I’m helping with the clean-up of a deceased estate and have found an unused WD My Book from June 2006 - pre-Windows7! There is 500 Gb of storage.
My PC recognizes the drive when I connect it, and Disk Management tells me that the drive is healthy. However, there is nothing listed under File System and when I right click, almost everything is greyed-out, except Properties, Help and something called ‘Convert to Dynamic Disk’.
I recognize the possibility that the drive may simply be too old to work proerly with modern PCs, but I’m wondering if I simply need to install some up to date WD software to bring the drive to life. Any suggestions as to what I should download and install would be appreciated.
Hi @PeterProg
Have you checked our knowledge base articles?
(Support for Western Digital Hard Drives | Western Digital)
Have you opened a Support Case?
If not, contact Western Digital Technical Support for assistance.
(https://www.westerndigital.com/en-in/support/contact-us)
Hi @PeterProg,
Since your WD My Book is recognized but has no file system listed, try these steps:
- Check for hidden partitions in Disk Management—data recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery can help if data is missing.
- Assign a drive letter if the drive appears but isn’t accessible.
- Use data recovery software if the file system isn’t recognized due to age (e.g., FAT32).
- Try WD Drive Utilities from WD’s website—it might help restore functionality.
- Test on an older PC or Linux to check compatibility.
Avoid formatting if you need to recover data.
Thanks very much everybody for the advice. I will follow up.
