I recently bought a Western Digital 160GB hard drive (the model number is something like WD1600JB). This morning I backed up some files as I was going to re-install Windows XP on my laptop. Now, when I plug it in I get a “Safely Remove Hardware” message, but the drive does not appear in My Computer and I cannot access it. The device appears in Device Manager. I’ve tried uninstalling the driver and then re-connecting it; Windows appears to detect it (launches the ‘Found New Hardware’ popup) but it still does not appear. I tried this on another computer and the same problem happened.
I just started experiencing this problem this afternoon – now, I had the drive plugged into the laptop when I was installing Windows, but I doubt that would cause a problem? I have a Maxtor hard drive as well that *is* recognized, but the WD one will not show up at all. I’ve run their diagnostic tool and it shows everything is working fine.