Problems connecting 2 My Book 1TB Drive to Windows 7

This is also formally registered with the support team  Incident - 100122-005671 - but after a week I am still awaiting the promised callback - so, all help really appreciated.

I bought 2 * 1tb ‘my book’ external USB Drives. Windows 7 mounts and assigns a drive letter to whichever one it finds first. It does not mount the 2nd… If you look in WD Smartware, the second drive found always says “no WD Smartdrive writable partition found”.

If I only connect one drive (either one), it mounts and a drive letter is assigned, so I am proposing that there is no hardware problem…

Note: I do see 2 * ?Virtual CD drives mounted…

Additionally, I saw (but can’t remember where) a signature conflict error somewhere…

WD Support tell me I am not the only person with this problem…

At the moment I cannot recommend anyone buying two such drives for windows 7…unless they want to use one as half of a smart bookend…

Thank you

Julian

1.  Are you connected via USB or 1394?  I don’t know which model of My Book you have.

2.  

I bought 2 * 1tb ‘my book’ external USB Drives. Windows 7 mounts and assigns a drive letter to whichever one it finds first. It does not mount the 2nd… If you look in WD Smartware, the second drive found always says “no WD Smartdrive writable partition found”.

Go to Disk Manager and see if both are partitioned and formatted properly to NTFS and has Drive letter.

Also, go to Device Manager and see if any devices having problem.

If I only connect one drive (either one), it mounts and a drive letter is assigned, so I am proposing that there is no hardware problem…

I agree. 

Note: I do see 2 * ?Virtual CD drives mounted…

This is normal.  1 each for each My Book with WD SmartWare Virtual CD.

Hi, I am connecting via USB.  The Drives are “my book essential”.

Thank you for your help.

Jules

Both are formatted and partitioned - i can see this as I connect each device individually.

In Device Manager, I can see both devices - neither is errored.

However, as I said previously, only the first device receives a device letter, the second does not.

Do you see both devices are getting drive letters on Disk Management?

I am thinking one of them maybe not getting drive letter (conflict) when both are connected.

you are correct, only the first gets a drive letter

Note: Both Virtual CD drives get a letter…

Not sure what these means or what to do…

Thank you.

Looks like conflict of Drive letter.

Right click on the volume that doesn’t have a drive letter and select Drive Letter option.

Assign a different drive letter than one recognized.

Good luck.

Hi - unfortunately because the 2nd drive does mount, it doesn’t appear on a list of disks to allow it to be reassigned… only the virtual CD drive gets mounted…  so, I cannot use the second drive

Just spoken to wd support, to someone who knew the answer…

I right-clicked" computer"; selected “disk management”; located the offline drive (in the second half of the screen); floating the mouse of the offline drives shows that there is a signature collision; if you when right-click over the word “offline” you can bring the disk on-line… problem solved.

Thank you to everyone who helped… my “dead book-end” has reverted back to being a backup-drive!

Good job!  Glad fixed your problem.

Hi chaps

I had to register just to say that you guys have saved my life!  I had no idea why it could only see one MyBook.  Your solution worked a treat with a 5-second fix.  Wish I’d found you sooner - I’ve spent about 4 hours tearing my hair out!

Will probably never post here again, but I was so thankful I’d found the solution I had to register and say a big THANK YOU!!

Great.  I hope this works with XP too (working now, so can’t try it). 

I’ve had this prob for a while but was minor as I generally only had one WD hooked at a time (I only use MyBooks - got about 6 of 'em).

But recently I have wanted to have two plugged in and no go.  So knock on wood, I’ill be able to use two at a time.

Thanks!

Thank you SO MUCH for posting this solution… I’ve been struggling for the last few hours trying to get my two new 2TB mybook essentials to work. It’s frustrating that WD makes drives that are so clearly meant to be used in tandem but that won’t play nice with each other out of the box.

Hats off to you, sir.

Note to WD: Please fix this!!

THANK YOU!  Easy fix, but pretty obscure for someone to figure it out on their own. There were almost NO hits on this subject anywhere! I’m adding some keywords to help others find this!

two drives

multiple drives

two devices

multiple devices

SmartWare

WD

My PassPort Essential SE

no writable wd smartware partition found