My new* WD Elements 2620 2TB drive does not appear in the list of drives for This PC. The drive appears in the list of drives in Disk Management but without a drive letter assigned. I can manually assign a letter in Disk Management, and the assignment persists - even if I disconnect the drive - until I shut down Windows. When I re-attach the device or restart the computer, the behavior repeats - a drive letter is not automatically assigned.
*by “new” I mean I purchased and received the drive two days ago.
I used the Diskpart utility command to check the attributes of the volume on the drive. The “Hidden” attribute is turned on. I am unable to “clear” this attribute via the Diskpart command “Attributes volume clear hidden.”
DISKPART> automount
Automatic mounting of new volumes enabled.
DISKPART> attributes volume
Read-only : No
Hidden : Yes
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy : No
The System Event Log shows this error when I connect the 2620 drive to the PC:
The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{2593F8B9-4EAF-457C-B68A-50F6B8EA6B54}
and APPID
{15C20B67-12E7-4BB6-92BB-7AFF07997402}
to the user SHAUN2021-PC\shaun SID (S-1-5-21-1297249096-4248402892-1278183910-1001) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.
How do I fix this? I need an answer fast, or I will return the drive to the retailer for a refund.
No thanks. I have already wasted enough time trying to made this device work. All the other WD Elements I own behave as they should with the same PC, so I don’t think Windows is at fault. I have arranged to exchange this unit for an identical one from the retailer. If the problems persist, I will try another brand.
Try Samsung.
I’m phasing out WD for Samsung, and you can imagine why.
Whatever the problems are … Hardware and/or software … for Samsung … plug in and it works … never let me down. Samsung’s Magician software en SSD driver works perfect with Windows 10.
Thanks for the recommendation. Up until now, WD has done the job. Elements drives are recommended for DLNA streaming video and video recording on DVR’s over My Passport and other models which drop offline or have other problems. I want to replace the My Passport I use with a DVR because of dropped frames on recordings. The older Elements drives I own (25A1) have never give me a problem . This is the first 2620 I’ve had. Could be the last.
I returned the first device for an exchange of the same product, thinking it was simply a one-off defective unit. The replacement WD Elements 2620 worked fine for three weeks, then crashed. It will also be returned for a refund while I shop for a replacement made by a different manufacturer.
I cannot find Samsung external HDD’s, so I did some research and learned that, for a time, Seagate was manufacturing Samsung HDD drives. This is from Wikipedia:
" In December 2011, Seagate acquired Samsung’s HDD business.[50] Seagate also acquired a license to use Samsung trademark on HDD products for 5 years; after license expired, Seagate rebranded all Samsung-branded external HDD products to Maxtor, a company which Seagate acquired earlier. Internal HDDs from former Samsung factories have been simultaneously branded as Samsung and Seagate after the acquisition, then they were exclusively Seagate-branded."
