Data Recovery Case File · Desktop Externals & Aging Drives · Each Attempt Is Not Free
Drive Retrying Its Start-Up: What the Cycle Costs
His enquiry was a model of elimination and contains one description worth more than the rest. A WD Passport: "no longer recognised on my PC. I have tried connecting it to different PCs with different Windows versions, to no avail. I tried connecting it to my TV as I have some movies on the drive, and the TV does not recognise it either. When plugging it into a USB slot, the light comes on and there is a mechanical sound heard, but it sounds more like it tries to start up but fails over and over. The drive is listed as 'USB Mass Storage Device' in Device Manager. I tried uninstalling the driver so my PC would reinstall it." Multiple computers and a television settle that the fault is the drive. But "tries to start up but fails over and over" is the finding that matters — because a repeating cycle is not a drive waiting patiently. It is a drive spending itself.
| Media | WD Passport portable external hard drive — enclosure enumerating as a generic mass storage device; drive repeatedly attempting and failing to complete start-up; unrecognised across multiple hosts including a television |
| Reported situation | Not recognised on several computers or on a television · indicator illuminating and mechanical activity audible · repeated start attempts observed · device listed generically in Device Manager · driver reinstallation attempted |
| Fault class | Failure to reach readiness with repeated retry cycles — head or motor start problem behind a functioning bridge board; cumulative mechanical cost per attempt |
| Equipment used | No further host attempts · drive removed from enclosure and assessed on a native connection · laminar flow bench inspection before power where indicated · matched donor parts · PC-3000 Express with Data Extractor imaging in the same session |
The decode: what the generic listing means, and why repetition costs
What "USB Mass Storage Device" is actually telling him: the detail that explains everything else. An external drive is two devices in one case — a bridge board that converts the drive's native interface to USB, and the drive itself. That generic entry in Device Manager is the bridge announcing itself. It is powered and working, which is why an entry appears and why the light comes on. What is absent is a disk beneath it, because the drive behind the bridge never completes its start-up and so never identifies itself. So his computer is not half-seeing the drive; it is fully seeing the enclosure and not seeing the disk at all.
Why uninstalling the driver could not help: and this deserves saying kindly, because it is very widely recommended. Reinstalling a driver addresses the computer's software. The device was enumerating perfectly well; nothing was wrong on that side. When a drive does not appear because it never became ready, no amount of driver work changes it — the operating system is faithfully reporting what the hardware told it.
Why the repetition is the urgent part: a drive that tries, fails, and tries again is not idling. Each cycle spins the platters up, attempts to unpark and calibrate the heads, fails, and stops — and the two usual causes make repetition costly. If heads have adhered to a platter surface, every attempt is a motor pulling to drag them across it. If the head assembly is damaged, every attempt moves it over the surfaces again. Either way the number of attempts is one of the few variables still under his control, and it is being spent every time the drive is plugged in — including, unavoidably, during a test on a television.
Why his elimination is nonetheless valuable: multiple computers with different operating systems and a television running entirely different software is as complete a host elimination as anyone can perform. There is nothing further to test, and knowing that should stop the testing rather than encourage more of it.
On the bench
No further host attempts were made, since his elimination was complete and each connection carried a cost. The drive was removed from its enclosure and assessed on a native connection, taking the bridge board out of the picture entirely — it had already proved itself by enumerating. Where the findings indicated a mechanical cause, the drive was opened under the laminar flow bench and its heads and platter surfaces inspected before power was applied, since repeated retry cycles leave evidence worth reading. Matched donor parts were fitted as required, and imaging ran immediately in the same session on the PC-3000 Express under Data Extractor, head-mapped and complete.
The outcome
The drive read on a native connection with the enclosure eliminated, serviced and imaged in one session. Free assessment, one fixed written figure including VAT, 50% of parts and labour upfront with the balance only on successful recovery. The decode, for anyone whose drive keeps trying to start: a generic mass storage entry in Device Manager is the enclosure announcing itself, not the disk — the bridge is working and the drive behind it never becomes ready, which is why no volume appears; reinstalling drivers cannot help, because nothing was wrong on the computer's side; and a repeating start cycle is not harmless waiting — each attempt is a motor pulling against stuck heads or a damaged assembly crossing the platters, so the number of attempts is one of the few things still in your control. Stop plugging it in.
Drive that keeps trying to start and failing
Stop plugging it in — that repeating cycle is not the drive waiting patiently, it's the drive spending itself. Each attempt spins the platters and tries to move the heads, and the two usual causes make that costly: heads stuck to the surface being dragged across it, or a damaged assembly crossing it again. The number of attempts is one of the few things you still control. Read the Device Manager entry correctly too: a generic "USB Mass Storage Device" is the enclosure's bridge board announcing itself, not your disk, which is why the light comes on and no drive appears — and it's why uninstalling and reinstalling drivers can't help, since nothing was wrong on the computer's side. If several machines and another device like a television all fail to see it, your testing is complete and further attempts only cost you. Don't freeze, tap or shake it either.
Each attempt costs you — call Glasgow Data Recovery on 0141 404 0294; read on a native connection with the enclosure eliminated, surfaces inspected before power, imaged in one session.
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Our case files are drawn from genuine enquiries received by our laboratory over the past ten years, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery procedure our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.