Some time ago, I purchased a 500 GB My Book Essentials external hard drive. When I plugged it in, my Vista desktop computer didn’t even recognize it. When I contacted support, they said it was out of warranty. I was extremely annoyed since it was a brand new drive, and already out of warranty, but I don’t like throwing away money, so I figured I’d find a way to make it work. I located the drivers on the WD website, but when I tried to click on the ExtFAT32v2.0.msi it informs me there is a program missing from my computer therefore it cannot format or partition the drive. What is the program I need to make this thing work? I have a Vista Desktop, and 2 XP laptops, and all 3 have precious little space left. I desperately need to transfer file onto this external drive. Any help you can provide would be most appreciated.
You don’t need any software or program to make the drive work. The device is a plug and play unit, Windows must see your drive and install the generic USB drivers.
Now if your drive is not been seen by the Windows Vista and the Windows XP computer we are dealing with major failure here. My recommendation is go into the WD website, www.wdc.com with your serial number check your drive warranty and replace it. You can also update the warranty from purchase date, if you provide that info to WD they can do it for you.
Keep in mind if you purchase the drive from a non authorize reseller like eBay, they won’t replace the drive you need to contact the original reseller.
That was my challenge from the start. I plugged in the hard drive, and my computer did not even recognize it. I contacted Western Digital, gave them the model number & serial number, and they informed me it was out of warranty, and that the warranty period is based on the ‘manufacturing’ date, and not the consumer’s ‘purchase’ date.
The warranty expired before I even purchased the drive. It was bad enough I was required to pay an additional $60 in duties to Canadian customs just to get the drive, but basically Western Digital informed me I was SOL, and refused to honour the warranty based on my purchase date, …so unless there is some way to get this drive to work, I am stuck with what amounts to a very expensive, overpriced, and unattractive paper weight.
The drive was in fact purchased from an authorized seller.
