WD External Hard drive not recognized in my computer

[pam1120]

Hi gud day!

It's been a month that my external hard drive could not be detected in my laptop. the light still lights up when i connect it via USB cable but nothing appears on the computer. I also tried connecting it to different computers and cable and it is still not recognized... I also check it on disk management and it is still not visible. is my hard drive damaged? is there a chance I could retrieve all my files?

[din_je]

you must bent your usb cable when connect it to pc

[WD-prob]

Hi there, were you able to find a solution ? I have a similar problem with my WD-160GB External Hard Drive. Gosh I need all the data in there ? Dont tell me its gone !

[cae02]

1.  is the drive spinning without clicking noise?  If no, check cable on both external drive and computer.  Is the USB port good with another drive?

2.  if yes, do you see the disk under device manager/windows and system profiler/mac? If no, reboot or unplug-replug.

3.  if yes, do you see the partition under disk Management/winows and Disk Utility/Mac? If no, check if security enabled?

4. if yes, do you see the drive letter assigned/desk management/windows?  If no, right click and assign drive letter.

5. if yes, you may have to format the drive again.   **** Do this after all other methods failed as it will wipe out your data.***

[penry1]

Hi, Having the same problems. Could u tell me how  to format, if the computer doesnt recognise the external hard drive ?.   This seems to be quite a popular problem as u search google for an answer. My drive was recognised for about 5 mins this morning but then automatically decided it wasnt recognised anymore then dissapeared. Hope this all makes sense. 

Any help appreciated.

[cae02]

penry1,

What is your drive from below?

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=1&lang=en

1.  Pick the drive and see if there is Firmware update.

2.  if yes, please update to latest.

3.  if no, go to Disk Management/Windows and Disk Utility for Mac

4.  If the drive volume shows up right click and format to NTFS/Windows and GUID partition and HFS+J for Mac

[WD-prob]

Hi there I have exactly the same prob as you. Mine is a WD-160GB Hard drive....Could u please let me know if u recovered ur data ? Please help

[Crazy_Mad]

Excuse my langue, but this is [text deleted]  ridiculous, so many people are having this problem I can see over a thousand people have view this post alone… and there is yet to be a fix for it by you people. I’m really quite fed up with this product and I’m going to return it and buy another brand. You’ve lost a customer, and gained bad word of mouth, nice job! Wiping something your trying to save shouldn’t be an option, thanks.

[gameguy]

are you all having the same issue as me?  When I plug it in, the activity light keeps blinking.  I tried a few different cables and that doesnt solve the prob.

Some have said online that there might be a virus on the drive.  Do any of you see that as possible for causing it to be unrecognized?

[gameguy]

I just got off the phone with support...mine would not recognize as well and the support guy says that it is defective.  Pisses me off.  I now have to pay a data recovery company to get my data.

Do any of you have any suggestions for reasonable pricing for data recovery?