WD 3Tb external hard drive just stopped working,. When I open ‘My Computer’ it is no longer listed as a rermovable storage device.The light on the WD box binks about twice a second and a mild hum can be heard, so it appears to me that it still functions, just is not seen by the computer. I have purchased a new usb cable with no effect. It is not reconized by bothh my PC or laptop, bothh running Windows XP… Memory Exprss salesman suggested a new external drive case if the usb cable did not solve the problem. All I have tried so far is changing the usb cable. Do not want to make matters worse until I get educated some more. Any fixes for this scenerio? Thanks.
Hello, you can verify if the hard drive is recognized on the disk management window, another option is to run a DLG test.
How to access Disk Management in Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 to manage hard drives
How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows
Thank-you for your reply. Although the WB 3tb does not show up in the ‘my computer’ window, there is the audable ’ bing bing’ sound from the computer when I turn on the WD (with the power button on the back), and the ‘bing bong’ sound when I use the rear button to shut it off. Would that not suggest the computer is ‘seeing’ the hard drive but some how is failing to list it as an alternative in the ‘Hard Disk Drives’ area of the ‘my computer’ window? The front light does flash every half second and I can hear the whir of the hard drive. I have done a lot of reading and tried to update drivers but they all say ‘up to date’ and ‘this is working properly’. It was working fine on both computers but now just not there. I have seen people post that Windows XP 64 might not reconize 3tb hard drives but this one worked for over a year. Maybe when I placed over 2tb of onfo on it the computer could no longer reconize it but I doubt that. I believe it only maybe a third full. I do not want to lose the data so I am cautious of trying to create new partion walls etc because they say the data will be lost. Maybe if I take it apart and plug directly into my pc I can retrieve the data. I thaught there might be a simpler solution as it seems I have seen a lot of posts on this problem but have not found an answer that saves the data. Thanks for the help. D.
