WD external hard drive not detected

Question

Level 1

0 points

WD external hard drive not detected

The external hard drive, a WD 500Gb (western digital) is not detected when I plug it into my Mac laptop. It worked recently then suddenly stopped. It's not seen in the disk utility, the computer doesn't read it's there at all. I've tried turning things on and off. I've tried checking the box under preferences tab to show it. Nothing works. I don't think it's the cord because I can hear the little spinning sound when it's plugged in and it lights up.

I don't want to lose access to the data on my external hard drive . Please help, thanks!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), iOS 7.1

Posted on Mar 15, 2014 9:38 PM

Reply

Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,550 points

Mar 15, 2014 10:39 PM in response to ba1010

Try another cable, if the drive still can't be seen you may lose the data which is why:

a: it's a good idea to use high quality EHD's (WD enclosures are very troublesome with Macs)

b: Even more important why it's a good idea to back up even EHDs.

Good luck.

Reply

Answer 2

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Mar 15, 2014 10:41 PM in response to ba1010

Then either the physical drive in the enclosure or the enclosures electronics has failed.

WD is known for using lousy electronics in their external drives so the actual drive inside the enclosure is probably still ok. The only way to tell is to crack open the enclosure and extract the drive then use a SATA to USB adapter, one that has its own AC power supply, to connect the drive to your Mac.

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 16, 2014 1:14 AM in response to ba1010

SATA card failure, extremely common

all about same here:

Your dead external hard drive is likely fine! Great hope for your 'faulty' external HD

ba1010 wrote:
I don't think it's the cord because......

it almost never is the USB cable. Its absurdly rare.

Reply