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WD Passport external drive not showing up in explorer/my computer

Anonymous
2012-12-22T21:32:36+00:00

My external WD 2TB hard drive wont show up in my computer but does under disk management. under Disk 1.  I am runing Windows 7 and connected to USB3.0 port. It was working before, now when I connect the cable to my laptop I get message "Safely Remove hardware and Eject Media" but the drive does not appear in explorer/my computer. Any assitance would be greatly appreciated.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-12-23T10:50:09+00:00

    Hi,

    I am sorry to hear that you are facing this issue with the external hard drive. I will try and help you get the issue resolved; however before we begin could you provide us some additional information.

    1.       Do you have any anti-virus program installed on the computer?

    2.       Have you tried connecting the drive to another computer and checked?

    3.       Are you aware of any recent software or hardware change on the computer?

    You may check if the drive is being detected in Device Manger. If it does, right click on the device and click on uninstall. Restart the computer and let it find and install the drivers automatically. Check if this helps. If the issue persists you may assign a drive letter and check if it helps. Follow the steps from the article and check.

    Hope this information is helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to help.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-12-29T15:50:29+00:00

    Hi,

    Do you have any important data on the hard drive?

    You may also perform a system restore and check if it helps resolve the issue.

    Note: When you perform System Restore to restore the computer to previous state, programs and updates you installed are removed.

    You may also try and check if you are able to unhide the drive from command prompt.

    a)      Type CMD in Start menu search area and hit Enter to launch Command Prompt

    b)      In the Command Prompt, type Diskpart and hit enter key. Click Yes if you are prompted with UAC (User Account Control) dialog-box.

    c)       And then type List Volume and hit enter to see list of all drives.

    d)      Select the volume number for which you want to assign a drive letter and show in the explorer. Type Select Volume

    e)      Once selected, type Assign Letter  and hit Enter key to see the drive in explorer.

    Hope this helps and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to help.

    60+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2012-12-23T22:32:01+00:00

    Thanks for your quick response, your recomendations did NOT solve my problem. Yes I do have anti-virus program installed. I tried it on 3 different computers (all ruuning windows 7) and same isse it does not recognize the external drive and I have not made any recent changes to my computers.  The device is being detected in the Device Manager and as you instructed I was able to unistall it, restart the computer and it did find and install the drivers automatically but the drive is still not showing up in explorer/my computer. I also tried assigning a drie letter but I was not able to as the drive in Disk Management is identified as "Unallocated" and right click does not provide an option to "change Drive Letter and paths"..

    The device is recognized by every computer in Device Manager and Disk Mangement, it just doesn't show up in explorer/my computer.

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2017-09-22T19:19:10+00:00

    I used this Passport on Windows 7 previously but am now on Windows 10 and it does not show up.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2016-06-06T09:27:07+00:00

    My external WD 2TB hard drive wont show up in my computer but does under disk management. under Disk 1.  I am runing Windows 7 and connected to USB3.0 port. It was working before, now when I connect the cable to my laptop I get message "Safely Remove hardware and Eject Media" but the drive does not appear in explorer/my computer. Any assitance would be greatly appreciated.

    I had same problem. Could see drive in disc management but not in explorer. I allocated the drive a letter and it was then visible in explorer.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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