I have a WD My Book 10 TB USB 3 external drive which I have been using for many years with no issues. I use the drive for monthly backups.
Today when I did the backup I’ve done for years, I took forever and looking at the transfer rate, it was about 35 MB/sec. I’m not sure what the transfer rate usually is but given how the backup which today took almost the full day, that usually finishes in a couple of hours tops.
Looking in Device Manager in Windows, below is a screenshot what I see. Apparently and for whatever reason, Windows tells me no driver is installed. I’ve tried removing the drive in Device Manager followed by restarting the PC but same issue. I have also tried using another USB port but still same thing.
Any ideas?
The only thing I can think of myself is some Windows updates caused this which has been automatically installed since I used the disk last time. I have also tried to see if there’s any new drivers by going into Advanced in Windows update and search for other drivers but nothing. I have also tried searching for new drivers by right-clicking the drive in Device Manager but I’m told no drivers could be found.
Many thanks in advance for any tips how to get the drive running normally again.
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It looks like the WD SES driver is missing, which might be causing the slow transfer rate and connection issue. Here’s what I would suggest:
- First, try downloading and installing the WD SES Driver from the WD support site. This should help the drive communicate properly with your PC.
- If that doesn’t help, try plugging the drive into a different USB port, preferably a USB 3.0 one. Also, check if the USB cable is working properly.
- It’s also worth testing the drive on another computer to see if the problem is with your current PC or the drive itself.
- Make sure your Windows is fully updated. Sometimes, Windows updates can fix compatibility issues with devices.
- If that still doesn’t fix it, go to Device Manager, find USB controllers, and uninstall them. After restarting, Windows should reinstall them automatically.
Lastly, try using the WD Drive Utilities software to check the drive’s health.
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Thanks but already tried most on your list except for nr 3 with no access to another computer. Also, not sure how to check the cable with the weird looking connection on the drive’s side. If it would have been a normal connection, it would have been easier to find another cable for testing purposes.
However, since other USB3 storage devices work just fine when connected to the same computer and USB3 port with normal transfer speeds, that tells me the issue is with the WD drive. I’ve of course tried different USB3 ports with same result.
As for driver, I wasn’t able to find one for Windows 11. Maybe I overlooked it? What I did notice though was how the driver was automatically installed as part of the installation of the WD Drive Utilities software.
Also confused because I never had to install a driver myself for an external drive.
I’ve seen in Nirsoft USB Deview I think it’s called how the disk presents itself/is identified as a USB2 device rather than a USB3 device. So that seems to be the main issue and also the explanation of the bad performance.
Question is why this started right now when I’ve been using the drive for many, many years with the same computer as mentioned in my first post 
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Replaced the cable and now the drive is connecting as USB3 again with a transfer rate of around 140 MB/sec rather than 35 MB/sec.
Problem solved!
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