Cant detect external hard drive following hdd replacement in my laptop

GFactor

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Feb 20, 2017
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I cant detect WD My Passport external drive after replacing laptop drive with ssd (Champion Extreme 240)and installing windows 7 Pro. When I put the old drive back in it works fine. When I go into 'Computer','Disk Management' it doesn't show there either.
Laptop Asus n53Jg
Thanks in advance
 
Hi there GFactor,

That is unpleasant. :(

It looks like this is some sort of a drivers related issue. Is the drive recognized by Device Manager?

You can go to the laptop's manufacturer's website and make sure all the drivers are up to date.

Let me nkow how this goes,
D_Know_WD :)
 

GFactor

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Feb 20, 2017
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Hi D_Know_WD,

Yes, I think its something driver related too.
No, its not detected by the Device Manager
I have also downloaded and installed WD driver utilities for Windows. When I start the program it advises to 'attach a supported WD drive', however when I do nothing happens.

G
 
As the device is not recognized as a device by Device Manager or as a drive by Disk Management, most probably it would not be recognized by software tools as well.

Have you checked for updates on the laptop's manufacturer website?
Do you have USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 ports on the laptop?

Is the drive recognized by BIOS and is it even powering up properly?

D_Know_WD :)
 

GFactor

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Feb 20, 2017
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There's no entry under hard drives in Device Manager, although there is an entry under USB Controllers called My Passport 0740, however this might be referring to a different My Passport drive that I plugged in as a test. Either way it says there is no driver installed for that one.

No, I haven't checked for updates for the laptop. Whats the best way to do that? I just had a look on the Asus website. There was a USB driver download but it says my laptop doesn't have the necessary requirements. How do I tell which ones I need? I should probably use some sort of driver update tool. Can you suggest one thats free maybe(because I dont like paying for software much)?

It's powering up properly and the laptop even makes the appropriate beeping noise when plugging it in. I will check the BIOS and get back to you.

Thanks again

GFactor
 

GFactor

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Feb 20, 2017
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Ok, I had to 'restore' my computer as it kept freezing up after using Driver Updater. Installed some of the drivers again and so far no issues...
The external drive shows up in BIOS! as WD SES DEVICE 1003, however is still not showing in Device Manager or anywhere else.

 

GFactor

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Feb 20, 2017
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Still no go on the external drive :( I have contacted WD and after several phone calls they advised that as my external drive shows on other computers (and this computer with the old hard drive in it), then it must be something to do with the OS currently on this ssd. They have directed me to try getting some help from Microsoft but this is going to cost so not going down that track as it would be cheaper to buy a new external drive.
Any advice would be great :)
 

thebudman420

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Jan 3, 2017
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Have you tried updating your bios if you can. It could very easily be bios related. Did you click show all devices in the device manager or show hidden devices? Have any exclamation points in there? hmm i have another thought. Can you have them both installed. First use your regular hard drive install that drive as another drive in the system but boot from the main drive first, That way you can fiddle with the driver and force remove delete drivers and reinstall drivers. Is this an ahci issue? do you use raid? The other thought is under windows for some reason if you change to ahci in bios windows don't have the driver loaded for ahci you have to get the driver enabled in windows then change to ahci in the bios at least under windows 7 unless you installed it with ahci already enabled. My bios has an option to have both enabled to make it easier to switch to ahci then windows installs the driver then i enable pure ahci in bios reboot and windows has the achi driver installed. None of this may help you but if you can get it working correct while using the other hd as main then you at least know its the driver and not the bios. so then you can boot the ssd and possibly get it working after you know what it is.
 

GFactor

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Feb 20, 2017
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I haven't updated the Bios it's on 206, it goes up to 209 at the asus websit but cant see anything in the updates that might help and I understand there are dangers with updating bios? There's no exclamation points and I looked at hidden devices in Device Manager. I'm not familiar with ahci, don't use raid and cant attach both drives at once. Which drive are you calling the regular drive and which one is the main drive?
Feeling like I'm not being very helpful :( I'm only an amateur
 

GFactor

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Feb 20, 2017
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Ok, so, I updated my bios to the latest without any change. I can see the external usb 3 WD drive in BIOS including the file structure and files, however nothing is showing up in Device Manager or Explorer despite making the right noises when I plug the drive in and out.
Any further suggestions?
Thanks