My WD USB 2.0 External Hard drive not being recognized by my Laptop


  1. tompkinsmt
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 64-bit
       New #1

    My WD USB 2.0 External Hard drive not being recognized by my Laptop


    I have a 500 GB WD USB 2.0 External Hard drive that worked perfectly that i used to store music, movies, family pictures, family home videos, TV shows everything. And one day out of the blue it just stopped showing up on my computer. I never did anything out of the ordinary or anything. I plugged it in and i hear the HD running, light is on and i even hear the prompt sound on my laptop go off. But the HD itself will not show up on my laptop. I have ALOT of stuff on this i need so any information on helping with this will help!!!!
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  3. Golden
    Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
       New #2

    Hi and welcome to SevenForums,

    Can you please post a screen capture image of your Disk Management screen?

    1. Click Start
    2. Type disk manage
    3. Click 'Create and format hard disk partitions'
    4. Maximise the window, then take a screen capture image.

    Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

    Regards,
    Golden
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  4. tompkinsmt
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    My WD USB 2.0 External Hard drive not being recognized by my Laptop-screnshot.png

    This is "with" the hard drive plugged in
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  6. Golden
    Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
       New #4

    Hi,

    The 500GB USB drive is shown as DISK1 not initialized, which isn't a good sign. Can you check to see whether the hard drive shows up when you plug it into another computer?

    Regards,
    Golden
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  7. tompkinsmt
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    i do not have another computer to plug it into, any other way to check?
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  8. gregrocker
    Posts : 50,642
       New #6

    Do not initialize or format the disk!

    Install Partition Wizard to see if it sees the HD, which it sometimes will when Explorer won't. If so then rightclick HD partitions in Partition Wizard to Check File System. I have had this bring the disk back to life which you'll see happen when the autostart box pops up and it suddenly shows up in Explorer. But let the Disk Check run to completion.

    If it shows up immediately copy out the data before anything else.

    Then run WD Data Lifeguard bootable CD Extended Diagnostics on the drive to find out if it is kaput. Follow that with Disk Check with both boxes checked.

    WD Support / Downloads / SATA & SAS / WD RE2

    If all of this fails try Recuva to rescue your data: Recuva - Features
    There is also a last resort attempt to repair the partition table if that's the problem given in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot
    Last edited by gregrocker; 11 Aug 2012 at 21:00.
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  10. Golden
    Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
       New #7

    Thanks Greg - great suggestions.
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