Windows will recognize my portable hard drive but it wont show in my computer

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Rokime

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Aug 5, 2012
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Hello,
When i plug my WD passport portable hard drive into my computer, the hd will start up (the little LED will eliminate) and windows will make the "usb connection" sound and down the bottom right of the screen i have the option to safely remove my passport 0740. So windows picks up my hd but it just wont show up in my computer, it works on my other computer just not this one. i have tried changing the drive letters and that doesnt seem to help. Any ideas? using windows 7 ultimate
 
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Humaine

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Nov 27, 2013
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I had the same situation. Plugged in my WD Passport 0704 and nothing came up or showed up as a removable device in "My Computer". Also nothing showed up in Disk Management as well. But it was allowing me to safely eject the drive.

I searched the net and found most of them mention the above "disk management" solution".

If none of the above works..... This worked for me:
suggestion - unplug the drive before trying this... and uninstall all the light-grey devices that will display. I also remove light-grey devices under "WD Drive Management Devices"
------------------------------------------------------
jack4rall - Apr 25, 2012 02:27PM
Hello,
Try this 1
Click on Start --> In search box, type cmd. When it show "Command Prompt" or "cmd.exe" in the search list,
right-click on it and select the option "Open as administrator".
Open the command prompt and type the below commands:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 (--> Press Enter)
start devmgmt.msc (--> Press Enter)

"Device Manager" window will be opened.
Now in the device manager, click on "View" --> Select "Show hidden devices"
Now expand the nodes "Disk Drives" and "Universal serial bus controller" by clicking on "+" symbol. If you find any light-greyed entries --> Right click on it --> Select "Uninstall".
Restart your PC and connect your external drive.
Good Luck
--------------------------------------------------

Found at http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-650763-western-digital-my-passport-not-detected
 
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thifran

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Mar 19, 2014
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4,510


I had te SAME problem as described! I finally solved it, it was some 'Virtual Drives' installed via CloneDVD that created that issue, hope it helps! (I uninstalled all virtual drives and CloneCD/DVD and restarted, now perfect!)

Francis
 
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A

Alamoz28

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Aug 15, 2014
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Guys, use disk management to assign a drive path letter and viola.

My problem:

Win 8.1
All usb periphs fine
Couldn't get Toshiba/wd flash drives to recognize
Could see them as "mass storage device" in device manager
Could see them under disk management but didn't have drive path assigned (no letter designation)
Could _not_ see them in "my computer"

My solution:

Both drives were formatted e:\ and f:\ from my 7 computer....my 8.1 already has internal e:\ and f:\

So, on my 8.1 machine, click file explorer icon > this computer > right click this PC > disk management > drive should be visible minus drive path > right click drive> change drive letter and path > follow instructions and choose a drive path not currently being used i.e. K or L or Q.

Viola, should get notifications that drive is recognized etc. I did check backwards compatibility of the fix. They still work on my 7 machine just fine. I also tried to change the drive path through the 7 machine to one not being utilized on the 8.1 but that didn't work, you have to change the drive path on the 8/8.1 machine for this fix to work....good luck!.
 
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vannovack

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Sep 21, 2014
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This worked! Thanks.
 
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zeishue

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Oct 28, 2014
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HI, same problem here and think that allocating a disk letter should be the solution but keep getting a dialogue box pop-up that says 'The operation failed to complete bec the Disk Mgt console view is not up to date. Refresh the view by using the refresh task. If the problem persists close the DM console, then restart DM or restart the computer'.

Just that no amount of restarting DM or the pc as instructed,would help. The same dialogue box pops up every time. I'm on Windows Vista and could see my portable hard disk in DM that just reflect these text '465.6GB'. The 'change disk letter' command does however work on the other C and D (recovery) drives, just not this one. I wonder if it's because I did not install SP2 for vista (had installation probs before) or else format the disk disk but is a hassle to transfer out all data first.

Lastly, tried the 'uninstall grey-out entries' bit but I didn't see any grey-out bits.. just the the picture icon and description text.

Appreciate any further advice thxs.


 
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osamaxosama

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Nov 10, 2014
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4,510


thank you dear, that helped 100% and very simple.
i think we are getting this issue because of:

maybe we tried to repartition the hard driver, or set the drive as primary drive, your external hard drive may work first time, but because it is primary and when you unplug it unsafely, it may lose the ability to be recognized again, so change the drive letter as it was before, and keep trying letter and it works.
 
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Furdmonster

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Nov 19, 2014
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Change drive letter and path is greyed out. Now what?
 
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Slikkah

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Jan 1, 2015
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4,510
All these solutions are good and well, but what benefit does it have when the problem isnt resolved when the next time u plugin the USB hdd and u need to go all over again to Hard drive management etc etc ... Any concrete solution that "really" fix this problem ?
Imo, i reckon it has something to to do with beiing a primary partion instead of an extended one, or to have 1 hidden one and 1 not hidden but for one reason they both stay hidden ? ( This is my situation atm ).
Thats what i think of myself, because with the same hdd i didnt had this problem earlier having 1 primary "BOOT" ( not hidden ) partition and 1 extended "DATA" ( not hidden ) partition.
Its from the start i made them 2 primary partitions ( the "boot" i made hidden to work faster not detecting it as its not needed when i acces an OS ) this problem was starting to occur, and not on 1 system, on more systems ;)

So i think (imo) there are 2 reasons : mixed hidden and not hidden partition or working with multiple "primary" partitions wich makes this problem pop up on some systems?
Plugging in before pc is turned-on wont work aswell, only manually adding driveletters works atm.
 
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M

myquest

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Mar 28, 2015
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Hi.. How did you do. please explain. I had the same issue. Drive showing as H: in computer. Not able to open Disk Management when WD my passport connected. I reinstalled drive but still not working. Please advise.
 
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Alamoz28

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Aug 15, 2014
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Apologies for ages of delay.......did you resolve this? If not please describe more explicitly where this occurs in the process and I'll do my best to help you out.

 
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WJRHalyn

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Nov 9, 2014
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Hey, I hope you meant "illuminate". The word "eliminate" means "to remove", and sometimes, in the medical world, it means to empty one's bowels. Just noting for future reference.....
 
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salim_1

Commendable
Mar 7, 2016
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1,510
on windows 10, go to computer management > disk management and then right click on the HD and choose "Change driver letter or path"
choose any different letter and then hi OK,

that's how I fixed my similar issue just now
 
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