Accessing files in WD MY Passport using Windows 10

TimChester · May 27, 2016

I use Windows 10, and was given a 1tb WD My Passport external hard drive. The light on the hard drive comes on when I plug it in, but my computer can't detect the hard drive. It works fine for another external hard drive I use. Normally my computer detects something as soon as I plug it in. But not this time. What can I do to fix this? Thanks in advance!

Boogieman_WD · May 27, 2016

Hey there, Tim.

You might need to assign the drive a new drive letter. Check out this tutorial on how to do that: How to change the drive letter assignment in Windows.
If this does not fix the problem, would you please be so kind as to post a screenshot of what you see in Disk Management (you can use imgur.com to upload the image)?

Other than that, I'd suggest that you try the drive with a different computer (or at least with a different USB port on yours) and a different USB cable, to see if the same thing happens. You could also try to uninstall it from Device Manager and then reconnect the drive, to see if it pops-up properly afterwards.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes.
Boogieman_WD

TimChester · May 27, 2016

Boogieman_WD :

Hey there, Tim.

You might need to assign the drive a new drive letter. Check out this tutorial on how to do that: How to change the drive letter assignment in Windows.
If this does not fix the problem, would you please be so kind as to post a screenshot of what you see in Disk Management (you can use imgur.com to upload the image)?

Other than that, I'd suggest that you try the drive with a different computer (or at least with a different USB port on yours) and a different USB cable, to see if the same thing happens. You could also try to uninstall it from Device Manager and then reconnect the drive, to see if it pops-up properly afterwards.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes.
Boogieman_WD

TimChester · May 27, 2016

Boogieman_WD :

Boogieman: Thanks for your prompt response. Went on to Control Panel - Manage Devices. It shows My Passport as being there. It shows the properties, but I can't access the files from there. OK, so I went onto Device Manager and checked. It's like its not there. I feel like I am close but missing something. Please advise. Here is a screen shot via Imgur http://imgur.com/jOnQ9zP

Thanks, -- TimChester

ArtPog · May 27, 2016

Tim:
You might re:read Boogieman's first sentence in his response to you re assigning a drive letter to the USBEHD. Have you noticed that Disk Management indicates that no drive letter has been assigned to that device?

TimChester · May 28, 2016

ArtPog :

Dear Art Pog:

Thank you. I meant to say that yes, I did try to change the Drive letter. I try right clicking on it and it won't let me do that. Please advise.

ArtPog · May 28, 2016

Just to be clear...

In Disk Management you've right-clicked the box that reflects the 931.16 GB disk-space capacity of that partition on the 1 TB HDD, and a sub-menu does not appear with the option "Change Drive Letter and Paths"?

If that is the case, try using the Diskpart command to assign a drive letter to that partition. If you're not familiar with Diskpart, search Google for "using the diskpart assign command".

Boogieman_WD · May 30, 2016

Actually I think that the problem with assigning a new drive letter is connected with the fact that there seems to be an issue with the file system of the partition - it's not listed. It's not even RAW.
Tim, you should try accessing the drive with a different computer and cable as already suggested in my previous post, to see if it helps. If that doesn't work, try accessing it via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD (this is a freeware, bootable, portable version of Linux), to see if it's able to recognize the partition's file system properly and if you can get to your data to back it up. If that doesn't help, give data recovery software a go: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html & http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm

Please keep us posted on your progress.

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