Windows 10: USB hard drive Unknown and not initialised

Hi I have a 1TB external USB hard drive, it is not showing up in 'my computer' the light on the hard drive is constantly flashing and randomly beeps and clicks when first plugged in, I have never heard this until today..
I have tried it on two laptops, windows 7 and windows 10 and in a macbook, does not show up.
I have tried a different cable from another USB device, still no luck.
It appears in device manager which says it is running normally, I have tried un-installing and re-installing, no luck! In disk manager it says the disk is unknown and not initialised, see screenshot.
Reading other forums suggest trying Minitool partition wizard it comes up but as 0GB, screenshot
Please help me recover my device, it has a lot of data on it that I don't want to lose! I hope it is still there!

:)

 

External Hard Drive is not getting recognized properly.

Original Title: External Hard Drive Issue

Hello,

I have a 2 WD My Passport 2TB external hard drives with a lot of backup data on. I cannot access them from my laptop, however they work fine on other computers, TV, etc. The USB ports on my laptop are functional as I can use other devices from them. On plugging
the hard drives in, they do not appear in 'my computer', however when I look at 'devices and printers' they appear and have the option to safely remove. I have tried the troubleshoot tool on this page with no success.

After doing a bit of online research, I have found that when I open disk management, sometimes they appear as disk 1, unknown, 0GB, not initialised (It wont let me initialise them) and other times they just don't appear there at all (like now).

I'm at a bit of a loss, any ideas?

Thank you!

 

WD drive not working

My problem appears that the disk won't initialise. I've tried multiple apps and utilities and its pointing to a physical problem with the drive. It sounds ok, light are on, the usb hub works, but something is stopping the disk from initialising and
registering properly.

 

Sounds like your Ext HDD has failed.

Depending on the failure mode, you may be able to grab your data using a recovery program. However, with clicking noises, that seems to be a mechanical failure, and doesn't sound hopeful. Good luck!

 

I've tried on EaseUS recovery however it doesn't appear on there as a drive to allow me to scan it *Sad

 

Try Recuva.

What brand HDD is this? Western Digital?

 

not coming up on recuva either, just cant see it as a drive to recover.
yes its Western Digital.

 

if i try 'not sure where to scan' and it scans everywhere it comes up with this message, I'm assuming thats my hard drive..

 

Looks like \\HarddiskVolume2 is your failed drive and this scanned your system drive. If you scroll down the window, do you see your files? Probably not.

 

No, none of my files are there.
Could re initialising the disk in disk manager then trying to recover the files be a possible solution?

 

Not sure - I don't know if that would do any more damage or if it would even initialize at this point (because it appears to be a mechanical failure).

Depending on how important your data is and how badly you need it recovered, it may be time for a professional recovery service.

Or, Spinrite might help, but it's not free.

I know now is not a good time, but best practice is 3-2-1 for backups: 3 total, 2 alternating on-site and 1 off-site.