and lost files from WD hard drive, or the hard disk damaged errors caused the data loss. Recoverit Data Recovery software can help you retrieve all lost data back. Download and install Recoverit External Hard Drive Recovery software on your computer, and connect the drive to the PC. Follow the next 3 steps to get your lost data back:
Step 1. With Recoverit Data Recovery, select WD hard disk to get started.
Step 2. The hard drive data recovery will start scanning the device, it will take minutes to completed scan.
Step 3. At last, you can check all the recovered files. Then, select your files and click 'Recover' button to save all recovered files on a safe device.
Part 2: How to Solve My WD Hard Drive Not Recognized in Windows
Follow the next quick fixes to help you solve WD external hard drive not recognized in Windows and make your hard disk working on the computer.
1. Check WD Hard Drive with Disk Management
You can try checking the Disk management utility to see if the hard drive is showing up there or not. With Disk Management you can initialize WD hard drive or assign a drive letter to WD hard drive partition.
Step 1. Press Windows + R to start the Run command.
Step 2. Type diskmgmt.msc and press enter to start the Disk management.
Step 3. Locate the WD hard drive and right-click on it, select 'Initialize Disk' and choose the partition system between MBR and GPT.
Step 4. Then, right-click on the disk and select Create New Simple Volume.
Step 5. Also, right-click on your WD external hard drive and select Change Drive letter and path.
Step 6. Then, assign a new drive letter to your WD external hard and click OK to save the changes.
2. Turn on USB Root Hub to make WD external hard drive recognizable
To troubleshoot the problem of WD hard drive not working on Windows computer, you can turn on USB Root Hub to make it recognizable.
Step 1. Select Start, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter.
Step 2. Open the Device Manager and expand the USB controllers.
Step 3. Now, right-click on the USB Root Hub, select Properties, and then head to Power Management.
Step 4. Uncheck the box saying 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save the power'.
Use this process repeatedly to turn on all the USB Root hubs displayed on the list. After that, restart your computer and the WD external hard drive should appear on your PC.
3. Update WD hard disk device driver
You can try to update drivers using Windows Update to fix WD external hard disk not working on Windows computer.
Step 1. Go to the Settings.
Step 2. Click on Update & Security and then click Windows Update.
Step 3. Then, click the Check for updates button.
After these steps, try to connect your WD external hard disk to the computer and check what if the disk can recognize on the Windows computer.
As above we offer the quick fixes to solve the WD my passport not showing up the problem on Windows, if all fails to solve the error, the hard drive may get a physical failure, you should take it to the hard drive repair store or you need to replace a new one.
Part 3: Tips to Protect Your Western Digital External Hard Drive
While using an external hard drive, users may go through issues like hard disk not recognized. A variety of reasons can result in a Western Digital external hard drive not recognized. Some of the common troubleshooting are discussed below.
1. Do not add new data
Do not add any new files to the WD hard disk after data loss from the Western Digital external hard drive. This can overwrite the files that can be recovered from the WD hard disk and make all the data lost permanently. Hence, before you find out and recover all the lost data on your Western Digital hard disk, stop adding new content on it. This will improve your chances of WD data recovery.
2. Use anti-virus software
Regularly scan your WD hard drive with authorized antivirus software to help remove possible viruses from your WD external hard drive. By scanning and removing viruses from your computer hard drive regularly, your computer will be healthy and free from any file corruption that could lead to data loss.
3. Eject WD hard drive by using 'safe remove' option
Never unplug or disconnect your WD hard drive abruptly as sudden removal may not give it enough time to save the status and lead to a file system corruption. Always eject the WD external hard drive using the 'Safe Remove' option to prevent data loss from sudden ejection.
No doubt Western Digital produces the best quality hard drives, but even they are as susceptible to data losses as other hard drives on the market. You may get troubled when you lose your precious data due to any data loss reason. In this case, you can use the Recoverit Data Recovery tool to recover data from external hard drive easily.
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