I have a WD 500GB external hard drive that is not being recognized by my computer anymore. It just stopped working. When I plug the USB cable in, Windows recognizes that the device is there, and says that it has installed the approapriate software for the device and it is ready to use. However, the drive does not appear in My Computer. Also, I have right-clicked on my computer and then the Manage option, and under Disk Management, I do not see the drive. I have all of my sports games and music on the drive. I just need some help on how to solve this problem.
Hi
What usb port are you using to plug the drive? if your computer is a desktop plug the drive on a usb port located on the back of the pc, if you have a laptop plug the usb cable directly to the laptop dont use any usb hub.
I am having the same problem with my WD external hard drive. It sounds like it is running when I plug it into the power outlet, but the blue light on the front no longer turns on. It is not recognized by any USB port on my computer as well. Is there another way to go about accessing the files that are on it?
Hi mmerricks
plug the usb cable like I said above… and make sure the power adapter is plugged directly to the wall socket. If the drive is not recognised then go to Disk Management ( Start > right click on Computer or My Computer > Manage > Disk Management ) verify if the drive is showing there, if is showing and the drive says unalocated, format it but if the drive is not showing then replace it. You can contact WD to do a replacement
Hi
I have a laptop plug the usb cable directly to the laptop and I didn’t use any usb hub … also I use it with another laptop but there is same problem (detect my wd but there is no drive in order to access my movie)…
I have a similar problem. I have a lot of material saved on my WD portable HD (500 gb, usb cable only power source) and NOW no computer can access it. It powers up (I can hear it running) the computer recognizes when it is plugged in and unplugged but it doesn’t show up in my windows explorer.
I need to find a way to access the files. I tried plugging it into different usb ports on my laptop and I also tried to access it from other computers. I searched for it, but the HD isn’t showing up.
Can someone help me.
Does this show up in Disk Management? If so TestDisk http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk may fix the corrupt data
Joe
My WDPassport Portable USB Drive, which I have been using for afew years, all of a sudden is not recognized by my computer. What shall I do???
I had the same problem and came here (in a complete panic). I was able to recover my drive contents after plugging it directly into the wall. I had tried all of the other steps listed prior to that. I hope everyone gets their files back! What a nightmare!
Exact same issue. Tuesday the drive worked fine, I was out of work yesterday, tried plugging it into both work and home computers using every USB port available with nothing. Windows “recognizes” the drive and even says that it is “installed” but nothing shows up in “My Computer.” Work computer has WD Smartware and when that opens up it simply says that there is no WD partition. Drive was not password protected, just stopped working. Need help! Updating firmware tells me I need to format the drive… there has to be a better way.
