Hey everyone! I'm currently in my final year of university, studying Graphic Design, and I've hit a snag with my 1TB Western Digital external hard drive. It stores most of my important work, but now it doesn't show up in Finder on my Mac or any school desktops. When I plug it in, the light turns on and it makes a buzzing sound for 2 seconds on, followed by 2 seconds off, repeating before eventually stopping, but the light stays on. I've checked, and it's definitely not a computer issue since my other drive works just fine. I don't really want to go for a professional repair because funds are tight, so I'm hoping for some advice on what could be wrong or how to possibly fix it. I can share a video of the noise if that would help! Any suggestions?
3 Answers
I would recommend stopping any use of the drive and taking it to a local computer shop. Just let them know it's a drive failure; they’ll have the experience to guide you through the next steps. Also, for the future, try to back up your external drives at least once a week!
If things get really tricky, you might want to check out a service that’s known for being affordable and reliable. Just remember, keep backups of your important files—don't let this be a lesson learned the hard way!
Exactly! Always have backups of backups!
Have you tried using a live USB with a recovery Linux? It might help in getting access to the drive again.
Unfortunately, I'm using a Mac so that option won't work for me.
Totally relatable! This was my first time using an external SSD too, and I've only had it for a couple of months. So frustrating!