How to Recover Data from My Passport External Hard Drive

How can I recover my data from my WD external hard drive?

Using an external hard drive is one of the main ways for users to store and back up their files, which is convenient for users to carry around. However, due to the complexity of its internal construction, external hard drives can be more vulnerable to corruption than other storage media. If you are also one of those who suffered from My Passport data loss, don't worry, this article will provide you with all the effective ways to get back your lost data.

Causes of WD My Passport external hard drive data loss

The reasons for external hard drive data loss are not only disk formatting mentioned by the above users, finding the right data loss reason is conducive to getting it back more efficiently. You can check out a list below for a few of the most common reasons why My Passport external hard drive loses files:

Once the data disappears for the above reasons, how to recover files from My Passport external hard drive? In the next section, we will introduce 4 ways to get back lost data effectively. If your external drive is still connected to your computer, you can check the Recycle Bin first, as files and folders that have been lost due to human error may have been recycled here. You can click to learn the steps to recover deleted files from Recycle Bin.

We will continue to show you other methods, please stop using my Passport external hard drive now and prevent new data from overwriting previous data.

How to recover data from WD Passport: 4 ways

We've put together 4 ways to effectively recover deleted data, whether you're permanently lost or not, you can get them back through the rest of the content.

Way 1. Retrieve lost data from My Passport external hard drive

Windows File Recovery is an effective way to recover lost data on your PC, but it is not easy to use and is more suitable for professionals who are familiar with the command line. Therefore, we recommend that users use the simpler free software WinfrGUI, which calls the function of Windows File Recovery and presents it to users with a more understandable graphical interface.

Download WinfrGUI and follow these steps to learn how to recover data from WD Passport.

Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to the computer, launch WinfrGUI and select the partition of your lost files on the main interface. And choose another location under the Save path to store the recovered files.

☛Tip: You can do this by placing the mouse over the ! icon up to check the file system.

Step 2. Click on the Scanning mode to select, where Deep Scan can be used for My Passport external hard drives with non-NTFS file systems.

Step 3. Click Start Recovery in the lower right corner to perform data recovery.

Notes:✎...

This tool is only available for Windows 10 and above.

The tool completely calls the functionality of Windows File Recovery, so there may be a possibility that data recovery will not be successful.

Way 2. Recover data from external hard drive with data recovery tool

If WinfrGUI doesn't help you successfully recover data, don't worry, with the help of professional Windows Data Recovery software you can recover external hard drive data lost in any situation. MyRecover is a reliable data recovery tool that uses advanced scanning methods to quickly and thoroughly search for data on a drive.

And the tool has a direct operation interface, no matter whether you are a professional or not, you can easily use it, and you can complete the total recovery of files from My Passport external hard drive in just 3 steps.

● Suitable for various data loss situations such as human deletion, drive crash, malware attack, disk formatting, etc.
● More than 200 types of data can be recovered, including pictures, videos, audio, texts, tables, and more.
● Suitable for various data loss situations such as human deletion, drive crash, malware attack, disk formatting, etc.
● Scan and detect data at a very fast speed and high recovery rate.

MyRecover has a very high data recovery success rate, now download the program and learn how to recover files from WD My Passport.

Step 1. Install and launch MyRecover, and make sure your drive is connected to the PC. Hover the mouse over the drive saved deleted files before, and click Scan to scan.

Step 2. Then wait for the tool to automatically take the Quick Scan and Deep Scan, you can select the files that need to be recovered during the scanning process or wait for the full scan result.

Step 3. Select the files and folders you want to recover, then click Recover x files in the lower right corner.

Way 3. Recover data from external hard drive by reinstalling device driver

You cannot find files from your My Passport external hard drive may also be due to a corrupted device driver program, in which case trying to reinstall the device driver can also be effective in recovering files from the external hard drive.

Step 1. Press the Win + R keys to open the run dialog, then type: devmgmt.msc and you will start Device Manager.

Step 2. Then locate your external hard drive from the list of Disk Devices, right-click on it, and select the Uninstall device option.

Step 3. Next, you need to restart your PC and plug in your WD My Passport external hard drive and wait for it to install automatically. Once it is done, you can check if the missing files in the drive have returned.

Way 4. Retrieve deleted data on external hard drive use File History

File History is a Windows PC feature, if you enabled this option before losing your files, and the WD was connected to the computer during the process, you can use the File History feature on your system to recover files from an external hard drive deleted or lost data. Follow the steps below to learn how to recover deleted files from WD My Passport ultra.

Step 1. Open Explorer and navigate from the folder where you lost files, right-click to select the folder, and then click on the Restore Previous Versions option.

Step 2. Select the Previous Versions tab, find and select the folder version you need (which will include data you didn't have time to delete), and click the Restore button.

Wrapping things up

Through this detailed guide, you must have solved the difficulty of how to recover data from My Passport external hard drive. If you just accidentally deleted a file, go to the Recycle Bin to check it out immediately. If you can't find the files you need, they may have been permanently deleted. Then the above 4 methods will help you get back your data.

For non-professional users, the easiest and most successful way is to use MyRecover, which is designed to help users easily retrieve lost data in any situation. Let's download it now and start using it.