Western Digital external hard drive failure

[Davidsilence]

Hi My WD elements 2TB drive has failed and cannot get it to show up on desktop i have an exact same 1TB drive and i have just swapped the usb controller over, still no joy. Before i go down the crazily priced data recovery route, could buying one of these help http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bipra-SATA-Adapter-Power-Drive/dp/B001A5SK56/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
or should i not waste my money as the other drive works with the faulty drives usb and power adapter thanks for looking.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

Hi My WD elements 2TB drive has failed and cannot get it to show up on desktop i have an exact same 1TB drive and i have just swapped the usb controller over, still no joy. Before i go down the crazily priced data recovery route, could buying one of these help http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bipra-SATA-Adapter-Power-Drive/dp/B001A5SK56/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
or should i not waste my money as the other drive works with the faulty drives usb and power adapter thanks for looking.

I actually use a PC DOS-based program called Spinrite as a maintenance and data recovery utility on all my HDD's. You have to have an IBM-PC in order to use it though. You take the HDD out of the enclosure and connect it to the IBM-PC and run the program. Below is my old MBP HDD in a Dell PC with Spinrite working on it.

Independent review of Spinrite (not me)

 

[Oldmanmac]

You can't use Parallels/VMWARE?

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Hi My WD elements 2TB drive has failed and cannot get it to show up on desktop i have an exact same 1TB drive and i have just swapped the usb controller over, still no joy. Before i go down the crazily priced data recovery route...

In many cases, a cheap (temporary) and empty USB 2.0/3.0 enclosure with an external power supply helps. In many cases the original enclosure or power supply is defective, not the HDD/SSD.

 

[thekev]

In many cases, a cheap (temporary) and empty USB 2.0/3.0 enclosure with an external power supply helps. In many cases the original enclosure or power supply is defective, not the HDD/SSD.

As long as it isn't one of the external drives that uses a 2 disk volume, this is correct. Firewire bridges burn out all the time. There's a cheesy joke there, but I'm tired today.

 

[Fishrrman]

Get a USB3/SATA docking station:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ords=usb3+sata+dock&rh=i:aps,k:usb3+sata+dock
(Many items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap and available in the UK)

Take the problem drive out of the WD enclosure, put it into the dock, connect to the Mac.

What happens next?
Does the drive spin up?
Does it mount, or give an error?
If it gives an error, what does it say?