I had a similar problem with my WD passport 320GB. When I connected it to my laptop it never showed up on My Computer even though the blue light on the hard drive came on.
Here is what I did:
Right click on "My Computer" and click on "Manage" and then "Disk Management",. you should see your WD hard drive listed. then click on "change driver letters and paths" and change it from the listed to another drive. I changed mine from G to F drive and it worked for me.
Hi,
I have a 120G WD Passport drive. It works fine when I connect to my laptop and other computers. But, I had a similar problem, where it does not work when connected to my home computer. After I read a post, that hinted at the ability to draw power as a possible issue.. I realized that I connected the WD passport through a usb hub. I immediately connected the drive directly to the computer and it started to work.
The error message that windows shows "usb device not recognized" is a bit misleading, it was insufficiently powered in the first place.
I hope this helps anyone out there still facing this issue...
Cheers,
Prabhat
Well the answer to the laptop problem is that the some laptop's usb ports will lack the power supply to run the disk drive, so if you hear a click and a spin and then a sudden stop, power supply is the issue. The solution to getting the hard drive to work on the laptop is to get a power cord that utilizes two of the laptop's usb ports to get enough power to run it. However, that might be a bit of a hassle since some laptops don't have two usb ports next to each other.
For the "USB not Recognized" solution, I have a question for you:
1: Do you pull on the cord or the plug when taking it out of the computer?
2: Do you crumple or wrap the cord when putting it away?
If you did any of this, the wiring is probably busted, as it's now not allowing enough power to go through the cord anymore. It's the same as a PS2 controller; If you keep wrapping the cord around the controller tightly, eventually the wires in the cord will break and will render some the buttons or the whole controller useless. The solution: Simply get another Mini Type-B cord, preferably from Western Digital if you can. If you want to use another power supply cord from a different product, if might be a little risky since some will might produce more power than the hard drive might handle, resulting in overheating and loss of data. But, if your one for experimentation, go for it.
Hope this helps
Hey guys, thought I would add my 10cents worth, I recently bought a 160GB wd passport essential Hd and it would only occasionally be detected on my PC, so I got in touch with WD to see if they could help, well it seems the problem is not with the hard drive itself but the cable,if the cable only has a single USB connector then you are going to have problems,get it touch with WD and see if they can replace the cable, as a 1 USB connector is not powerful enought to run the HD and be able to write or read it, so what you need is a 'Y' cable with 2 USB connectors on it, and I guarantee your problems with the hard drive will disappear..
It now works a treat,gets detected everytime the HD is connected,but word of warning get rid of the WD smartware,it causes problems and is memory hungry..
These WD Passport external drives are junk. This happened to two of mine, switched to Maxtor.
I had the same problem.. it connects to my mac and another laptop with xp installed. when i plug it in at work, it doesnt.
Here's what i did, right click on my computer -> manage -> disk management. Western digital should show up in hard drive. click on it - right click and explore. It opens as F drive.
If F drive is already mapped to another location, disconnect the mapping and then explore the passport from disk management. This time it worked.
The circuitry in the box has a controller ic which has got shorted or the circuit plate of the hdd has gone faulty in power supply section
SOURCE: My PC is not recognizing my WD Passport 120GB USB external drive.
my pc not recognizing my wd passport
SOURCE: My PC is not recognizing my WD Passport 120GB USB external drive.
Does you drive make any sounds like these?
If yes you have a mechanical problem and you should get a specialist to work on it.
If not - try to remove the drive from the enclosure and connect it directly to the computer to recover your files.
SOURCE: My PC is not recognizing my WD Passport 120GB USB external drive.
I had the same issue. Its not a power issue because it shows up in device manager. Heres what I did.
Right-click on my computer and click Manage>Disk Management
Your drive should show up there. Right-click on it. If explore is not grayed out, assign a drive letter to it and you should then be bale to see it in my computer.
In my case explore was grayed out. I had to click on the option to format the drive. After re-formatting the passport explore was available. I then assigned a drive letter to it and I have access again.
I guess somehow using it on multiple computers srcewed up the file-system on it. I was using it between windows and linux.
This fixed my problem.
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In hurry, I unplugged my WD Passport (400U017-RTE), I had a folder open which I thought was from PC "My Documents" but unfortunately no. When plugged my WD Passport, it could not be recognized i.e. I cannot see it on "My Computer". It's working i.e. the blue led on the device is lighting.
Looking for a solution.
Thank you
My drive is having the same problem. I have my freakin THESIS on this thing and it fell off my desk, got unplugged, and hasn't worked since. I have other drafts on my hard drive, but I need the external drive to carry the document around with me. The current suggestion (re: controller) doesn't make all that much sense to me. Anyone else?? Please???
I have a WD 800U017 Western Digital 80 gb hard drive and my pc does not recognize the device. I ran the WD diagnostic tools and I was informed that I need to replace the hard drive. Any ideas on how to get the data off?
These drives are whorthless. I have an 80GB Passport that had the same problem..not recognized, then like a dummy I buy another 160GB thinking that the last one was just a bad drive. Nope, same thing. It happens on both my laptop with Windows XP and my desktop with Windows 2000 Pro. In both cases, it may or may not (mostly not) recognize a new device and then start the driver install and then it ends up saying "doesn't recognize this device" or something to that effect. I'll never buy a WD again, Maxtor, here I come.
MY COMPUTER DOES NOT RECOGNIZE MY WD PASSPORT 160GB.
Last week, I got a WD passport external hard drive. For the first time, I plugged it into a mac. And it worked fine, then, when I went to go plug it into my home computer, which is a pc, it wouldn’t show up at all. It said that the computer recognized it, but when I go to My Computer, it isn’t listed there, what do I do to get it to show up??
same hear my lap top and PC can recognize it
WD external HDD recognised on only some PCs and Laptops (XP)
drive lights up makes almost a beep noise doesnt sound nlike it is spinning pc will not show it but i can safely disconect it it worked fine the night before but will not do anything now what happened i have the 80 gig passport fairly new also
Same - shows under device manager but computers do not see it under my computer
yes i do have the same with my 160 gb
My 120 Passport is no longer recognized by any computer, and my data is no longer accessible :(
my pc is not recognizing my wd pass pot wen i plug it in......
it keeps bothering for installing the software and it cannot find it.....
yeah, i have a western digital 120 gb. I use a mac, and it's not recognizing. Sometimes, this is because I accidentally unplug the passport without unmounting/ejecting, and the drive icon appears an hour or two after i reconnect. Don't know why. Recently, I plugged it into a philips dvd player and now it only works on my pc and not my mac.
my windows xp require a driver for hard drive
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