How to Recover Data from WD External Hard Drive? Simplest Way
Summery: Want to recover data from WD external hard drive? Then you’ve come to the right page. In this article, we will discuss the best way to complete this process. Then let’s begin.
Data loss is a very common thing nowadays. WD’s (Western Digital) hard drives deliver the highest quality and best performance in the industry. But there are cases when WD hard drives lose their precious stored data. This causes users to look for solutions to recover files from WD external hard drive.
The reasons behind this data loss can be: accidental deletion, file system corruption, hard drive corruption, virus attack or a hard drive getting unrecognized & inaccessible.
What is WD?
WD stands for Western Digital and is an external storage device. Users can store important data in it. Most WD MyPassport drives come in NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (Mac) formats. WD external storage devices are used to expand your storage capacity. Using an external drive as a boot drive can improve operating system performance compared to a slower internal drive. This external drive is small and lightweight and can be easily carried from one place to another.
User Query: I once unknowingly deleted all my data from my Western digital hard drive. All my important data from the HDD was lost that was required for my business projects. Now, I can’t recover deleted files from WD external hard drive. Is there any way out of it? It is really important. Please, someone help me out.
Causes of File Loss on Western Digital Hard Disk
Most users use WD external hard drives as important data storage devices. Therefore, data loss is bound to be a frustrating problem for most people. Here are some of the most common causes of data loss from a WD external hard drive:
- The data file was accidentally deleted.
- Error while formatting the disk or fragment.
- File system on the disk is damaged.
- Dangerous virus attack.
- External hard drive is not being ejected properly.
- Sudden power outage.
- Hard disk is damaged.
Among the causes of data above, the main cause of data loss is human error. The best way to reduce human error is to back up your data regularly, thereby reducing the risk of data loss.
Popular Western Digital External Drives
Before learning the methods to restore data file from WD external hard disk, let’s learn what types of WD external hard drives there are:
- My Passport SSD is based on the Solid State Drive (SSD) architecture, which offers the highest level of reliability and protection of data, as well as high speed for data transfer.
- WD My Passport, WD Elements Portable, and WD My Passport Ultra: these external hard drives have varying storage capacities and bonus features.
- My Passport Wireless Pro and My Passport Wireless SSD: these are the external hard drives with a wireless connection.
Automatic Way to Recover Data from WD External Hard Drive
If all this has happened to you also, then you can go for Hard Drive Data Recovery software which will let you recover your data.
This software is a complete solution to recovering your data with the NTFS or FAT file system. With this tool, the user can recover data from damaged hard disk. Below are some features of this software:
Note: Do not save any new data or files on the western digital hard drives. As it will cause the lost data to be overwritten.
1. Show all Partitions of the Attached internal or External WD Hard Drive
When you run the software, a screen will be displayed showing all the drives with their respective partitions. Along with that, the user can see the related information in the right pane of the software.
2. Refresh Option to Recover Data from WD External Hard Drive Attached Newly
It option facilitates the users to refresh the data when any new Western Digital or any other hard drive is attached. With this option user can load the new drive within the software at that instant only, there is no need to close the software to fetch the drive.
3. Scan and the Formatted Scan Option
The user can scan the selective drive by clicking on the Scan option. As soon as the click is done on the scan option, the software will start the scanning process & will list all the data in the left pane.
The formatted scan option lets the user scan the formatted drive.
Note: The tool to recover deleted files from WD external hard drive displays all the folders in the left panel & displays the data containing folders in BOLD format.
4. Choose Location to Save the Recovered Data
After the complete recovery process, the user can save or restore the recovered data at any of the desired locations. Also, the user can create a new folder from the software panel itself and easily save the data as per the requirement.
5. Search for deleted files from the Recovered Items
The user can search for any specific file or item within the recovered data by using the smart searching feature of this utility to recover lost files from WD external hard Drive drive. Even users can apply the date filter to refine the searching process by selecting the file creation date or the last modified date.
Note: In the search option, the user can even add the file name or the extension that he or she is searching for. This is an advanced feature of this tool that lets users search the file by defining its name.
Conclusion
The presented blog contains a tried and trusted methodology to recover data from WD external hard drives. The user can even try the automated solution provided above to easily retrieve files from WD external hard disk.
Commonly Asked Questions
Q: How to recover data from damaged WD external hard drive?
Recover files from a damaged WD drive using third-party hard drive recovery software:
- Download, install and run the recovery wizard.
- Connect the damaged WD external drive to your computer.
- Select a WD hard drive to search for lost data.
- Search and filter your files.
- Preview and recover lost data from WD hard drives.
Q: How do I fix an unrecognized WD external hard drive?
Solve the problem of Western Digital external hard drives not showing up as follows:
- First, replace the USB port or USB cable.
- Boot your computer into safe mode and see if WD appears.
- Change the drive letter to reflect the WD external hard drive.
- Update the WD external hard drive driver.
- Check your WD hard drive for bad sectors
- It checks the WD drive for errors and repairs the damaged file system.
- Replace the damaged Western Digital hard drive sector with a new one.
Q: How do I recover a damaged Western Digital external hard drive?
Here is a list of tips for repairing damaged WD drives:
- Try running CHKDSK in CMD
- Assign or install a new drive letter in Disk Management.
- Check and fix errors using the Windows repair tool.
- Reinstall the WD driver in Disk Manager.
