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Windows 7 & XP won\'t allocate drive letter

Last response: in Storage
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I'm having trouble with both Win 7 and XP recognizing my external WD 500GB HD.

I recently had to move the HD to a new enclosure b/c the control board was damaged while I was travelling. Neither my old computer (XP) which I had used with the HD and my new one (Win 7) which has never been connected to this HD will initialize the drive. Both see the drive and it is listed in Device Manager but a drive letter is not assigned despite using different USB ports, refresh, etc.

As per the new enclosure (Sabrent) directions and numerous threads, if this occurs, then I must format or initialize the drive in order to get a drive letter. However, the drive has about 40 GB of family photos, so erasing them is clearly not an option.

So how can I get either of the systems to recognize the drive without losing my data? Also, I'm completely miffed as to why the XP machine won't now allow the drive to be plug and play anymore.

Suggestions?

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Go into Disk Manager and try and assign a drive letter in both XP and Win 7.

You can get to Disk Manager by right-clicking on the "My Computer" icon in Xp, and the "Computer" icon in Windows 7 and then selecting "manage computer" or "Manage."
Storage Expert

In Windows 7 go to:
Start-->Control Panel-->System and Security-->Administrative Tools-->Computer Management-->Disk Management

Your external drive should be shown there. Right-click on it and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths...".
Select "Change..." and give it a drive letter from the list.

Thanks Derek47 - but the HD is not listed in Disk Mgmt. I uninstalled and reinstalled it, and it still is not listed in Disk Mgmt and it prompts me to Initialize Disk:

"You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it"

I originally thought it was listed b/c it is the same size as my internal. Also, my other external, a Maxtor, was quickly visible.

Hi- original poster...did you get any responses to this? I have a very similar issue. I had to remove the hard drive from an external WD MyBook after the USB control board was damaged- I put it in another enclosure and now I am trying to figure out how to get to my data. Have you tried any software recovery yet?
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