A WD My Passport 2TB external HDD, purchased in 2017, suddenly failed for a Pune-based creative professional who relied on it as the primary archive for years of branding projects, graphic designs, and multimedia campaigns. With 1.95TB of irreplaceable client work stored on this device, the loss posed a critical threat to their business operations. This 7-year-old drive had never shown issues before, making the failure sudden and alarming.

• Brand: WD My Passport
• Capacity: 2TB
• Data Size: 1.95TB
• Success Rate: 98%

The incident occurred after a minor drop from a desk, which caused the HDD to emit loud clicking noises—a clear sign of mechanical head failure. From that moment, the device would not mount on any laptop or desktop, leaving urgent deadlines hanging in the balance. The client had no secondary backup, meaning the only hope of restoring these essential files was through professional clean-room recovery services.

Lab diagnostics revealed multiple head crashes caused by physical impact, with visible platter damage covering about 2% of the drive’s surface area. These scratches had stripped the magnetic coating, making certain regions non-recoverable. The damaged zones overlapped with live file clusters, which required careful isolation to avoid further losses during the recovery process. The challenge was securing every intact sector before drive stability dropped further.

Our engineers replaced the damaged head stack with a donor assembly matched to the model and firmware revision. The recovery process was conducted in an ISO Class 100 clean-room, ensuring zero particle contamination. Imaging software was configured to focus first on healthy platter regions, cloning the most important project directories in multiple controlled passes. Damaged areas were then addressed using error-handling algorithms designed for partial sector reads.

We successfully recovered the complete set of active client projects, high-resolution artwork, branding templates, and archived design assets. Only a handful of small, non-critical temporary files stored in heavily degraded sectors remained unrecovered. The restored files were delivered in their original structure, allowing the client to resume work immediately without having to recreate any key deliverables.

Conclusion:
This recovery highlights that even drives with mechanical impact damage and platter loss can yield near-complete results when handled by experts. Using controlled, multi-pass imaging and strict clean-room protocols, the DataCare Labs team can salvage vital data while preventing irreversible damage to remaining sectors.

If your WD My Passport drive in Pune has become unresponsive or is clicking, don’t risk further damage with DIY attempts — contact DataCare Labs today. Our No Data No Charge Policy ensures you only pay when your files are successfully restored.