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
    2013-02-25T17:57:49+00:00

    Make sure your external drive was not formatted using any other OS ( like MAC). you need to reformat it using NTFS.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-02-02T12:06:34+00:00

    THANKS A LOT!!! IT WORKS :-)

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-01-18T15:35:22+00:00

    Thank you .  I appreciate any imput from other users. Very helpful.  Bonofan1823

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-01-15T16:46:59+00:00

    For what it's worth on this old thread, I just had a similar issue on my old XP laptop and my newer WD

    My Passport Essential SE (USB 3.0). In my case the laptop [fully updated OS and USB ports tested and working] attempted to connect/setup the drive and failed. I then found and read this thread, and some others as well; I found that with some WD portable drives there is a driver solution *in spite* of what WD says here http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1708/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzU4MjY2OTI5L3NpZC9hRW1kM25nbA%3D%3D#portablenew

    Most current WD drives do not require additional drivers on the Windows or Mac OSXOperating System (OS) beyond the ones that are included with the OS.

    In order to simplify the installation process WD elected to use the standard drivers that are built into common operating systems. While there are a few exceptions to this, in general, there are no drivers provided by WD for our drives. That's because the drivers a WD hard drive or SSD uses are part of the Operating System being used. As such, any trouble with these drivers should be handled by the regular line of support for the Operating System in question - in most cases by contacting the system's manufacturer, IT department, or the publisher of the OS.

    The solution in my case was to install the SES Driver. See WD's knowledge base article entitled 'What is the SES driver, why is it needed, and how to get the driver popup to stop' for more info:

    http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3739/~/what-is-the-ses-driver,-why-is-it-needed,-and-how-to-get-the-driver-popup-to

    For my specific WD My Passport Essential SE (USB 3.0) drive this article provides the SES driver and instructions:

    http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/search/1/a_id/5419

    I hope this helps!

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