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April 20, 2009 at 7:55 am #2167881
WD external hard disk not recognised
Lockedby jhm530 · about 14 years, 11 months ago
My WD external hard disk doesnt show up in my computer(windows xp). The safety remove hardware appears when it is connected and i can hear the hard disk starting up and also the blue light though it doesnt blink, just lights up. But it doesnt appear in the disk management, although it is at the device manager but the device status states that it is working properly. any help?
i dont want to reformat as i want to retain the info. i’ve tried uninstalling the USB, connecting to different computers, using different USB cables but there’s no difference.i’ve also searched on the net but cant seem to find any solution. HELP?
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April 20, 2009 at 7:55 am #2937753
Clarifications
by jhm530 · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to WD external hard disk not recognised
Clarifications
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April 20, 2009 at 9:24 am #2937730
Drive Letter?
by bincarnato · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to WD external hard disk not recognised
Do you have a PC that has a bunch of media card readers or something? It could be assigning a drive letter that is already in use. I would right-click on the My Computer icon and choose manage. Then click on disk management. Does your drive show up in there? Does it have the same drive letter as another drive on your pc, like a media card reader? Right-click on the external drive, if it is in there and choose change drive letter or path. Then pick a letter that isn’t in use.
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April 20, 2009 at 11:26 am #2937680
External drive
by butkus · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to WD external hard disk not recognised
There are lots of problem with these external drives. Usually Maxtor and Seagate.
Do you have two wires to the external, have you tried plugging in both. They do use a bit of power and sometimes one USB connection does not supply enough power.
Plug into the back (directly to MB)of your PC.
Try a Reboot ? -
April 20, 2009 at 11:38 am #2937679
Remove the Drive
by brian · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to WD external hard disk not recognised
If you know how to take the drive out of the case, you can try taking the drive out and hooking it directly to your computer, bypassing the usb completely. The external drive shell could possibly be faulty. i have had this happen a few times before with wd drives.
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April 21, 2009 at 5:37 am #2937384
tried and tested with no results…
by jhm530 · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to WD external hard disk not recognised
ive tried plugging in both usb plugs but there’s no difference.
it shows up in device manager but not in disk management
by taking it out of the casing, u mean the metal one inside the plastic outer one
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April 21, 2009 at 6:22 am #2937358
take it out….
by brian · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to tried and tested with no results…
by taking it out of the casing i mean by taking it out of the plastic outer one and also the metal inner one, you need access the the interface (SATA or IDE) and power plug on the drive so you can plug it in directly to the computer motherboard and power supply. by the way, i didn’t mention in my prior post, but this WILL MOST LIKELY void your warranty on the drive. if the external drive shell is indeed bad, the good news to this situation is that you now have an extra hard drive to use!!
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April 21, 2009 at 7:41 am #2937314
oh
by jhm530 · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to take it out….
okay, is there any other way? such as a programme to reconnect the hard disk to the computer? im not very tech savvy…im afraid i’ll spoil the disk if i dismantle it.
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April 21, 2009 at 8:05 am #2937300
ahhh, i see….
by brian · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to oh
i see what you are asking, some of the external drives have a foil heat wrapping around them, i thought that is what you were talking about…as for dismanteling the drive, you don’t want to do that. you just need to take it out of the external plastic shell so you are holding the drive in your had, it will say western digital on the top of it on a label. from there if you look at the back of the drive, you will see the hard disk i/o plug in’s (as in the power and sata/ide). as i said before, the external shell output card sometimes goes bad on the shell, but the drive is good, you just need to hook it into your computer like another hard drive. remember, don’t dismantle the hard drive so you can see the internal workings of it, just take it out of the protective plastic external shell/casing.
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April 21, 2009 at 8:29 am #2937281
sigh…noway…cnt be helped…
by jhm530 · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to ahhh, i see….
its not a foil wrapping, there’s another hard metal casing with the WD label inside the plastic one and the usb outlet is part of the metal casing, i dont think there’s any difference as the usb outlet is the same, there’s a hole cut in the plastic casing to fit the usb outlet protruding from the metal casing. the only way to open the metal casing is with screws, and i dont think im supposed to do that right?
i can hear the disk whirring but it stops after a while. and it still doesnt show up in disk management, just device manager:( sooo…i guess the only way to get the info back now is to go to those data retriving company?
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April 21, 2009 at 8:34 am #2937279
mini drive removal
by butkus · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to sigh…noway…cnt be helped…
You only need to get to the pins on back of the mini HD. Then you need a USB to HD adapter. They are found at various places for $15+, you do not need the AC adapter type. They are for powering standard HD’s. The laptop type is powered by the USB.
If the PC does not recognize the HD, try another PC. If nothing recognized it. Time for recovery software. -
April 21, 2009 at 9:58 am #2937246
give me the model number
by brian · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to sigh…noway…cnt be helped…
give me the model number of the hard drive, i will try to find you some step by step hard drive removal instructions for it….it isn’t that hard to do, just kind of hard to explain the correct process without pictures 😉
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April 22, 2009 at 7:05 am #2938648
nevermind…
by jhm530 · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to give me the model number
recovery programs?
hmm…its wd 3200 but i think it’s ok… the tech guy said most likely the internal thing(?) is not starting-up so…yeah… he said either i bring it to the wd repair centre, but most likely i cnt get the data back, or well, plan its funeral…
these few days having never-ending technical problems…i wonder whyO.o heh. anyone knows how to repair a repeatedly restarting setup? windows xp. it just got that way suddenly. and i have no idea why:(
*sigh*
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April 22, 2009 at 8:44 am #2938597
hmm…
by jhm530 · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to WD external hard disk not recognised
recovery programs?
hmm…its wd 3200 but i think it’s ok… the tech guy said most likely the internal thing(?) is not starting-up so…yeah… he said either i bring it to the wd repair centre, but most likely i cnt get the data back, or well, plan its funeral…
these few days having never-ending technical problems…i wonder whyO.o heh. anyone knows how to repair a repeatedly restarting setup? windows xp. it just got that way suddenly. and i have no idea why:(
*sigh*
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