External HD - Win8.1- can't access it OR assign letter to disk

aiven · 11 Apr 2015

Hello everyone.

I have made backups of my files on an external hard drive (WD MyBook 2TB).
I did the transfer from my previous iMac before selling it.

Now on my new PC running Windows 8.1 Pro 64bits, I plugged the HD, heard the sound that it was recognized but did not see it appearing in the "My Computer" HD list.

I can see it in the DiskManagement panel but when I try to assign a letter to the disc, everything is grey except "delete the volume".

I just would like to see my files and copy them on my internal HD.

Thank you in advance for your time and reply.
Kind regards.

Aiven

Golden · 11 Apr 2015

How was the external formatted before moving the files from the iMac?

aiven · 12 Apr 2015

I did not format it, just bought it and transfered my files. I cannot see in the DiskManager what format it is.

For the moment, it appears to me the solution would be to transfer all the files to a Mac, then format the HD, then re-copy the files?

MightyMiroWD · 13 Apr 2015

Hi there.

I think that the problem is with the format of the external drive, which is why you can only delete and reformat it in Disk Management. Try to remove the files to a Mac and then reformat the external drive in exFAT. Here's an article from our KB that can help you out with the formatting:

How to format a WD external hard drive in exFAT or FAT32 (to use in Windows or Mac OSX)

Let us know how it went. :)

Golden · 13 Apr 2015

aiven said:

I did not format it, just bought it and transfered my files. I cannot see in the DiskManager what format it is.

For the moment, it appears to me the solution would be to transfer all the files to a Mac, then format the HD, then re-copy the files?

Yes, try that. Format the disk as NTFS.