Win 8 My Computer does not recognize My Passport Essential - power light is on

Shows up in device manager and disk management and is connected but cannot read/access the external drive. “No writeable WD Smartware partition found.” USB drive works with other devices. could usb cable be bad? if so, how do i replace? 

thank you. 

Hello,

It is possible that the USB cable is not working properly. I recommend you contact support directly for assistance with this.

Contact WD

I followed your instructions for repartitioning the drive and it’s working fine now. Great directions!