Hard drive is not showing up on my computer

"So This is what we know:

You were using your drive (PC running Windows Vista) and while it was running you banged it (was on the edge and then it fell onto the flat side). At that point you unplugged the USB cable and then reconnected (failing to dismount the drive). Now you can't access the drive, but the device driver and the USB interface internally of the drive is responsive (drives power light is lighting). So the drive was spinning when you knocked it. And, you failed to dismount the drive correctly.

We don't know if the system was still in the process of writing to the drive (where you in the process of reading or writing a file off of the external drive?) If not then the cache write back is only effected which is a minor issue. Otherwise the file you were accessing is likely damaged.

The big issue here is what was the drive doing, was the disk head arm parked or engaged? From the sounds of it it appears the arm was engaged so it was somewhere on the plater/s. So the heads likely dug into the platter ripping one or more off and damaging a part of the magnetic surface of the plater (heads crashed). It doesn't take much for this to happen.

OK now what - If the data is that important you'll need to send your drive in to a data recovery service so they can disassemble the drive in a clean room to try repair the drive long enough to pull your data off (replacing the damaged heads).

If you have also encrypted your data you will need to give them the application and the encryption keys so the they can decrypt the data. It also turns out the HD it's self is hardware encrypted so it will only work with the logic board it is mounted to, so you can't send them just the hard drive internally alone either (need to ship the complete drive with the power adapter).

The cost will be expensive and there is still a chance they can't recover the data. Attempting to fix this via software won't work and if you are able to get it to respond the process could make things worse. Here's a PC Mag article on what happens in a clean room Don't forget to try out their drive simulator to see what happened to your drive.

Sorry for the bad news ;-{"

"As i am reading I see alot of the same issues and seems like no one knows how to answer a question without going in circles, and repeating the same issue:

here we go:

updated against my will to windows 10

1T ext HDD WD1300 drivers and firmware upsated

worked fine, until a few days agao within hours!

HDD in a protected space on my desk, always ""ejected media"" correctly

i do notice the cable is kinked (leading to a data cable issue)

makes the DING noise to recognize device also asks to safley remove HDD when i dismount

shows only in Device manager does not show in my PC

in Disc management it shows a RED X and drive not initialized

have tried to initialize as i am upset and just want to fix this thing. dont work!

today attemp 7/30/2016

i do not hear the dive spinning... now what?"

Here's an answer western digital sucks and they're refund warranty policies are junk and they will lead you on to believe your getting a refund than screw up your warranty by not sending you all the info needed to return item messaging you from random email address you can't respond too open up like 59 tickets on website for nothing . Giant 259$ paper weight is what western digital sells . They make such crappy hardrrives they fail after a year of light to no use for no reason. Worst company ever . Never again . NEVEE

"Make sure your USB adapter drivers are functioning well and up to

Is the external drive working fine in another system? If you've not tried it, please do.

Also try to see if another external hard drive works fine on your system.

If another external drive works fine on your system, then the problem is with your external hard drive. Your external hdd is damaged.

Get a data recovery software such as EaseUS recovery tool by downloading and installing it, (you can use the trial version), use it to open the external drive, you would see your files there. Recover what you want by saving them in another drive.

If another external hard drive doesn't work fine on your system, then go to Google, search for the USB drivers for your system brand and model. Download it.

Go to device manager, under USB, uninstall the USB adapters.

Then go back to the USB driver you just downloaded, install it.

Restart your computer.

Test your external hard drive on it."

My hard drive is transcend 2T rugged type. it fell but not so hard, there is no funny sound when i plug it. I also ran a troubleshoot and the message is that the device IS working properly but I can't seem to access it at all. Please, what can I do?

"Ok, I am also having an issue with multiple Western Digital HDD’s not being acknowledged in windows 10, and in my case, not showing in disk manager either.

So I find my way to this post, which is titled “SOLVED” so am I just missing something or what? Where is the Solve part?"