I'm looking for advice on how to get into an old terabyte hard drive my family has been using for years. The service from Western Digital that allowed us to manage our files was shut down a couple of years ago. Now, I want to know the best way to retrieve the data on it. Someone quoted us $2,000 to migrate it to a new drive, which seems excessive. Any recommendations?
3 Answers
If that drive has an Ethernet port, you might be able to take it out of its casing. You can try connecting it directly to your computer, but make sure to remove the PCB that interfaces with the Ethernet. Just check the drive first to see if that’s an option!
Can you clarify if the drive isn’t working at all or if it just can’t be accessed through normal methods? If it’s still functioning, that’s a good sign!
It's working fine! We just can’t access the files directly, which is frustrating.
What's the exact model of your drive? Western Digital has a ton of products, and 'terabyte' just refers to its storage capacity. Is it an external USB drive or does it connect via Ethernet? If it's a NAS, you might need to look up the manual for connection instructions, especially since the service is shut down now.
I'll check that out. It has an external plug we've tried using, but we haven't had any luck so far.