"Legacy" WD desktop element not recognized with Win10

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

Dear community,
A friend of mine is requiring help to access his files stored on a “old” WD desktop Element external hard drive. The last time he used it was with his old Windows 7… :anguished:
I browsed the different topics in the community but I was not able to find a similar issue. :cry:

Under Windows 10, the hardware is not recognized (tested on 3 different PCs)
USB identifiers are : VID_13FD & PID_160E
=> unknown device in the “device manager” of Windows.

Does someone have a solution to have this external drive recognized under Win10 ?
Thx
Sylvain

2

If your hard drive is giving any of the below indications or warning signs then there are chances that your drive might be failing:

  1. Drive is undetectable or unrecognized.
  2. System fails to boot.
  3. Drive begins to make strange noise.
  4. System gets heated soon.
  5. BIOS unable to detect the drive.
  6. Files or folders become invisible or corrupt.
  7. Slowing down of the system.

Here, in your case as drive in showing unknown in device manager, I suggest you to check the below link where you’ll find how to fix the issue:

Further, I suggest you to check out the below blog that explains all the measures to check the health of any hard disk:

Hope it will help!!

3

I don’t think that VID_13FD is even a WD product. It looks like an Initio brand. But if this is a 2.5" drive or a 3.5" drive? if it is a 3.5" drive you can remove the 3.5" hard drive and connect it is to the computer internal Sata connection see if it show up.

4

Hi, thanks for your message.
I can assure it is a WD device.
To tell you the truth, I will unbox the hard disk if other alternative are not workinG.

5

Hi Mike,
thanks for the suggestions. I planned to work on them this week-end and I will let you know.
Sylvain