WD External HDD suddenly not showing up on My Computer

[elfinblues]

Hello everyone. My first post here, and I really hope someone out there might be able to help. I'm pretty worried about losing all my files.

I have had a Western Digital externall hard drive permanently attached to my wife's old desktop PC (which runs XP) for a year or so. I've always been very pleased with it - it connected perfectly, and it has always just shown up in My Computer there as an extra drive. Perfect. However, that PC was getting old and the memory nearly full, so I copied all my important files (family photos, etc.) to my WD HDDm disconnected it from the old desktop, connected it to my much newer laptop (which runs Windows 7), and hey presto - it appeared in Computer. Again, perfect, no problem. However, I realised that I had not transferred all the files I needed from the old desktop to the HDD, so I had tp disconnect the HDD from the laptop and reconnect it to the desktop again with the intention of transferring the files I'd forgotten to transfer first time around. And this time, the HDD did not appear in My Computer. It DID appear in the little icon, bottom screen right, which you click to safely remove something, and it did show up in Devices, it just didn't show up in My COmputer, so I couldn't access it. The exact same thing happened when I tried to connect it back to my laptop - it's there in the "safely remove" icon and in Devices, but not in My Computer.

I am not very computer literate, but I've tried everything I can think of to fix this and nothing is working. I am worried as the files & photos I have on my HDD are so important, and I am completely baffled as to why something that connected perfectly well to both older desktop and newer laptop first time around should stubbornly refuse to be fully recognised by both computers second time around.

If anyone here can offer some help, I would be massively grateful. Thanks very much in advance.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome E mate hook up the drive > go to Start > type in cmd > right click on the small black window and run as admin > then type diskpart > hit Enter > at DISKPART type list disk > it should then show all the drives that are hooked up take a look at my pic (my screen is blue / white out of choice yours will be black / white).

Tell us what you see better still a screen shot using snip > Star type snip > pin to taskbar (very handy there) the screen will go milky drag a line arounf the screen part you want and then > File > sSave as (I put mine on the desktop for easy access but you can put it where you like)

When posting back just below the reply window there is manage attachments > browse and pick the screen shot > upload and post back.