20 Most Recent Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive - Page 7 Questions & Answers

The switching power supply for my WD My Book Essentials 1TB drive shows as follows:Input 100/240V 50/60hz 500mAOutput 12V DC 1500mA

Visit the Western Digital Support web site and see if they offer a copy of the manual you want that you can print yourself.http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en You may need to go through their registration process for your drive in order to access the downloads that are available.

It should be but may need to be formatted as GPT on the Mac after which it can only be used with Windows Vista, Windows 7 or later as XP and earlier versions of Windows cannot read GPT drives.

You should be able to do this through your operating system utilities, i.e. if using Windows (XP, Vista or 7) ensure that the Western Digital My Book drive is connected and recognised in My Computer, then either right-click on the drive and take the option to Format the drive, or else, right click on My Computer and select 'Manage' then open the Disk Management service and select your action from the right-click menu for the external drive from there.An alternative would be to use a third-party utility such as Easeus Partition Manager Home which is free for non-commercial use, available from http://www.partition-tool.com/

if you damaged the controler card then you will have to see if someone has a dead drive that you can install your hard drive in there case or (little chance) ask western digital to send you a new controler card or just buy another one

One or more of the hints below will probably sort out most USB problems with most USB portable / external hard drives and OTHER devices (though not always)

A few things to check but assumes USB and Windows for other interfaces / operating systems (mac/ Linux) similar steps may be adapted to suit.

1. Ensure it is connected directly to the computer to a USB 2.0 port not a USB 1.0 port as this can have effects on performance and reliability

2. Use only the cables that came with it NOT one that fits that may have been lying around or is longer. Not all USB cables are equal even though they should be)

3. Do not connect through an external USB HUB unless that hub is USB 2.0 AND has its own power supply.

4. Use ONLY the power supply that came with it if it has an external power supply Don’t use any other unless you know it has both the same voltage and current rating e.g. 12V 500mA anything rated below that would not work properly.

5. Always use the same port for connecting your devices. Some devices do not like being switched about. If switched they may want to install software / drivers again. This can be especially true if you move a HUB to another port

6. For FLASH DRIVES you should ensure that the device is set for "quick removal" using the drive control panel properties or use the USB "Safely Remove Hardware" option. If you dont do this there is a very strong chance that any files you transfer may not be there when you plug into another computer.
7. It is possible to remove drives from the enclosures in most cases and connect directly inside a PC to fully check it.
You should also do this to cheack the drives connections are not bad inside the enclosure.
　
8. If none of the above steps help look at updating the drivers from the manufacturers web site in the support section.

9. If you checked and fixed anything there and still have issues then check your hardware from CONTROL PANEL / SYSTEM / HARDWARE.
Any exclamation marks by hardware need fixing before you investigate any further
10. ensure that you have set removable drives for "quick removal" or that you use the "Safly Remove Hardware" option often shown on the lower toolbar.It is possible that files my not be fully written to external devices before they are removed. This corrupts the file itself and even on occasion the drive.
SPECIAL NOTES
USB flash drives can fail for no apparent reason.
Sandisk Cruzers are especially bad for this.

USB hard drives should be treated with extreme care.
This is a real hard drive ! and knocks and bumps can quite literally kill them.

Note that if you hear a drive clicking or pinging this could be the worst thing you would hear.
Known as "The Click Of Death"
Hope this gives you the information you need

Bob
Moderator

It would be very decent of you to consider the quality of our experts answers and judge them accordingly as you pass through FixYa.

Thank you

Make sure you have the usb connected directly to a port on the pc. Also check the power supply with a test/voltage meter that is working and outputting the correct voltage.Thanks for using FixYa

if you can access or see your usb drive
click start control panel administrative tools computer management disk management right click on your drive select properties click tools you should see click check now click start two boxes automatically fix files and scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors place then a tick in both boxes then select check now start or you might tick one box then return after its finished the first repair then return and tick the second box you should not do anything while the chkdsk utility is in progress any input may damage this drive I found that you get best results by ticking one box then returning after it has finished then tick the other box hope this helps you

Back up your files if you can still see them. There were problems with these devices and they had a very short warantee. Plan on replacing it with another one, it is a manufacturing defect.The enclousure is still ok, but it is very difficult to remove the drive without damaging the plastic.

Have you try to use other cable or test it to other computer?. If the problem still the same then their is a chance that your external drive are already deffective. Try to visit a store catering hard disk recovery for any possible chances of recovery. Just a thought hope it helps thanks.

Hi Anthonybu530...
To put the icon "My Computer back on your desktop follow the directions below.
*****************************************************************************************************
You will click on Start.
When the window opens you will see "My Computer" on the right hand side of the page.
You will right click on it.
A window will open, make sure "Show on Desktop has a check in the box,
if not then you will check the box.
Go back to your desktop the icon should be there
Bud

After you plug in the power cord and USB plug it should work. You shouldn't have to do anything else.

my opinion is, better to backup your files while you can still access the drive. Then try to format your external drive.
Just a suggestion. Hope it helps thanks.

power cycle your Mac. Shut down and restart should work! Your desktop should show the hard drive!

Install the software located on the USB drive to your computer and select the file you want backed up.

Ouch. The blinking light is bad. But try this:

1. Run the WD discover tool
2. Go to "configure" and acknowledge there is a blinking light. This might give you access to the data and drives.
3. If the status says "good" then everything is fine. If not, then you probably have a bad drive and need to contact WD tech support. Hopefully you still have a warranty for it if this is the case.

Let me know if this works!

there will be two cord , one might be power cord which go to the power plug or power strip. and ohter will be usb port will go to the PC

The fact that it displays a '0% used' indicator probably means that somehow the data that you have hitherto stored on your external hard drive has been erased. This might not necessarily be the case, so don't panic yet.

The first thing I would try doing is reinstalling any software that came with your WD My Book. Not many external HDDs require additional software to run properly, but if yours does, then I strongly recommend reinstalling that first. I would then try using Windows Disk Manager to see if your computer is recognizing the G: drive as a hard drive, because I have had to use disk manager when I've added additional internal hard drives to my computer. If neither of these work [or you could not find the CD your My Book came with] I would search around online for driver or software updates available for your device.

One thing that I noticed while typing my suggestion for you is that before you attempting using the back up feature on your My Book, the drive for the My Book was (G:) but after you attempted the back up process the drive is indicated as (H:). I think that what might have happened was that when you attempted backing up the My Book, it was partitioned into a storage section (G:) and a section in which the backup data is stored (H:). If you can find and access it, the (G:) drive is likely to still contain all the data that you previously assigned to it.

If this doesn't help, I apologize, but I sincerely hope that your problem will be resolved.

click start all programs accessories open windows explorer my computer you should see your drive click to open it from there you select the files right click on the file/s right click copy navigate back to the drive right click select paste or hold the mouse cursor the file/s drag them to scan disc then drop them

example on how to safe programs or data to a usb drive

click start all programs accessories open windows explorer navigate to your program
right click on the photo's select copy navigate back to the usb drive right click select paste or select the program hold the mouse cursor then then drag the program to your usb drive then drop the program into your usb drive
or if you are downloading photos from the internet
once it starts downloading windows will ask whether you want to run or save it
a browse option will open you can save it into a folder in my documents or another device or a usb device
if you need more help with this post a reply
hope this helps