Not able to access a 500GB W D drive, shows up in Devices & Printers, but not in my computer!

The set-up is:

I have a WD 5000AVVS - 500GB HD connected to my laptop computer via a USB 2.0 adaptor.

The problem is:

I purchased a Linksys Media Hub; this drive came as part of the package. I’ve had nothing but problems with this purchase and very little help from both manufacturers involved. When the drive is in the Hub you cannot access the content supposedly stored on it. I removed the drive from the Hub and connected it directly to my laptop, it shows up in:

* Devices and printers as “USB to ATA/ATAPI bridge”
* Show hidden icons on the task bar
* Device manager under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers “Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller”
* Device manager under USB controllers “USB Mass Storage Device”

When you select the Computer page it only lists the HD on my laptop, not the 500GB WD SATA drive. Where the drive shows up you can’t do a thing with it, you can’t access the drive, you can’t format the drive, etc, etc. I’ve down loaded and ran the WD diagnostics software in both quick test and extended test modes, all results came back good. Viewing the SMART drive info all areas are given the big green tick. I’ve tried contacting WD about these issues but when I enter the drives serial number it comes back with “the drive is out of warranty” even though it was only purchased in February as part of this Linksys package. Any help would be really appreciated.

Kind regards

Steve.

Hello Steve-RDS,

Welcome to the WD Community,

How is the drive showing on disk management?

When install a new drive on the computer, you need to initialize the drive from the disk management, Were you able to do that?

Information on how to access the disk management o the link below.

How to access Disk Management in Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 to manage hard drives
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1284/session/L3RpbWUvMTQxNzAyNTMzMi9zaWQvbkw1ZW9wOG0=

Steve-RDS

112614-9287641

https://na12.salesforce.com/500U000000FaVxsIAF?nooverride=1

UK

Sent to EU Team to contact the customer 11/26