Older WD Elements external drive not recognized by my computer. Any advice?

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for Windows
1

Hi, all,

I have a WD Elements WDBAAU0010HBK external hard drive which is not recognized by my computer. It connects with an USB, but have separate power cord.

https://www.cnet.com/products/wd-elements-desktop-wdbaau0010hbk-hard-drive-1-tb-usb-2-0-series/

I can’t say for sure, but I’m not surprised if it’s 15 years old. At least 10. I also can’t say for sure how long it’s been, but it has not been working for at least the 5 past years. I’ve just been very slow to adress it, but want to fix it now as it’s full of pictures and personal files.

Note: Is there supposed to be a power light? I can’t remember this from when it used to work. But there’s certainly no light on it now.

It seems like this is a common problem. I’ve tried most of the solutions that typically pop up. For example, my disk does not show up in Disk Management as re-naming the drive seems to be a popular solution. But it’s not even there.

Any advice?

The only thing I can think of personally right now is to go to a store and see if they have spare cables and then check if those work.

I’m 100 % certain it’s not been physically damaged.

Thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

Best regards,

Johannes

2

I have a newer computer and I see that this old drive is USB 2.0. My newer computer is USB 3.0.

Can that simply explain this?

If so - is there a specific cable I should get?

3

Yes, there is supposed to be a power light to indicate that the device has power.

I have one of the hard drives and it still works fine :slight_smile:

wd
wd640×480 121 KB

Maybe you have a dead power supply or the wrong power supply ?

The WD AC Adaptor I’m using a 12V 1.5A

Nope

Mine works fine via USB3.0 ports … directly on my PC or plugged into a USB3.0 Hub using the original USB2.0 cable that came with the drive … which is the older type Mini USB

There’s a number of reasons why your drive is not working … i’ll list them

  1. Wrong or Dead Power Supply

  2. Enclosure is Faulty … but, the internal hard drive can be removed and placed into a 3rd party enclosure. Have done this myself putting it into a USB3.0 enclosure to quickly copy and backup data … then returned it into the original case

  3. USB Ports on the enclosure can be can be Dry Jointed after years … i bought 2 of these hard drives at the time and 1 was faulty due to bad USB port connection.

  4. Mini USB cable faulty ?

etc etc

4

Hi, Joey,

Many thanks! :slight_smile: That’s the one, yes. I just couldn’t recall that light, but it’s been so long that I probably forgot it.

I think my first step then would be to head to a nearby store and see if they have any spare cables I could test.

Enclosure is Faulty … but, the internal hard drive can be removed and placed into a 3rd party enclosure. Have done this myself putting it into a USB3.0 enclosure to quickly copy and backup data … then returned it into the original case

Is this something I could do too on my own or would professionals have to do it?

At this point - my only concern is to restore the data. Salvaging the drive itself is of less importance.

Best regards and thanks again.

Johannes

5

Hello again! :slight_smile:

Well, I took another power cord and tested it and it worked!

So it was simply a faulty power cord.

Thanks again.

Johannes