not detected at all even in the device manager or anywhere

Hi there,

I know this can be stressful, I myself have lost a few disks over the years, so I'll share what I have learnt over time.

I'll start with what might be more plausible to the least plausible

Assuming the USB cable is in working conditions, visually inspect the USB port on the drive. Can you see the two plates in the micro-B super speed (female) side of the drive? Is there any corrosion or damage?

If the answer is yes, the port could have fractured when unplugging the cable, or if you stored it with the usb cable attached to it, it could fracture/detach the port itself.

One way to fix (complicated and not worth it in my opnion) this is to open the drive, and solder a brand new port on it (electronic shops might be able to help there).

A better alternative in that case is to just get a SATA to USB adapter, connect the disk that way to your computer.

This could happen in humid environments. Unfortunately, there is no nice way to check this without opening the drive and visually inspect it.

Disassemble the portable disk, pull the disk out of the case and connect it to a sata to usb converter, then plug it to a computer and hopefully, it will be read by the computer.

If this was the case, I have good news and bad news...

The good news is, you have great luck and you might be able to get everything out of the disk to some other place.

The bad news is, if the board/usb side died because of humidity, it is likely the board on the disk will go out soon too. In that case, save what you can, and use the disk for anything you don't care losing at some point.

The headers in mechanical drives can become stuck if the disk isn't used in a long time and some disks (I am unsure if WD does this) can detect the motor is unable to initiate its spin, shutting down the controller (not showing on the computer and not lighting up the led because on some portable disks, the led comes on only when there is a data link established).

It is possible to get the header unstuck, but it is kind of stressful.

Before you attempt anything, check the header is stuck.

Checking stuck header

1. Check the USB cable you are using works
2. Connect the drive to a computer and listen carefully
   1. If you can't hear any buzzing or whining, chances are the header is stuck.
   2. If you hear clicking sounds, and disk manager (on windows, and often on other type of disk management systems on other operating systems) take a long time to load. This usually mean there is a different mechanical issue with the disk.
3. Once you have confirmed the header appears to be stuck
   1. Unplug it from the computer
   2. Hold it firm in your hands, like you are holding a phone with a tight grip
   3. Twist it / rotate it about a dozen times. Do not shake it in any direction, just twisting. This might separate the header from the platter.
   4. Put it back on a surface, plug it back in the computer, listen carefully again.
   5. Repeat about 2 or 3 times more if there is no sound or vibration you can feel.
      1. If you complete three rounds of this, but can't hear anything, I would recommend you to take it to a data recovery centre.

If you feel very adventurous, you could also open the drive in a clean room (dust free) and very, very careful move the header with rubber tweezers enough to get the header unstuck. This can potentially be catastrophic, so... you know... you have been warned.

Now... the disk may have other problems and it is hard to know exactly what it is based on windows/the computer not showing it on device/disk manager.

I hope this helps.