macos - Recover USB HDD From Failed Firmware Upgrade

I just bought a brand new Western Digital "My Passport for Mac" I was running a firmware update on it (on a MacBook Pro) and it stalled out half way through. I let it sit overnight and in the morning the firmware update program was closed and the hard drive would not mount on my computer. Now when I plug it in nothing happens. I've tried running the firmware update again but it says it cannot find the drive. The drive does not mount, show in Disk Utility, and in System Profiler it just shows the following for the USB port I have it plugged into:

Vendor-Specific Device:
  Product ID:   0x1617
  Vendor ID:    0x13fd  (Initio Corporation)
  Version:   1.00
  Speed:    Up to 480 Mb/sec
  Location ID:  0x26200000
  Current Available (mA):   500
  Current Required (mA):    Unknown (Device has not been configured)

Is there anything I can do?

Answer

If you want the data back from it, you could try opening the case - very often the actual drive is just a standard SATA drive in a caddy with a USB connection (Google will probably know what the internals of your exact model are). Once you retrieve the hard drive, you can put it in another caddy (or an internal drive bay if you have or can borrow a Mac Pro or other tower) and get the data off.

That said, this wouldn't work if it was the actual drive's firmware that got screwed up, although the fact that System Profiler can't recognise it suggests that it's the USB firmware that isn't working.

I you just want to get your drive back in use, I doubt there's much you can do yourself. If it's a recent purchase and you followed all the firmware update instructions, I think you've got a reasonable argument for the drive having been defective - either take it back to the place you bought it, or contact Western Digital directly - you should be due a refund or replacement.