WD Elements - USB Device Not Recognised - The USB set address request failed

WD External and Portable SSD Portable SSD
21

I’ve experienced a similar issue before. After trying some very basic solutions, the problem was resolved. I suspect it might have been caused by insufficient power. This is especially true when you connect a new external hard drive to an old laptop.

Unfortunately, the problem resurfaced a few weeks later. Are there any more advanced solutions, or will I have to replace my hard drive?

22

I am experiencing the same issue with two of my WD elements disk (a 2tb and 5tb). I tried 4 different cables and 4 different computers (windows, apple, and linux), I tried backpanel, frontpanel, usbhub, usb extension, usb-C adapter, driver updates, power settings, nothing works.
3 out of 3 of my WD elements disks were dead within 2 years, just simply do not ever buy a Western Digital disk and prevent these absolute headaches. At least I had my important data backed up on my NAS with toshiba drives.

So far I’ve had no issues with my toshiba or seagate disks and I’ve had my seagate for almost a decade now.

23

The “USB set address request failed” error usually means the computer cannot properly initialize the USB device. Since you already tested different cables, ports, computers, and operating systems, the issue may be with the USB bridge/controller inside the WD enclosure, not necessarily the internal hard drive itself. In many cases, the disk is still healthy. If the data matters, you could try removing the drive from the enclosure and connecting it through a SATA-to-USB adapter or another enclosure to check if it becomes accessible.

Good thing you had a NAS backup, that definitely saves a lot of stress.

24

I do think the data on the drive is still OK and I have pried open the case. However, it would seem that the WD elements drives have the usb connector soldered onto the actual computer board. I do not see any way to remove the cheap, broken controller - meaning my perfectly fine drive is nothing but fancy E-waste.

My old seagate disk also had controller issues, but I was able to move this one into a new case and it worked out great. Sadly Western Digital is not about being able to repair your own drives.