Wd Passport not showing up anywhere?

dude807 · Sep 19, 2013

I've looked everywhere. It's not showing up in disk management or in my computer. It's working, all lights are lighting up and i can feel it vibrating slightly. Whats wrong with it?

Oh, it shows up in device manager but with a warning sign by the icon. Is it a faulty external hard drive?

markwp · Sep 19, 2013

Open the item in device mgr and see what the warning says - could be driver. The warning will have info.

dude807 · Sep 19, 2013

markwp :

This is what it says in device status. "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)"

popatim · Sep 19, 2013

delete it from Device Manager, unplug the drive for a minute then plug it back in and it should reload the driver.

dude807 · Sep 19, 2013

popatim :

It seems to be a driver problem. For some reason windows wont install the driver. Could this be caused by the device itself?

dude807 · Sep 19, 2013

popatim :

It seems to be a driver problem. For some reason windows wont install the driver. Could this be caused by the device itself?

markwp · Sep 20, 2013

In device manager, right click on the drive, choose uninstall (including driver). Remove device from usb port, shut down and restart. Once windows is up, plug the drive back into usb and see if windows automatically finds the device and installs drivers.

If windows still does not recognize the drive, go HERE and pick your item and download WD's driver.

Mark

Yahia Abou-shosha · Dec 2, 2013

i have the same problem please find a solution i need just to talk the contents of the hard and no problem i can throw from window

lok8er · Feb 4, 2014

markwp :

did all that but still to no avail. uninstalled everything that is not present in the device manager, re-installed the driver, restarted the computer. after i restarted it and plugged in the hard dics, it automatically installs the driver but it doesnt show up in "my computer" or the device manager... help me out here please

riader · Apr 14, 2014

This worked perfectly, thaks my man!

delete it from Device Manager, unplug the drive for a minute then plug it back in and it should reload the driver.

hal9999 · Aug 10, 2014

run diskpart as an admin and assign it a letter. just follow the help with the commands its not that hard. select the volume as active then type assign letter=(what ever the next letter free is)

guzela70 · Sep 30, 2014

My PC couldn't detect my passport under the computer letters but was detected under the device manager. So I did as others adviced.

1) Selected the device with the yellow sign and uninstalled it
2) Unplugged my passport for 1 minute and connected it again
3) After my PC detected it automatically reinstalled the drivers
4) Since it still wouldn't appear as a letter, I went ahead and run diskpart
5) It automatically assigned the next available letter on my PC
6) Opened it and all my content was there

Be patient and you will find a solution. At least I did.

dude807 · Oct 2, 2014

Hey, here's a little update to how I solved my problem. It turns out there was some hardcore driver conflict and i never actually got to use my passport until i reinstalled windows after getting a new Cpu and motherboard. So if anyone's desperate enough you could always do a fresh reinstal of windows. But this should be the last thing you do. Try what the friendly people above recommend. Good luck!

Joboe · Oct 18, 2014

guzela70 :

Can you give me a little help regarding how to run diskpart? I have the program open as an admin and I cant figure it out.

Edit: It is not showing up as a volume in Diskpart

L4N3Y · Oct 25, 2014

I shit you not this is not a trolling answer... I read it on another forum and after all else failed it was my last hope.
Do this with an open mind and don't judge until you've tried it.
First wrap a piece of kitchen roll or toilet roll around it roughly the same width and about two or three layers. Secondly pop it in a sandwich bag (sealable) then place in the freezer for an hour or two (I left mine in for two)
Lastly take it out and let it stand in room temp in the wrap for an hour. In wrap and hey presto plug in and it should work.... It did the trick for me anyway. I don't know how long it will last but if it gives you time to recover lost files it's better than nothing.

s1awek · Feb 7, 2015

In know this is an old thread but I'd like to share what worked out for me.
This is a very simple solution: pick up your model, download and install drivers from here: http://support.wdc.com/product/ and then just plugin the device to different USB port. I guess some USB ports in my PC are better than others, for some reason :??:

southak · Feb 24, 2015

I had this same problem with my My Passport Ultra. All of a sudden my daily back up kept failing because the drive was inaccessible. The drive didn't have a drive letter and wasn't mapped in Windows Explorer.

My Solution:

I went to Start - Computer - (right click) - Manage, then under disk management I noticed the partition was there but not active not did it have a drive letter. So I right clicked on the partition, made it active, then right click and I assigned it a drive letter.

