WD External Hard drive not recognized in my computer [ Edited ]

[superfans124]

hmm, looks like I've just arrived at the party which apparantly never ends.

I have a WD passport SE 1TB, my laptop is HP with 64 bit Win 7, everything worked fine for almost half a year until yesterday.  I brought the WD to a friend's, and transfered bunch of files to two other computers, 1 macbook pro, 1 win xp, everything went through, no problem.  but after I took my WD home, my own laptop won't recognize it anymore.  my WD passport SE has smartware for security, it now still pumps the screen ask for password to unlock (the drive blinks and spins as usual), I typed in correctly, it says drive now unlocked, and then...nothing.  when everything worked perfectly, after unlocking the drive, I would find it under My Computer's Hard Disk Drive section, but now after unlocking it only shows as CD-drive WD smartware, and I can't do anything with it, can't access my files and data.  I click on the CD-drive wd icon, it would seem the system starts scanning the device, but nothing will eventually come up, I think it actually soft crash the system.  when I unplugged it, a warning pops up says the device will have to be formatted, whatever...

I've tried:

1. different 2.0 USB cables, no help.

2. connecting to all available USB ports on my laptop, no help.

3. wiggling the cord or whatever, no help.

4. checking under disk manager, when connected and unlocked, the disk manager would soft crash...

5. looking under device manager, shows it's there, but "no driver installed", and of course it's supposed to be compatable with win 7 and should work with drive's own stand-along installer the way it used to, but...

6. installing the firmware updater, click and nothing happened...

so I took it to a WD authorized repair center early today, explained to them my problem.  the tech connected it to their system (XP), guess what? everything works all finey and dandy, they looked at me like I'm stupid, and I do feel very stupid.  but it still won't freaking work on my own laptop.

so the good news is my WD is actually still good, I will have to try more other computers, but at the mean time, I can't use it on my own laptop.

[superfans124]

oh great, it's working now, I haven't got a clue of how or why...

after visiting the repair center, hooked up to my laptop, still same [deleted] different day, after I sort of just "let it be" for about 30 mins, out of a sudden, everything came together, it's recognized, it's in device manager, it's in disk manager, I scanned through my files no problem, and I'm now running WD lifeguard diagnosis (which wasn't possible).

I'm glad it's working again, but god knows when it will decide not to? without knowing the problem, it feel like working with a ticking time bomb.

[szewslowfox]

I am running Windows 7 home premium on a HP DV6 notebook. When I plug in the WD external HD via USB, the windows explorer does not  recognize the WD HD. I used  Paragon Partition Manager 10 to look at the issue. The computer recognizes the WD HD but there are no drive letters assigned to the partitions in the WD HD. After assigning drive letters, I can use the WD HD.

I am looking to find a permanent fix for this issue and will post it leter.

[vit14645]

I can understand people's frustration when something works and then stops working, but please take the time to check if you've done everything on your end to protect your investment.

first off, power is a lot more important than the obvious..

plugging it in/unplugging when not in use is a good practice however if you have a surge protector or battery backup (bbackup is best), plug it in there.

keep in mind of USB power surges..they DO happen. Make sure anything you are connecting is clean, not bent, dry etc.

surges large or small can and will destroy use of your drive..that isn't a WD hardware fault.

I've seen other people post info about checking out device manager/disk management. Here is a good site for that rundown as well as some other useful info: http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=194531

When a HD goes, there isn't too much you can do to get it working again..that's why it is very important to try to have a proactive mindset..back up your backup.

If you have access to a desktop computer, you can always try taking apart the external enclosure. They usually have regular hard drives inside or laptop hard drives. If it is a regular (IDE, the wide grey ribbon cables) drive then you can just plug it into your motherboard on your desktop and try to get it to be recognized that way. It could be that the internal parts in the external drive are faulty. There are also adapters you can purchase (which are godsends btw) that will allow you to hook up to USB. Here is an example http://www.cooldrives.com/index.php/saandidehadr1.html

Believe it or not, but there is an old trick called a "cold boot" that sometimes works. If your drive is failing just about all tests and you can't get it to do much of anything, this would be a last resort kind of thing. Basically, get an antistatic bag (put it inside a few ziplock bags too), put the drive in it (out of the enclosure that is) and throw it in the freezer over-night. When you take it out the next morning, you must be very quick; have everything ready to go. Just plug it in, boot up the computer and hope for the best. If this method actually works for you, you have a very limited amount of time to start backing up your data. You don't have to leave it in over night either..but I would recommend at least and hour or two.

Google it if you don't believe me..

If you have access to programs like The Ultimate Boot CD or Knoppix, I would suggest using them to boot to and transfer your files..there is too much to explain on those if you are unfamiliar with them, but again, Google works wonders.

As for the filesystems on these hard drives...i'm not 100% positive on this, just assuming..BUT..I would assume that they are formated in FAT32 format considering that is universally read throughout windows operating systems. The NTFS format is different becase it allows for encryption on your disks..which is the standard from Windows XP and up. There isn't really anything that will make it incompatible with your "new" computer in terms of hardware or the formatting considering everything that is out there in terms of pc's and their operating systems..to suggest that would be kind of silly don't you think?

Anywho, I hope that some of this info helped some of you out there or at least gave you a better insight as to what you can and cannot do..

Oh and I almost forgot! Data recovery software for those who want to try it. I've always had good luck with Stellar Phoenix and Digital Rescue Premium.

Best of luck to you all

-Vit

[Fic67]

Running windows XP and nada.......this stinks!

[juliem125]

I'm betting all of these new computers are having the same problem I am.  Windows 7 isn't recognizing the Western Digital software.  I've tried 6 cords,  two different Western Digital external hard drives and NONE are recognized...  on my NEW computer, but when I pulled out an old one using XP it was all there. I spent the night transferring things OFF the Western Digitals until they can find a fix for the new software. I imagine it's a Microsoft mess up, but they won't acknowledge it so it will be up to WD to make their units compatible.

[hardvic]

got the same problem with my terabyte WD using firewire. lights up from  its own power source. Occasionally is recognized and can scan files inside the WD. But then it just disappears. I can sometimes get it to go by turning on off reconnecting and rebooting, but then it jus disappears. Any ideas?

[Heldijk]

Hey! Where can I find such a repair centre in Holland? I have a WD My Book Pro with the same problem. I have thousands of photo's on it, only partly backuped on disks. For a year or so I didn't have any problems. Than the misery begun: my computer (with Vista) did not recognize My Book now and than. It worked to pull out the cables and restart the computer. Recently it stopted recognizing it at all. If I had only read this and other sites with complaints about WD My Book before, I would have made a backup right away, when it still worked.

I think WD should  warn people for this misery in the manual and on their site. A 'sorry' afterwards in the forum doesn't help people.

[artisticmind]

I have the same problem as everyone else, and i thought my files were gone forever.  All you have to do is go here, http://www.ehow.com/how_4474341_recover-data-external-hard-drive.html i promise it works with no viruses, and download the pc inspector and follow the directions on the ehow. If u have problems you can email me at terriblyartistic@yahoo.com. I wish someone had done this for me, so thats why im doing it for you. Theres no reason to have to pay someone to recover all your files for you.

=} i really hope this helps

[gords]

him having the same problem as well. i've just brought mine today uploaded some stuff to it and now it wont let me back into it. it keeps saying i need to format it but i've formated it like 10 times and it wont do anything