It can't be this hard... really...this is borderline psychotic

Mybook.  Dell 630D on XP.  Plug in power.  Plug in USB cable.  It’s not recognized by the system.   I try True Image 2013.  That “sees” it but nothing more.  The drive shows up no where else.   This is supposed to be a plug and play system.  It’s just not that hard.  What the heck is going on?  Yes, I have power up, down, up, down, up, down.   I have gone to the device manager that does not recognize it.   Ah come on… is this the best that WD can do ???

Hi there and welcome to the WD community.

On this case try to make sure the power on the drive is connected directly to the wall outlet just to test sometimes if the unit is connected to a surge protector it does not get enough power. If you try this and you still have the same issue, i recommend contacting support for more assistance. 

Also make you aren’t connecting the drive through a hub.

Joe