First, I didn't want this tidbit to go unnoticed from Simon:

"The drives we use these days for Audiophiles don't come apart easily, but that also means that they don't dislodge themselves from the internal connector (it's basically impossible for that to happen on these drives, short of breaking all the plastic for the drive), so in your case don't worry about disassembling the drive."

That's very good news, and represents a change from the advice we used to offer when a drive became disconnected during shipping.

Second, yes, try other USB ports, particularly one on the back of the computer directly connected to the motherboard.

Third, in Windows 10, I have regularly seen a USB 3.0 drive that is working correctly fail to be recognized by my computer. I then plug it into a USB 2.0 port, and it works. Try that. Then after properly disconnecting, that same drive does work in the USB 3.0 port that failed just a minute before. Weird, but reproducible and that's the workaround.

Having said all that, from your clear description of the problem, especially about the click (from the drive controller), I think it is most likely you need to send the drive to PG Music and request they check it and send a replacement.

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.