WD External Hard Drive problem

[Champ]

I've just purchased a WD My Book Essential 250GB external hard drive.
It's supposedly full plug and play, but it doesn't show up in My
Computer or as an option when I try to save something to that drive.

It will show up in Windows Explorer when I navigate to it using the
drive letter in the address bar, but only until I close Explorer. It
also shows up in Disk Management just fine. I have tried changing the
drive letter, to no avail. It still doesn't show up in My Computer.

I don't have another computer handy to try it on; I just wanted to see
if anyone had any ideas on what is causing this issue and how to
resolve it.

Thanks!

 

[You Know Who ~]

did you install the software that comes with it?
b

 

[Champ]

There was no software that came with it. As I said in the initial
post, it is a full plug-and-play. Allegedly, you are supposed to be
able to plug it in to the USB port and be ready for use.

 

[You Know Who ~]

Mine came with software, but it was loaded on the drive itself. You can
also download it from Western Digital.

 

[Clark]

I would suggest checking your USB drivers. Maybe the motherboard/chipset
drivers need to be updated. My external enclosure works without any extra
software.

Do you have any other USB devices?

Clark

 

[Mike Walsh]

Is the drive formatted?
If you are using WinXP you don't have to install drivers.

 

[Rod Speed]

Is the drive formatted?

Must be if he can see the drive with the using
the drive letter in the Explorer address bar.

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

I've just purchased a WD My Book Essential 250GB external hard drive.
It's supposedly full plug and play, but it doesn't show up in My
Computer or as an option when I try to save something to that drive.

It will show up in Windows Explorer when I navigate to it using the
drive letter in the address bar, but only until I close Explorer. It
also shows up in Disk Management just fine. I have tried changing the
drive letter, to no avail. It still doesn't show up in My Computer.

I don't have another computer handy to try it on; I just wanted to see
if anyone had any ideas on what is causing this issue and how to
resolve it.

Thanks!

When you go to disk management does the Layout column show Partition in it?

How about File system, is it NTFS or showing something else?

When you click on your drive while in Computer Management does the window
show a Primary Partition existing, black bar at the top of the striped disk
window?

Is the Capacity and Free Space columns showing the correct values?

It may just be that they sent you a blank disk with no formatting on it,
partition or otherwise, and you need to use the Computer Management options
to format the disk.

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

When you go to disk management does the Layout column show Partition in
it?

How about File system, is it NTFS or showing something else?

When you click on your drive while in Computer Management does the window
show a Primary Partition existing, black bar at the top of the striped
disk window?

Is the Capacity and Free Space columns showing the correct values?

It may just be that they sent you a blank disk with no formatting on it,
partition or otherwise, and you need to use the Computer Management
options to format the disk.

One other note worth mentioning...
Unplugging a USB hard drive with out first using the "Safely Remove
Hardware" option can corrupt a USB drive to the point where it could act
like yours.

Usually a simple reformatting of the drive from the Computer Management
option will clear up the problem. I have heard of a few drives that got so
confused by users not using the "Safely Remove Hardware" option that they
needed to be removed from the USB chassis and plugged into an IDE connector
on the motherboard in order to properly get them to reformat.