So my WD My Passport Essential (for Mac) came out of the box with a crappy USB connection. After looking through the WD support forums I realise this is a known issue. The drive would only work as long as I didn’t think about touching the connection while using the drive. Annoying, but liveable.
I’ve come back from holidays and now the drive is utterly dead. No lights, no sounds, no clicking, just a big expensive paperweight. Note I’ve never dropped the drive.
I ordered a new cable from WD, thinking that could resolve the issue, but no luck.
Could this be a controller issue? Is the drive just completely screwed?
I’m rapidly running out of options as I really need data off that drive. I was considering buying an external 2.5" SATA enclosure, but now I learn this drive is not really a true SATA drive but rather a hybrid with the USB controller permanently attached!
Would really appreciate some assistance with where to go next with this…