After installing and using an external hard drive under Windows 7 or
Vista, the drive is not detected correctly under Windows XP.
I don’t see the drive in Disk Management, something is be wrong with the drive
and I don’t no how to fix problem.
Hey there Tatjana 
Welcome to the community!
Could you please specify the brand and the model of the drive.
Are you using the drive on the same computer or is the XP machine different than the Vista and the 7 ones?
I would check if the drive is visible in the BIOS and the Device Manager.
I’d also suggest trying other cables and ports on this computer and possibly try the drive on an already functioning computer and see if the results are different.
You could also check if the drive is spinning at all as it may be a power issue.
Keeping your OS and drivers up to date is also a good idea.
Post back with some info so we can give you more suggestions
Captain_WD.
If you used GPT partitioning on the drive then only Windows XP 64-Bit Edition will detect it.
If you wanna check … plug the drive back into Windows 7 (which supports GPT) , then
Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management, and select Disk Management.On the left of the right lower pane, right-click on Disk 0 (or Disk 1, Disk 2 etc) and select Properties. Select the Volumes tab
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HelloThank you for answer. At home I have installed Windows 7 and WD Elements (model WDBUZG0010BBK-EESN) works great.But on another computer I have installed Windows XP 32-Bit Edition.Computer recognizes external but can’t open it.I tried everything. If you have any idea I would be grateful.Tanja
define “recognizes”
In your original post you said “the drive is not detected correctly under Windows XP.
I don’t see the drive in Disk Management”
Not Detected and No appearance in Disk Management is not a “recognized” HDD.
Did you try checking if the Volume is GPT or MBR as i explained in my previous post ?
Hey again
As @JoeySmyth perfectly explained, this may be a simple case of a GPT/MBR situation. I’d follow Joey’s guideline and post back if the drive is using the MBR or the GPT partitioning style.
You can also check this link for more info on the subject and some guidelines on how to resolve it.
Post back when you check if the drive is using the GPT or the MBR partitioning style.
Captain_WD.
Hello Again
I sent you a picture. I think it’s easier to understand. Left WD Elements does not work.And right is working
Thank’s
Apologies, but I don’t seem to have anything in my inbox nor in my e-mail. Where did you send the picture? Could you post it here in the comments? Did you check if the drive is using MBR or GPT?
Captain_WD.
That picture doesn’t make a lot of sense … (how can Disk 2 be GPT and MBR at the same time ? not possible)
But anyways … as i said, Windows XP 32-Bit does not support GPT partitions
so you’ll need to re-partition to MBR or use 3rd Party Software that will convert GPT > MBR without data loss. eg AOMEI
As @JoeySmyth pointed out, you would need to re-partition your drive in order to have it functioning properly across all your systems.
Windows XP 32bit does not support GPT partitioning style so your drive cannot be recognized.
I would suggest to plug that drive to one of the other systems, back the data up on another drive and simply convert the WD Elements into MBR and then restore the data. Then it should be available to all your systems.
Once backed up you can use DiskPart to convert your drive. Do have in mind that this commend wipes the data off the drive and if there’s any that’s not backed up you will lose it!
Here’s how to use Disk Part:
- Click “Start” and then select the “Run” option in the Start Menu.
- type “diskpart” at the prompt and select “OK”. Your CMD will pop up with the Disk Part being active
- type “List Disk” and press “Enter”. You will see a list of all your drives with their status, size, free space and other options.
- check which one is the problematic drive and type “Select Disk #” where # is the number of the problematic drive and press “Enter”. A message will tell you that the drive # i the selected disk.
- type “Clean” and press “Enter”. The selected disk will be cleaned and will be left with unallocated space while deleting all data from the drive.
After this you can easily partition and format the drive and move back the data to it and it should be usable across all systems.
Post back if you have any questions. If not - write back with some results! Hope this helps in resolving the issue!
Captain_WD.
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AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition can convert GPT to MBR without data loss … so there is no need to backup and re-partition.
I’ve done it several times … and it works perfectly fine, just speaking from personal experience
And … it only takes about 30 seconds for the procedure to complete
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Hey
Although it may work, I can’t really provide advice on products that are not Western Digital’s so if @Tatjana_Spasic decides to try that it should be at their own risk as I can’t fully guarantee it would work.
Cheers!
Captain_WD.
I understand
Maybe WD should consider looking into that feature for Hard Drive Software they offer
Anyways, i’ve had no issues using 3rd Software to convert … but i agree everything is a “Risk”
Which is why i always make sure to have a Backup of my Data
It worked. Thank you a lot. You helped a lot. 
Puno pozdrava 
thanks , this work to my WD…
Now my disk can detected by Win xp
