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
    2012-07-13T00:32:30+00:00

    GOoD day.

    I think you need to install the driver associated with your WD Passport.

    In Computer ->right click -> manage computer -> click -> you can see 'Device Manager' -> click it -> right click the 'disk drives'... 1. If you can see your 'WD My Passport device', install the driver associated with your WD My Passport. 2. If you cannot see it, try: right click 'disk drives' ->click 'Scan for hardware changes', by then I hope you can see your 'WD My Passport'.

    The drivers of your 'My Passport' is found in the 'Extras' folder. I hope this helps. Arrivederci...

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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
    2011-04-30T17:48:26+00:00

    Hi thanks for this detailed explanation.  One question:  will this process clear the existing data from the external hard drive?  I don't want to clear the data.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-01-20T04:50:48+00:00

    Per LemP's request, I am starting another thread to see if I can get any answers to the same problem. 

    Title: Western Digital USB External Hard Drive not found by Win XP.

    Lurker38

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