WD My Passport (Ultra) Is Not Showing up: Data Recovery & Fixes

WD My Passport Is Not Showing up or Detected

Western Digital’s My Passport series is popular for its compact design and reliable storage solutions. However, users may encounter the frustrating issue of their WD My Passport (Ultra) not showing up on their computer.

Here are different issue reports:

• WD My Passport is not showing up in File Explorer
• WD My Passport Ultra is not showing up in File Explorer
• WD My Passport Ultra is not detected by my computer
• WD My Passport is not working

In this article, MiniTool Software will explore the possible causes of this problem, guide you through the data recovery process using MiniTool Power Data Recovery, provide solutions to fix the issue, and suggest safeguarding your data with MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Causes of WD My Passport Is Not Showing Up

If your WD My Passport is not working because it is not showing up or being recognized by your computer, consider the following situations:

• Connection Issues: Ensure that the USB cable connecting the WD My Passport to the computer is functional. Try using a different USB port on your computer to rule out port-related problems.
• Driver Problems: Outdated or corrupted device drivers can prevent proper communication between the WD My Passport and your computer.
• Drive Letter Missing: If the WD My Passport lacks a drive letter, it will not appear in File Explorer, leading you to believe it is not recognized by your computer. Adding the drive letter back can restore normal functionality.
• File System Corruption: File system errors on the WD My Passport can lead to it not being recognized by the operating system. To fix the file system, you can run chkdsk or format the hard drive to normal.
• Partition Issues: Partitions may become corrupted or accidentally deleted, causing the drive to be invisible. In a situation like this, you can recover data from the lost partition or perform a partition recovery using a professional partition manager.

Data Recovery with MiniTool Power Data Recovery

Before attempting any fixes, it’s crucial to safeguard your data. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a reliable tool to recover files from all types of data storage devices including hard disk drives. This MiniTool data recovery tool can find both deleted and existing files on a storage drive. So, it fully meets your requirement to recover data from an unrecognized WD My Passport drive.

You can first try MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free and see if it can find the files you want to rescue.

Here is the guide to recover data if your WD My Passport is not showing up in File Explorer.

How to Recover Data from the WD My Passport Drive Using MiniTool Power Data Recovery

Step 1. Make sure the WD My Passport drive is properly connected to your computer.

Step 2. Download and install MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free on your computer.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 3. Launch the software to enter its main interface, where you can see all detected drives. Then, you need to check if the partitions in the WD hard drive are showing up. You can also switch to the Devices tab to see if the entire drive is displayed. If you can see the drive, you can recover data from the drive using this software.

Step 4. If you want to recover data from a specified partition on the drive, you can just move your mouse cursor to that partition under Logical Drives and click the Scan button to start scanning the partition.

However, if you need to recover data from the whole WD My Passport drive, you will need to select the disk under Devices.

Step 5. When the whole scanning process ends, you will see the scan results that are listed by path by default. You can open each path to find the needed files. You can also switch to the Type tab to make this software show found files by type, which can help you easily find your desired files according to the file type you want to recover.

Additionally, you can preview files for confirmation. For example, you can preview images, documents, videos, and audio files. The file you want to preview should not exceed 2GB.

Step 6. Select the files you want to recover. In this step, you can select multiple files from different folders at the same time. Then, click the Save button and choose a suitable directory to save them. Of course, the destination should not be the original WD My Passport drive because it is not repaired.

With the free edition of this data restore tool, you can recover 1GB of files for free. If the size of the files you want to recover exceeds this limit, you can upgrade to a full edition.

More Information about MiniTool Power Data Recovery

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is the best free data recovery software that can run on all versions of Windows, including Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 7.

This file recovery tool can recover photos, documents, archives, videos, audio files, emails, and more from storage devices like internal hard drives, external hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives, memory cards, SD cards, pen drives, CDs, DVDs, and more.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery works to help you recover data in different situations:

• If you permanently delete files by mistake, you can use this software to get your files back. See how to recover permanently deleted files using this file recovery tool.
• If you format your drive accidentally, you can try this utility to scan your drive and recover your files if it can find them. See how to recover data from a formatted hard drive.
• This software can also recover data from a deleted or lost partition.
• If your drive becomes inaccessible, you can use this software to find and recover data from the drive.
• If your computer won’t boot, you can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery Boot Drive to rescue files from your PC. After that, you can fix your device without losing data.

That is, no matter which situation you are facing, you can just try this software to get your data back.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Fixing WD My Passport Not Showing Up

Now, your data is safe. You can feel free to fix your WD My Passport drive. We gather some easy solutions that are worth trying.

