Western Digital External Hard Drive not Recognized by Windows XP: Does not show up in My Computer or Device Manager.

Anonymous
2010-05-13T01:16:46+00:00

My external hard drive does not run automatically when plugged into my USB port on my computer.  It is not recognized in my computer and it does not show up in Device Manager.  I have applied a hot fix for this problem and it was stated that problems are detected but after applying the hot fix the problem still exits!  HELP.  I went to Western Digital for this problem and they stated in their FAQ's that it is a Windows problem and that the drivers might be corrupted.  This is probably true as the device works perfectly on other computers.  Now what do I do?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2010-08-11T06:46:44+00:00

Here’s the actual steps needed to get your external USB drive assigned a letter in Windows XP if it does not show up in Windows Explorer:

1)     Right-click on “My Computer”

2)     Click “Manage”

3)     Double-click “Disk Management”

4)     You will probably see Disk 0 and Disk 1 for your primary hard drive. Go to lower right portion of box and scroll down until you see Disk 2. It is probably your USB drive without a letter.  It should show the size of the drive.

5)     Right-click in the left portion of that drive box (Disk 2)

6)     Click “Initialize” and “OK” in the next dialog box. This takes just a few seconds and it should now say “Online” in the “Disk 2” box.

7)     Right-click in the box to the right side of the “Disk 2” box (where it shows your disk drive size and says “Unallocated”.

8)     Click “New Partition” and a “New Partition Wizard” will open up.

9)     Click “Next”, then select “Primary Partition” and click “Next”.

10) Verify partition size (use entire disk size available unless you are creating multiple drives) and Click “Next”.

11) Assign drive letter (“F” is typical if CD-Rom is E) and click “Next”.

12) Format this partition with “NTFS”, “Default”, “New Volume” and click “Next”.

13) Then click “Finish” to exit the wizard and start formatting.

14) Be patient… this can take awhile (it took just over an hour for a 320GB drive).

15) When done, you should see an icon for your drive in Windows Explorer!

Hope this helps!!

Doc

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-05-13T19:18:57+00:00

    This is truly a splendid answer with good step by step procedures, however, because I can't visually see the drive anywhere, on this computer I can't try the steps you have suggested.  I want to use this computer to transfer the files to a partitioned drive, the drive is 250 GB, and has room so that I can transfer files, and then format if I wish.  I guess I could use another computer to do this but my other one only has an 80 GB hard drive and is a much older computer, I could try Converting to NTFS, because as I said I already have files on the disk I would rather not erase.  but my computer skills are limited.  Thank you, coork, for these suggestions, and I will let you know if it works!

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-01-09T22:59:41+00:00

    With regard to step 4 that says:

    "You will probably see Disk 0 and Disk 1 for your primary hard drive. Go to lower right portion of box and scroll down until you see Disk 2. It is probably your USB drive without a letter.  It should show the size of the drive."

    Disk 0 is my hard drive. I also have removable disks 1, 2, 3, and 4 and then my 2 CD ROM drives. Disk 2 is drive G and not a drive/USB drive without a letter as stated in step 4 above. And no size of the drive is displayed or provided either.

    when I "Right-click in the left portion of that drive box (Disk 2)" as step 5 says to (again Disk 2 is drive G for me), there is no “Initialize” choice to then click OK on at all...

    This whole process falls apart for me completely after step 4 and that did not really go as the step eas originally written...

    I am still where I started...:( What Windows XP service pack is this for? Is there anything I am missing? Can you still help me?

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-01-18T01:45:00+00:00

    I am hoping that I can still see the conversations and solutions for this problem.  I still have not solved it due to the fact that I have not had time to try most of the solutions due to family issues.  However, when the time comes to solve this problem I would like to see as many suggestions to this issue as possible.  I am in a quandry because many of my pictures are on my external hard drive and I would like to back them up and can't because I cant see the darn drive!!  It was working properly at one time and then just quit being visible on my computer.. 

    Thanks...bonofan1823

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-08-11T03:27:19+00:00

    Having had some problems with external hard drives. Some USB ports do not recognise the hard drives, or they are sometimes recognised but  when copying it hangs.

    But works on laptops with no problems  ( Iused a powered 5 port hub with the laptop as when I had the USB mouse connected and then tried to connect other items to the 2 remaining original USB ports I had recognition trouble and that was solved with the powered hub)

     The difference is that main computers may have a lot of USB ports and many of them being used . Mine has printer , scanner, mouse and occasionally others added such as card reader , web cam.

    I found that use of an external powered USB hub (cost about $20) solved all the problems.  It maybe that with so many internal USB connections that there are conflicts or power problems.  Give it a try anyway, may solve your problem.

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