Solved USB HDD appears under Devices and Printers but not in Windows Explroer

[Involute]

I have a Western Digital Passport (2TB, USB 3.0) connected to my Win7 x64 PC via a USB 3.0 hub. It's been working fine for over a year. Yesterday it stopped appearing in Windows Explorer and the WD Utilities app, though it still comes up under Devices on the Devices and Printers window. The Windows troubleshooter doesn't find any problems, and the drive is working properly according to Properties - Hardware - Device status.

This problem coincides with installation of Cyberlink's PowerDVD 14 s/w, but I can't prove there's a connection and would prefer to hold off uninstalling it until other approaches are tried.

Thanks for any help.

 

[ComputerGeek]

It's probably a drive letter conflict. Right click Computer->Manage. Select Disk Management. Look in lower pane. Find the drive. Right click and assign it a higher drive letter (like M to Z should be safe to use).

 

[TechpumpkinWD]

Hello Involute,

I don't want to scare you, but the fact the your My Passport drive is not showing in the utilities app is very worrisome. To confirm the suspicions you can use WD DLG Support Answers. If WD DLG does not detect a WD drive connected to the system this usually means that this drive has failed completely.
Another reason for the drive not show up if it isn't getting enough power to spin up. To ensure this is not the situation here you can try using a different known good USB 3.0 cable and try to connect it to different USB ports and on different machines if possible. Also please make sure you are connecting the device directly to the PC USB port and not through a hub as this might cause power issues.

Keep us posted.

 

[Involute]

Thanks for the suggestions. Turns out it was an intermittent connection between the power cord and power supply for the powered USB hub the drive is connected to. Once I seated the cord properly everything returned to normal.