So my friend said his WD passport drive is having issues so they brought it to me to look at. The computers won’t recognize its even plugged in, though sometimes it will for maybe 15 seconds (you see the drive listed on MyComputer. Sometimes if I’m really quick I can copy 1-3 files off before it stops being registered. I recommended she buy an external exclosure and we could put it in but it looks like this HD uses some weird non-sata connector.
Are you sure it’s the USB port and did you try a different USB cable? If it’s a USB powered drive then WD has a Power Booster cable that might help. If it is a drive with Smartware the data is hardware encrypted by the board the USB port is on and useless if recovered any other way.
i have exactly the same problem…but i know what the source is…
i have a usb cable the works perfectly with other portable devices from other companies yet it wont work here…
it either wont recognize the drive or wont be able to install it…i have tried it on xp64 and xp32 and windows 7 ultimate. to no avail.
some how only its twin cable from my 3.5 WD storage unit works on this …with this somwhat “special” cable the portable drive magically works.( yes i have tried formattin the drive using mine and ur software …and yes this problem exists since day one when i tried to use other cables for this unit )
i am guessing that opposing to all reason and knowledge i know of you are using in some special USB cables …or special connectors in them ??? is that true ? and if so …i want to order these kind of cables for backup so where can i find them …
USB powered drives are extremely sensitive to voltage and a lot of PCs have really wimpy power supplies. WD store has the Y shaped cable it’s called Power Booster cable It uses 2 USB ports in PC for better voltage at drive.
I’ve tried multiple cables as well as trying to plug it into the back of my desktop (have a 850 watt power supply). So I’m more inclinded to think its the USB port on the WD drive but I could be wrong.
I too have a passport drive that quit working and it looks like there is some burn marks by the “con1 38pin” connecter on the circuit board. I have a lot of data on this drive that I need to get off. I was wondering if I could buy the circuit board for this drive and try replacing that? Or is it a proven problem with not enough voltage at the USB and where can I purchase this special “power booster” cable? Please reply to pat@patshrum.com
I too have a passport drive that quit working and it looks like there is some burn marks by the “con1 38pin” connecter on the circuit board. I have a lot of data on this drive that I need to get off. I was wondering if I could buy the circuit board for this drive and try replacing that? Or is it a proven problem with not enough voltage at the USB and where can I purchase this special “power booster” cable? Please reply to pat@patshrum.com
WD does not / will not sell the circuit boards for their drives. fzabkar, may be able to help you with the board, but you can purchase a power booster cable from WDStore.com.
So my friend said his WD passport drive is having issues so they brought it to me to look at. The computers won’t recognize its even plugged in, though sometimes it will for maybe 15 seconds (you see the drive listed on MyComputer. Sometimes if I’m really quick I can copy 1-3 files off before it stops being registered. I recommended she buy an external exclosure and we could put it in but it looks like this HD uses some weird non-sata connector.
The model is the WDBABM0010BBK.
Any way for me to salvage the data on this thing?
You may be stuck with data recovery. Playing with the connects and disconnects while transferring files could cause corruption. It’s most likely a bad port on the passport.
I too have a passport drive that quit working and it looks like there is some burn marks by the “con1 38pin” connecter on the circuit board. I have a lot of data on this drive that I need to get off. I was wondering if I could buy the circuit board for this drive and try replacing that? Or is it a proven problem with not enough voltage at the USB and where can I purchase this special “power booster” cable? Please reply to pat@patshrum.com
WD does not / will not sell the circuit boards for their drives. fzabkar, may be able to help you with the board, but you can purchase a power booster cable from WDStore.com.
I did a search for USB power booster cable and found nothing could you give me a part number?
anyway …it might indeed be a power consumption issue …since the cable that does work on my portable WD drives …the only cable that works btw is a very short cable used for another device…so since its so short it has about half the resistance to Voltage than the longer cables …its interesting…now where can i find a short mini Usb cable like this.
