My WD external does not connect well to my laptop.

It sounds like the HDD inside is dead. The USB interface may have an issue but usually clicking or buzzing is HDD failure. If you have a desktop you can try removing the hard drive from the external case and connecting it directly to the computer using a SATA cable.

hello

do this and it should work : unplug the power and USB cords from the external WD drive

wait 20 seconds. plug the power cord into the drive (make sure the other end is plugged into the wall)
wait 20 seconds, plug the one end of the USB into the computer, and the other end into the WD external drive.

in a few seconds, your computer should see and activate the WD external drive.

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This means that the WD could is trying to connect to the computer but looses the connection. Try plugging the usb cord in another usb slot on your computer. Or try using another cable. Make sure the WD is not giving out any red led light on the device.

An external storage-device has four major components:

* the USB cable

* the power-adapter

* the disk-drive inside the enclosure

* the USB-to-disk-drive adapter inside the enclosure.

One of these components has failed.

Try a different USB cable.

Try connecting to a different USB port on your computer.

Try connecting to a USB port on a different computer.

Take a "multi-meter" and measure both the voltage and amperage output from the AC adapter, and compare with the specifications on the label on the adapter.

Open the enclosure, and remove the disk-drive, and then connect it as a "slave" disk-drive in a desktop computer, to see if it works at all.

Purchase a new, compatible, disk-drive, and install it in the enclosure, to "revive" your external storage device.

Get the part-number and serial-number from the label on your disk-drive, and access the manufacturer's web-site, and use "check warranty status", to see if they will replace the device, at minimal cost to you.

Note that W.D. has a "Customer Loyalty" program -- you can buy a new W.D. device, through the W.D. web-site, at a significant discount.

There exist commercial "data recovery" services that can try to repair your device, just long-enough to rescue and copy your files. For example, see: https://services.seagate.com/index.aspx?lng=en-US for a "no data - no charge" guarantee.

repartion it with disk management

just change the usb cord the problem is in the usb

sounds like you are using the wrong power supply. Check the amp output on the power plug you plug into the wall make sure its the same as the amp input of your external harddrive

Does you drive make any sounds like these? If yes you have a mechanical problem and you should get a specialist to work on it.
If not - try to remove the drive from the enclosure and connect it directly to the computer to recover your files.

I had a similar problem with my WD passport 320GB. When I connected it to my laptop it never showed up on My Computer even though the blue light on the hard drive came on.
Here is what I did:  Right click on "My Computer" and click on "Manage" and then "Disk Management",. you should see your WD hard drive listed. then click on "change driver letters and paths"  and change it from the listed to another drive. I changed mine from G to F drive and it worked for me.