This drive has been in use since purchase as a backup drive for photographs with no problems. I recently reformatted the drive to use as a primary drive and it worked as before for several weeks but now causes Windows 10 to crash when used (on two different laptops).
When the drive is plugged in Windows displays a blue stop screen with the message: SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED. Windows then restarts automatically and recycles through this process if the drive remains attached. If the drive is disconnected whilst Windows is shut down, then Windows reboots normally and there are no software problems; the laptop works normally until the drive is plugged in again when the same problem recurs.
As the data on the drive is backed up, I am happy to reformat the drive again to see if this would solve the problem but cannot do this whilst the drive is plugged in! Can you offer any suggestions?
Peter
did you check the drive on a different computer to narrow down the issue ,whether its the computer or the drive???
Unfortunately there is the same problem on two different laptops. Both show the issue when the drive plugged in, but work fine when it’s not there.
It seems that the issue is with the drive as you said that whenever you connect it to system or laptop they stopped working normally. It might be possible that your drive get affected by the virus. Are you able to scan your drive with antivirus?
Antiviral scanning of the external drive is not possible as connecting the drive causes either of the laptops to crash immediately. I have scanned both laptops after the drive has been removed and they are again working to check that they had not been infected by a virus and both were clean, so I assume that the problem is not caused by a viral infection.
Realistically I would have thought the likelihood of this was remote as the only data on the drive is images downloaded directly from my digital camera - no internet connection involved.
I have been pursuing the matter directly with WD concurrently with this and they have admitted defeat, so the drive is being returned under warranty. Fortunately the images have been backed up elsewhere as a precaution - you can never be too careful!
Great!! good to hear that your drive will replace and you got your images back. 
