--- title: "Data Recovery from a Western Digital External Drive - EXALAB" description: "A WD external drive with important data had been waiting in a drawer for years. Upon connection, however, the data was inaccessible, requiring data recovery. The data recovery was successful." url: "https://www.exalab.cz/en/blog/from-practice/labnotes/data-recovery-from-a-western-digital-external-drive-it-didnt-make-a-sound-when-connected" date: "2026-06-19T23:48:38+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- ## Data Recovery from a Western Digital External Drive. It Didn’t Make a Sound When Connected A WD external drive was used years ago for backing up important data and then forgotten in a drawer. Over time, this backup became the only existing version of the data. Years later, the user needed to access the data again, but the hard drive thwarted their plans. After connecting, it did nothing. The issue could have been caused by the external power these drives require, but it could also be a more complex problem involving the internal drive. In this case, it was a combination of electronic failure and surface damage to the data platters, specifically affecting one of the disk’s magnetic heads. ![Data Recovery from a Western Digital External Drive. It Didn’t Make a Sound When Connected](https://www.exalab.cz/images/blog/EN2405032-zachrana-dat-z-externiho-disku-WD-1200-fw2.jpg) If a user finds their external hard drive in a state where it does nothing, they logically first check the data cable, and for larger (3.5”) drives, the power adapter as well. Both options were ruled out by the user or by us. The next step involves examining the drive’s electronics (PCB). The issue might be in the power section of the PCB. This fault can sometimes even cause the computer to crash if the user attempts to connect the drive directly via a SATA interface to their computer. Simply replacing the PCB with an identical one won’t work. Hard drives generally have unique ROM (service data stored directly in the drive’s electronics). Western Digital drives, both older and more modern, often feature SED (Self Encrypted Drive) functionality, which means the data is permanently hardware-encrypted, so simply swapping the PCB won’t work for this reason either. For modern drives of this brand, additional obstacles might arise, though they were not relevant for this data recovery case, as this drive was manufactured in 2007. Nevertheless, another issue emerged on the path to accessing the user data. ![Hotline](https://www.exalab.cz/images/svg/hotline.svg)DATA RECOVERY +420 608 177 773 After resolving the electronics issue, we could attempt data recovery. The drive initially appeared to initialize normally, but reading failed. This can be due to data platter errors or a failing magnetic head (or multiple heads). Older WD hard drives are relatively accommodating in this regard during data recovery, and if there isn’t a strictly mechanical problem, it’s possible to modify service data to exclude one or more heads from reading. This allows a binary copy of only the accessible content to be made, the head issue to be resolved, and then the binary copy to be completed. This is the method we used for this drive, which had been waiting in a drawer for years for its final data journey. **Ext. drive:** Western Digital USB drive **Int. drive:** WD3200AAKS-00SBA0 **Capacity:** 320 GB **Issue:** Damaged drive electronics (PCB), head read errors **Solution:** PCB modification, service data modification, work on read heads **Result:** 100% data recovery success Data was recovered with 100% success. In cases like these, it’s essential not to test the drive at all costs and on all levels. YouTube tutorials do not guarantee successful data recovery. The user of this drive did nothing that could risk the drive or data and entrusted data recovery to experts. It cost some money, but they got all their valuable data back. If your hard drive has also stopped working, don’t hesitate to [contact us](https://www.exalab.cz/index.php?Itemid=200) for a free consultation and diagnostic of your data medium. Details By Frantisek Fridrich Frantisek Fridrich Parent Category: [Z praxe](https://www.exalab.cz/en/blog/from-practice) [LABnotes](https://www.exalab.cz/en/blog/from-practice/labnotes) ## Schema ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://www.exalab.cz/en" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Blog", "item": "https://www.exalab.cz/en/blog" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "From Practice", "item": "https://www.exalab.cz/en/blog/from-practice" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "LABnotes", "item": "https://www.exalab.cz/en/blog/from-practice/labnotes" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "Data Recovery from a Western Digital External Drive. It Didn’t Make a Sound When Connected", "item": "https://www.exalab.cz/en/blog/from-practice/labnotes/data-recovery-from-a-western-digital-external-drive-it-didnt-make-a-sound-when-connected.md" } ] } ``` ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://www.exalab.cz/en/blog/from-practice/labnotes/data-recovery-from-a-western-digital-external-drive-it-didnt-make-a-sound-when-connected.md" }, "headline": "Data Recovery from a Western Digital External Drive. It Didn’t Make a Sound When Connected", "description": "A WD external drive with important data had been waiting in a drawer for years. Upon connection, however, the data was inaccessible, requiring data recovery. The data recovery was successful.", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.exalab.cz/images/blog/EN2405032-zachrana-dat-z-externiho-disku-WD-1200-fw2.jpg" }, "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "EXALAB Data Recovery", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.exalab.cz/images/logo/logo_600x600.png" } }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Frantisek Fridrich", "url": "https://www.exalab.cz/en/blog/from-practice/labnotes/data-recovery-from-a-western-digital-external-drive-it-didnt-make-a-sound-when-connected" }, "datePublished": "2024-10-30T09:53:50+00:00", "dateCreated": "2024-10-30T09:53:50+00:00", "dateModified": "2026-05-27T16:49:19+00:00" } ```