I have two WD Passport drives, one a 500gb and a 320gb. Just recently they have stopped showing up on my file manager’s when I plug one or the other into a usb port. I have tried to access them using PDExplorer, XPlorer (both commercial file mangers that used to recognize them) as well as Windows Explorer. None of the three show either of these drives, but do show and recognize a different brand external h.d. I sometimes use. I ran the WD diagnostic software, which did recognize them, and they passed the quick test.
Thanks for the link, but that didn’t do it. I should have mentioned that both drives are recognized and operable on a laptop I have. So they do spin up, cables work, etc. And I have tried three different usb ports on the desktop where they are not being recognized.
Try one of the power booster cables. It’s Y shaped and they use 2 USB ports on computer. A lot of PC’s have barely adequet powr supplies and these drives are sensitive to low voltage.