WD My Passport not showing up

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
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I was reading each post and trying this and that to get my wd passport to show up on my w2k computer (it did not show up on the xp pro computer either).   Double clicking the little “remove attached device icon” ( lower right corner of task bar) said that the device was good.  Meanwhile it did not show a drive letter in “My Computer” (either computer).  Finally when I tried the “Computer Management” procedure the drive showed up “healthy” but still no letter.   I don’t know how, but suddenly it got a letter (I had also used the “Tweak-UI” idea and un-checked all drives except the ones in use and the one I wanted.  That one is the letter the drive now has.)  Sorry, that is the best I can do to explain why now the drive seems to be working.  I am moving data to another computer far away.  I have decided to leave the data on the old computer and rely on a trusted friend here to erase it if I successfully move it to the new computer.