Windows 10 not recognizing portable WD EHD

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
1

My new(ish) Dell laptop (purchased a year ago) not is recognizing my WD external hard drive - this is the first time I have tried it since I moved to Canada a year ago and purchased the new laptop then. The EHD was ourchased in the UK quite a few years ago. The EHD is still working fine with my old laptop and I have been able to access files on it today. This EHD does not have a separate power supply. The power light on the EHD comes on when I plug the USB into any of the 3 USB ports on the new laptop. However, the EHD does not show up in file explorer/disk management at all on the new laptop. There are no errors associated with the USB ports (I have checked in device manager and have even deleted the USB drivers and allowed them to be reinstalled on restarting my laptop). Is there something else you can suggest? I appreciate this EHD is quite old now but feel that this is not an excuse.

I tried to submit this as a question but kept getting an error message due to the model number being incompatible hence why I am posting in this forum. I really hope this is not just a classic case of “it’s too old”…

MODEL NUMBER WD1600XMS-00
Many thanks
Julie

2

What version of Windows do you have on your old Laptop?

3

Both old and new laptops are running with Windows 10.

However, I have today seen some inconsistency with the behaviour of the EHD

  • it was recognised for a brief moment by my newer laptop - although
    unfortunately not long enough for me to copy the files from it.
    I tried it again on my old laptop and it is not recognizing it at all
    today. All my data is safely backed up thankfully.

The blue power indicator light on the EHD continues to work when I plug it
into both laptops. Perhaps it is a problem with failing
hardware/connectivity issues rather than software. Of course I have tried
wiggling the wires gently but this seems to make no difference. Maybe it’s
time I gave up on it . What is the average life expectancy of a USB powered
WD EHD? Is there any guarantee? Any opinions and suggestions greatly
appreciated. Thanks.

Julie

4

As it’s also failing in the old laptop you can try to use a different USB cable, it might be getting power to turn on the LED but if the cable is deffective you will not be able to see the drive on your computer