How to recover data from WD external hard disk? You could get guided with several practicable methods in this tutorial.
Western Digital (WD), abbreviated as WD, is an external hard drive manufactured by Western Digital Corporation. It is generally used to store photos, videos, documents, and other data types, noted for its large capacity and rapid data transmission speed.
However, no device is completely immune to data loss. Some users have reported encountering partition loss issues with WD My Book series products. Luckily, you can recover data from WD external hard drive due to different reasons.
WD external hard drives are used by the majority of users as a device for storing important data. Therefore, once the data is lost, this is definitely an upsetting problem for most people. Below are several reasons behind WD external hard drive data loss:
Of the above reasons for data loss, human error is the primary cause of data loss. The best way to reduce human error is to back up data regularly, so as to reduce the risk of data loss.
Once data is lost, how to recover data from Western Digital external hard drive? In the Windows system, the deleted data will be placed in an inaccessible space, which means that your data has not been permanently deleted.
If you want to restore data from the external hard disk, please stop using the external hard disk immediately. Otherwise, once new data overwrites the previous data, you will not be able to recover it.
Using professional Windows data recovery software - AOMEI FastRecovery is one of the most effective methods to recover data from WD external hard disk in Windows 11, 10, 8.1/8, 7, and Windows Server. It uses advanced scanning methods to search for all recoverable data, along with a suite of recovery features, making the process simple and fast.
Step 1. Download and install AOMEI FastRecovery on your computer. Meanwhile, connect your WD external hard disk using a USB adapter. Click Disk Data Recovery at a lower location. To recover specific files or folders, click Deleted Files Recovery.
Step 2. You'll see all available drives. Select the WD external hard disk and click Scan to search this drive deeply and display all recoverable data.
Step 3. Under the Type section, check all the data types and expand them to find what you want. You can sort them or search the name to locate files quickly.
Step 4. Select your desired data and click the Recover button. Double-click to preview files if you are not sure.
If you still cannot find your data, it may be hidden. You can try the attrib command to show hidden files and folders. Please be cautious while using the command.
Note: The command "attrib" is used to remove or add attributions to the hidden files, thus getting them shown and "recovered". So this method is not foolproof.
Step 1. Input cmd in the search bar beside the Start menu. Select Run as administrator.
Step 2. Input the command “ATTRIB -H -R -S /S /D X:*.*” and press Enter. Here, the “X” refers to the drive letter of your external hard drive.
If the device is not recognized by the computer when you try to connect the Western Digital external hard drive to the computer to recover data, what to do?
There are 3 reasons for the device not being recognized:
To recover a corrupted hard drive, first, you need to check out the status of your hard drive in Disk Management
Step 1. Check if the charging cable and the USB port on your computer are in good working order. Try different cables and ports.
Step 2. Try connecting the WD to another computer and see if it can be identified.
Step 3. Tab on “Win+R” to start “Run”. Input “diskmgmt.msc” to start Disk Management. See if the WD is shown or not.
If you are sure that all the USB ports of the computer are in good condition, but the WD is still invisible in the disk management window, and even it cannot be recognized when plugged into other computers, it indicates that the WD external disk is damaged.
You could contact professional technicians to help you repair it.
If the hard disk drive is not updated in time, there are chances that the hard disk may not be recognized. You could update the driver to solve it.
Step 1. Right-click on the Start menu, and choose Device Manager.
Step 2. Expand Disk Drives, right-click on the WD external hard drive and choose Update Driver.
Step 3. Click Search automatically for drivers. Wait until the disk driver is updated.
If your computer cannot recognize the WD external hard disk, but you can see it in the Disk Management, it is likely to have something to do with the Drive letter. You could assign a letter or change it to address this problem.
Step 1. Right-click on the Start menu and choose Disk Management.
Step 2. Locate your WD external hard disk, right-click on it, and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Step 3. Assign a new letter to the WD external hard disk and click OK.
Then, see if it is recognized in This PC. Then you could follow the first two methods to retrieve data from WD external hard drive according to your specific needs and preferences.
This tutorial may assist you in resolving the problem: “How to recover data from WD external hard disk”. When faced with this scenario, you could consider utilizing data recovery software - AOMEI FastRecovery to extract your data, and CMD might be of help.
It is highly recommended to use backup software to createte copies of your valuable data. AOMEI Backupper Standard can be of great help - its amazing features, like "Disk Backup", "System Backup", "Files Backup", etc., facilitate users to protect their precious data.