Problem with Western Digital 500 GO my book essential - unrecognized

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

Greatings,

I have a problem with my ebook essentials 500 GO.

I already posted this elsewhere.

http://www.vistax64.com/drivers/302169-problem-western-digital-500-go-my-book-essential-unrecognized.html?s=bf2bfbeefb605f557635bb818f4dca57

In brief:

My WD mybook essentials can be seen by my desktop computer (Vista64). But the computer cannot recognize what it is or see what files are on it.

I had the same problem with the laptop computer (Win7), so the issue does seem more related to the hard drive, than to a computer or OS.

G is now empty.

If I go to Computer/ Manage/ Disk management, the hard drive does’nt appear.

I also have the icon (on the right below of the screen) to remove USB safely. But the G does’t appear here either.

I decided to boot from the WD hard drive to see what happens. But it hasn’t resolved my problem.

BTW, there is no driver on the Western Digital website for Vista, because (or so they think) in Vista drivers are automatically updated or installed.

I downloaded the WD Drive Utility software as suggested here.

Western Digital My Book 500 gb External

It doesn’t see the external hard drive, though it is indeed connected.

I still have the message that something unknown has been connected.

__

If someone has any suggestion…is there any other tool I could use?

It seems to be a hardware-related problem, but maybe a diagnostic software could confirm this.

2

Hello,

You should try some basic troubleshooting:

If the drive is not seen when you connect it to your computer please try:

1- Connecting the power adapter to the wall directly.

2- If the computer is a desktop, connect it on the back USB port (directly to the PC, not through a hub).

3- Make sure you hear the connection sound windows makes when recognizes a USB device.

4- Go to "Disk Management” to verify if the drive shows up there.

If the drive shows up in disk management but it is not seen on Computer, then it means the partition is corrupted and you will have to format it in order to use it again. Please note that formatting the drive will delete all data stored on it.

1 Like
3

Hello,

It was just that the hard drive was slightly disconnected. I just hadn’t checked all the connections - which I should have done.

Thanks you for your help indeed - basic troubleshooting was really all I needed.

I lost a few hours in the process.

Ellioz