Windows Only Recognizes one of two My Book 1tb USB 2 drives at a time

I have two My Book Essential 1 tb USB 2.0 drives. Exactly the same. Both work fine but Windows will only one of the large storage spaces/drives at a time. It shows both SmartWare drives but only one Image partition or major partition at a time. Both have the lights working on the front of the drives. I have them plugged in the front USB slots but tried one in front and one in back but this did not change anything. The Device Manager shows both, but Computer Management only shows one.

I just reformatted the C drive yesterday.

How do I get Windows to see both at the same time?

Go into disk management and make sure they are assigned different drive letters. Then while there make sure the second drive is online.

Joe

Joe,

Like I said, " Only one shows up in Computer Management" at a time. They both show up in the Device Manager, Not in My Computer. The only part of both the show up at the same time is the Smart Ware partition/software. Nothing else shows up when both are plugged in at the same time.

 Go to disk management (Right click on Computer > Go to Manage> Disk Management)   and change the drive letter and get the drive online. You can try changing the name to the drive and then see what happens.

You have a drive letter conflict, is normal for this to happen when you have to similar drives connected at the same time. Windows will try to assign the same letter to the drive. 

Whizer,

With both drives plugged in the front, I went and changed the label (to My Book One), rebooted and nothing changed (see image below). Disk management shows the same devices. I then tried changing the drive letter and it changed but the other one did not show up and the drive letter reverted at boot, but not the label. I then tried one in the front and one in the rear but no change. Whichever drive is plugged in the label is the same, My Book One.

As you can see both SmartWare Drives (?) show up but that is all of the second My Book.

Question still, How do I get both to display at the same time?

Well… Try this , name one drive My Book Two and leave the other one as MB one. Then connect them both to the computer (front and rear usb), make sure to connect them to wall socket and not power surge.

Go back to disk management and one the drives WILL show as offline, just right click and turn online.

I would like to give them the names you suggest but only one shows up at a time and the label for the one that shows up is My Book One. If I unplug both  and plug either one in it is labeled My Book One, then unplug that one and plug the second one in  it shows up a My Book One also. If I plug both in at once the only one that shows up is the first plugged in and it is labeled My Book One. If I could get them both to show up at the same time I could label them different but I can’t.

Well as a mention before you can connect one first and name it, then connect the other one. If they’re both showing as MB one that means that only the one that you named is showing.  

Once you name the drives follow the steps on getting the drive online on Disk Management I previously gave you.

You sayl “If they’re both showing as MB one that means that only the one that you named is showing.  ” They both “NEVER” show up at the same time!! Only one (the first plugged in) shows up. That is want I want, for both to show up in My Computer “at the same time”.

Well, that will be accomplished only if you follow the steps I have given you already. First you need to get the drives with different names ( connecting one name it eject drive, connect the other one name it, then connect the 1st drive back). 

Then you’ll proceed with the steps I gave you on how to get it online on Disk Management. I think the info I provided is sufficient but in case you still need assistance changing the letter check this  Link.

Remember: Get the drive online (meaning the drive will not show on computer , it will only show on disk management as an offline disk). 

Once online then it will show for you to change the drive letter.

It does not show up  in Disk Management either. It shows the same drives that show up in My Computer. I can not get both to display “anywhere” at the same time. Only one at a time.

Dude.On the top it will show the same drives, now, if you look at the bottom on Disk Management, there’s a list of drives there. I.e. disk 1 disk 2 so forth. There you should see the drive that is offline and WILL be able to turn online and change the drive letter.

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Oh, I see and I did right click on that and selected “Online” and it did show up but I had to relabel it as My Book Two and now they both show up in My Computer…

Thanks so much…  I was about to pull some hair out…

Glad to know it worked, I was pulling my hair already :smileyvery-happy:

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Thread moved to WD External Drives : My Book for PC.

Regards,