My Passport Essential - WD Smartware Unlocker

I’ve had my Passport Essential for several weeks and have since used it without a password.  Two days ago, however, I created a password with the Smartware.  Now, when I open Windows Explorer, my F: drive is listed as “WD Unlocker”.  When I open that, it asks for my password, which I enter.  But, the Passport Essential doesn’t appear in Windows Explorer for me to access it.  When I re-open WD Unlocker, it states that my Passport Essential isn’t locked.  That’s great that my Passport isn’t locked, but how the heck do I access it.  It doesn’t appear.  Also, when I launch WD Smartware with the Passport unlocked, the software seems not to recognize the Passport.  Any help anyone can lend will be greatly appreciated.

I’m sorry if a solution for my problem has previously been posted.  I’m new to this board.  Thanks in advance!

Hi Mcpetta:

Something that you can try is… After you use the unlocker and your computer tells you that the drive is unlock, go to disk management and check if you can see the external drive there. If the drive is not initialize, initialize it… Remember Initializing your external drive will format (erase, delete) all the information that you save on the external hard drive. Here the steps to get disk management on you pc.

HOW TO ACCESS THIS MANAGEMENT

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Stylz20:

Thank you for the tip.  Unfortunately, there is data on the drive that I just would hate to lose.  Any ideas on how to deal with the Unlocker issue without formatting the drive?  Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Try accessing the drive from a different user account like guest account or another PC. You might also get more notice posting in the Smartware area.

Joe

Hi is there any luck with this problem? I have the same issue. When I plug in my harddrive I can see the unlock image, when i unlock the drive by entering the password it says unlocked but doesn’t show the drive to explore. if I tray anything else with the live e.g. changing the drive letter etc, the system hangs.