Just bought a My Passport Elite 500MB ext HD. Have had a few WD ext drives in the past and have been happy with them. When connecting this particular model, I was asked to reformat the drive before Win7 64 bit could proceed. It was unable to complete the format. Now I am unable to access the disk at all.
The Passport Elite should already be formatted for a Windows based computer in the NTFS file system. If you were asked to format the drive when you connected it, it sounds like there may have been a problem with the unit. If the drive is not working properly and you cannot access it, I would recommend that you replace it by taking it back to the place of purchase.