4WD My Passport Repair Tool: Solving Inaccessibility Issues with External Hard Drive

"WD My Passport cannot be accessed"

"When I connect my 1TB WD My Passport external hard drive to the desktop, Windows 10 displays an error message asking me to format the disk before using it. I don't want to do that since my data is still stored on it. I tried to eject the drive and reconnect it for the second time, but the error persists. It seems like I can't access the WD external hard drive or my data without formatting. Can anyone help?"

If you're a Western Digital hard drive customer and happen to use the My Passport type, this article will interest you. One of the common issues with Western Digital My Passport hard drives is the inability to access the drive's data at times. The typical symptom is that the power LED lights up, but the drive is not accessible . Additionally, you may receive an error message like:

• You need to format the disk before using it.
• Drive X: Access is denied.

In addition to precise error messages, disk checks might reveal other signs of trouble. For example:

• Disk 0 or Disk 1 is displayed as Unknown, Uninitialized, or the File System type is shown as RAW in Disk Management.
• The hard drive shows 0 bytes Used and 0 bytes Available in Drive Properties.

How to Access, View, or Recover Data from an Inaccessible WD External Hard Drive

When your WD My Passport is showing errors and you're unable to access your data, there's no need to worry because files can be easily recovered. Just download the Data Recovery Wizard tool to retrieve data from a corrupted or inaccessible drive. The top-rated Data Recovery Wizard tool alleviates the worries and risks of losing data when hard disk storage devices like WD drives become inaccessible or fail to open.

Step 1: Choose and scan the external hard drive

1. Download and install the Data Recovery tool on your desktop or laptop.
2. Connect the external hard drive to your computer.
3. Run the Data Recovery wizard, select the external hard drive from the list of external drives, and then click Scan for lost data.

Step 2: Check the scan results

• Data recovery software will immediately scan all data on the selected drive, including deleted, corrupted, and existing data.
• You can use the filter feature to quickly locate a specific file type, such as images, Word, Excel, PDF, videos, emails, and more.

Step 3: Preview and recover the data

• Double click on the files from the scan results to preview them. • Select the files you need and then click “Recover”. • Choose a different disk from the original to save the recovered files.

How to Fix an Inaccessible WD My Passport External Hard Drive

As mentioned above, you can't access external hard drive due to many reasons, and most of the time, the result turns out to be either a connectivity issue with the drive or corruption on the drive itself.

Therefore, when you can't open the connected drive normally in Windows 10/8.1/8/7, you should first check the data cable to see whether it's loose? The cable can degrade over time due to bending and twisting. The connectors might be bent, or the internal pins could corrode because of exposure to contaminants. To check the data cable, you can:

• Try a different data port
• Try a different cable
• If possible, try another computer

If the cable is in good condition, proceed to use the WD My Passport repair tool as described here.

What is the WD My Passport Repair Tool?

You can freely use many built-in Windows programs as perfect WD My Passport repair tools, including Windows Disk Management, Windows CHKDSK Command Prompt, and Windows Troubleshooter. They should all fix hardware device issues like not recognized, not detected, not working, or not readable. Before the fixing process, make sure to extract data from the inaccessible drive with the Data Recovery Wizard tool. This is the most reliable way to protect your data from permanent loss.

1. Windows Disk Management

This is to perform a quick format to resolve most hard drive issues, such as the file system being RAW. When a hard drive turns RAW, it becomes invisible in File Explorer; you should check if it's showing in Disk Management. Otherwise, you'll need to convert the RAW external hard drive to NTFS or FAT32 so that Windows can read WD My Passport normally.

Step 1: Press Windows + R keys simultaneously on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box, then type diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter.

Step 2: Right-click on your WD My Passport external hard drive, and a menu with several options will pop up. Select “Format.”

Step 3: Follow the on-screen instructions. Choose an appropriate file system and use the disk management to complete the process of fixing the inaccessible WD My Passport external hard drive.

If the issue persists, change the drive letter as described below, and then check again.

Step 1: This time choose “Change drive letter and paths…”

Step 2: Under Add, Change and Remove, click Change, then select a drive letter from the list. Click OK to assign a new drive letter to your WD My Passport.

2. Windows Check Disk Command Prompt

When a hard drive becomes inaccessible and you get an access denied error, it's usually due to bad sectors. The CHKDSK command is a good option to check and repair bad sectors that are preventing users from accessing hard drive data. To check for errors or fix your hard drive, try the following commands.

Step 1: In Windows 10/8.1/8/7, press Win + X keys to open the right-click menu, and then choose Command Prompt (Admin).

Step 2: Type chkdsk H: /f /r, and then press Enter.

H represents the drive letter for your WD My Passport external hard drive. Replace it with the correct letter for your own drive.

Use the CHKDSK utility as an alternate method to fix the corrupted device

Download and install CleanGenius on your computer. Let's start by checking and fixing file system errors on your device.

Step 1: Click "File Display," and proceed to the next step.

Step 2: Select the target device and check the box for "Check and repair file system errors." Click "Run" to begin repairing the problematic device.

Step 3: When the process is complete, click Here to open and use your device.

3. Windows Troubleshooting Tools

This troubleshooter checks for common issues and makes sure that any new devices or hardware connected to your computer are installed correctly.

Step 1: On Windows 10/8.1/8/7, simultaneously press the Windows and R keys to open the Run box, then type control and hit Enter to open Control Panel.

Open Control Panel in Run

Step 2: Click on “Troubleshooting.”

Step 3: Click “View All” in the left pane.

Click “View all” under “Troubleshooting.”

Step 4: Look for and run "Hardware and Devices." Follow the on-screen instructions through to the end.