Fix 1: Add a Drive Letter for WD My Passport

When a WD My Passport is missing its drive letter, it will not show up in File Explorer. This will make you think that the drive is not recognized by your computer. You can just add back the drive letter, then you will be able to see that drive in File Explorer.

You can add a drive letter using the Windows built-in tool: Disk Management.

Step 1. Right-click the Start menu and select Disk Management from the WinX menu to open it.

Step 2. Find your WD My Password drive, then right-click on it and select Change Drive Letter and Path.

Step 3. On the next interface, click the Add button to continue.

Step 4. Assign a drive letter for the drive.

Step 5. Click OK to save the settings.

After these steps, you can go to File Explorer to see if the WD My Passport drive is visible.

Fix 2: Update the Device Driver for WD My Passport

In case that the device driver for WD My Passport is outdated, you can use the following steps to perform a driver update:

Step 1. Right-click the Start button and select Device Manager.

Step 2. Expand Disk drives.

Step 3. Find the WD My Passport drive and right-click it, then select Update driver.

Step 4. Click Search automatically for drivers and follow the onscreen guides to update the driver to the latest version.

You can find more methods from this post: 4 ways to update device drivers on Windows.

Fix 3: Perform a Partition Recovery Using MiniTool Partition Wizard

If WD My Passport is not showing up or detected because the partitions on it are missing, you can use the Partition Recovery feature of MiniTool Partition Wizard to restore the missing partitions.

MiniTool Partition Wizard DemoClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 1. Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard on your PC.

Step 2. Launch the software to enter its main interface. Then, click Partition Recovery from the top toolbar to continue.

Step 3. Click Next on the pop-up interface.

Step 4. On the next interface, select the disk you want to recover partitions from. Then, click the Next button to continue.

Step 5. You can see these three scanning ranges:

• Full Disk: Scan the entire disk.
• Unallocated Space: Scan free space only.
• Specified Range: Scan specified sectors.

You can select a scanning range according to your situation. Then, click Next.

Step 6. When you see the following interface, select a scanning method and click the Next button to continue.

Step 7. When the scanning process ends, this software will show the partitions it can detect. The displayed partitions contain both existing and deleted ones. You need to select all your needed partitions in this step. Then click the Finish button.

Step 8. Preview the partition recovery effect.

If you are satisfied with the recovery effect, you need to upgrade to a full edition to complete the process. After you get the license key, you can directly register the software on the above interface, which means you don’t need to scan the disk again.

Fix 4: Recreate Partitions on WD My Passport

To make a WD My Passport drive show up in File Explorer, you need to create partitions on it if it doesn’t have any.

You can partition a hard drive using Disk Management, MiniTool Partition Wizard, or Command Prompt. Now, find these ways from this article: How to Partition a Hard Drive for Use?

Fix 5: Run CHKDSK

If the file system of the drive is damaged, you can run chkdsk to fix it.

CHKDSK Commands: Fix Hard Drives Errors on Windows

In this post, we will talk about what is chkdsk and how to use chkdsk commands to check drives for errors on Windows.

Read More

Step 1. Run Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 2. Run chkdsk /f /r *: in Command Prompt. In this step, * stands for the drive letter of the WD My Passport.

Chkdsk can find and automatically fix the found errors. You should wait until the process ends.

Fix 6: Format the Drive to Normal

If all of the above fixes don’t work for you, you will need to format the drive to normal. You can try the methods introduced in this article: 5 Ways to Format a Hard Drive on Windows 11/10.

These are the methods you can try when your WD My Passport or WD My Passport Ultra is not detected or showing up. We hope you can find an effective method here.

Back up Your Data on the WD My Passport Drive

No matter which brand of hard drive you use, data loss may occur for various reasons. To safeguard your files on the drive, it’s advisable to regularly back up your data using professional Windows backup software like MiniTool ShadowMaker.

With this free backup software, you can securely back up files, folders, partitions, disks, and systems to another drive, ensuring the protection of your data and system. Refer to the user manual to learn how to use it for backing up and restoring your files.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Bottom Line

It is a stressful experience when your WD My Passport is not showing up or detected, but with the right tools and solutions, you can recover your data and fix the problem.

Remember to use MiniTool Power Data Recovery for data recovery, follow the suggested fixes to address the issue, and implement regular backups with MiniTool ShadowMaker to ensure the safety of your valuable data. By taking these steps, you can maintain the reliability and functionality of your WD My Passport storage device.

Besides, if you encounter issues while using MiniTool software, you can let us know via [email protected].