[VDT]

I have similar problem mentioned in thread techguy.org/955735

My external hard disk (WD: my passport usb 3.0) is not detectable.
In disk management it's showing showing as an unknown, unreadable drive.
I've tried running chkdsk in CMD but the message "Cannot open volume for direct access"
I tried various data recovery software but as it is showing unknown drive in selection, software is not able to read data.
Please please help!

[pip22]

I've had a couple of both Seagate and WD external drives fail on me in the recent past, confirmed by testing with the manufacturer's own diagnostic software. For a WD external drive you need to test it with WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostic for Windows. Go here and download it: http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...&sid=3&lang=en

Ignore the drive model pictured on the page, the software will test all WD internal & external drives. It's just the strange way that WD have built their website. The diagnostic software isn't offered on the pages featuring the "My Passport" models, but I can assure you it's the correct testing software for your drive.

Update: very often with external hard drives it's not the actual drive that has failed, it's the converter board inside the enclosure (converts SATA to USB).
When that happens, you have to resort to carefully extracting the drive (not an easy task since there are no screws on the enclosure) and either connecting it up to a PC internally, or buying a third-party enclosure for it. It's not something I've ever needed to do myself as I keep all my data on four drives as backup, so when one drive fails I just throw it away & replace it.

[VDT]

I tried Lifeguard. It's not working as drive is not readable.

[pip22]

Then it looks like the converter board may have "blown" in the enclosure, preventing any software access to the drive.
In a way, that's good news since the drive itself may be okay. If you can extract it and connect it up some other way (a third-party enclosure or fit it inside a PC, you might be able to get the data off it and (optionally) test it with Lifeguard to see how healthy it is.

If it passes diagnostics, and you've put it inside a third-party enclosure, you can continue to use it like that if you want to.

[VDT]

I could get data back using diskgetor data recovery s/w.. hurraayyyy..

Thanks for replying..