VOILA! It worked.

Fifipc · May 9, 2015

dude807 :

Hello, I had the same problem (light on and Passport vibrating but not visible either on my computer or in driver devices - thought I had lost everything!). I found the solution (thank Heavens!). I have 32-bit Vista and downloaded WD_SES_Driver_Setup_x86 and it is visible again. Whew! I hope this works for you. This is the link to find the right one for you.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=218&lang=en
Good luck!

Memmy91 · May 14, 2015

Hi Guys

Sorry to be stealing the post, just hoping like minds can help me

Have a WD My Passport 1TB and all was working fine. Use it mainly for movies, was copying a file to it and it froze. I unplugged it without "removing it safely" (yes I know this is probably where the trouble it) and now I can't find anything. Plugged it into our DVD player to watch movies and it didn't show up as anything connected.
Plugged it back into my Comp and nothing came up (normally AutoPlay detects it immediately).
Have run Dskchk a number of times, sometimes it would say its in use and asked if i wanted to run it as startup (which I did do). For a short time it popped up in My Computer but was very very slow at accessing it (realise its probs corrupted).
But now I have nothing. It is flashing like its in use (again still not showing anywhere).
Can see it in Device Manager and Disabled and Enabled it after the message (device cannot be started) and now it reads that "the device is working properly", which of course it's not.

Have tried deleting it from device manager and reinstalling it. The driver wizard thing says the installation cannot be completed (cannot find the right stuff to install), as it searches for "unknown" instead of "My Passport" etc.
Have gone onto WDs website and downloaded the drivers from there and done the above step but browsed to that file instead of a random search.

The HDD is not showing up in Computer Management.

Oh it also makes a little clicking noise every now and then (awesome I know).

Thinking it's a lost cause, but hoping someone on here can help me fix it. Any advice would be great

.
Not looking to recover the files (although that would BE GREAT), but if i can get it working again, even from scratch that'd be awesome.
Thanks in Advance

Operating Windows XP 32 bit
Emily

Memmy91 · May 14, 2015

I have tried it on another laptop and again didn't show up in disk management or in My Computer. I installed the WD SES Driver as there was a yellow triangle next to the HDD listed on the device manager (it shows up there). When I click on My Passport in Devices it keeps saying that it is working properly.
So I mean there should be someway to get into to as this Device installation wizard detected what it was and downloaded the right driver for it? Right?

I tried clicking on the links you provided (thank you for the effort, I really appreciate it!) but all I could get was a redirection to blank internet pages

.

Just confused as obviously it is there on the Comp in devices (and on the other computer there is even a prompt to safely remove it, which wasn't showing on this laptop), I just can't access it.

Yes it never used to make the noises but am confused how there could be physical damage as I haven't done anything to it (as much as I would have love to throw it at a wall haha) and before not disconnecting it properly (what caused this mess I assume) it never made any noise. (unless i'm missing something tech related and sound really blonde right now haha)

Is there any way to reinitialize it? Realise i will lose over 700GB of data but am happy to start my collection over again if my Hard Drive will just work

Gah it's so frustrating

Thanks again for your time

Fifipc · May 14, 2015

Oh dear, I don't know why the link isn't taking you to the correct page. I have just tried it again and it definitely works. Perhaps try going directly to WD Passport website and look for downloads and try to get to it that way? I do hope you find a solution to this. Thank you for the reply. Kind wishes. Fiona

Smuggsy · Jun 7, 2015

I had this problem with a WD 500gb Passport. I googled the issue and read about many people having the same problem, but no solutions.
Just before I decided to throw it in the bin I smashed in to it, out of curiosity for the contents.
Obviously inside is just a WD 2.5" drive attached to a USB/SATA board.
So I attached the drive directly to a SATA connector on my main pc and VOILA! got access straight away in Windows 8.1
Therefore it is a faulty board. The casing is now destroyed but I can buy a new one for a fiver. Job done. Data accessed!

Wd Passport not showing up anywhere?

Distinguished

Dignified

Distinguished

Titan

Distinguished

Distinguished

Dignified

Honorable

Honorable

Reputable

Reputable

Reputable

Distinguished

Reputable

Reputable

Reputable

Honorable

Reputable

Reputable

Reputable

Reputable

Reputable

Share this page