[SOLVED] Can't get WD external hard drive to open - driver error on asus rog strix g17 windows 10

[Knallow]

Hello people, I have a problem with my USB driver when I try to connect my WD external hard drive into my laptop. Hope someone can help me figure out what’s wrong.

My laptop is an asus rog strix g17, and its specs:

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6 Graphics
• AMD Ryzen 9-5900HX Processor 3.3GHz
• 16GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD
• Windows 10 Home

Problem: when I try to connect my WD external hard drive, my computer picks it up in the “Devices and Printers” but it won’t read it and won't show in File Explorer. If I eject it, it won’t do anything and I need to physically remove it.

If I wait a little or when I fiddle around (clicking around, not really changing anything) with

• The external hard drive driver “USB Mass Storage Device” “in Devices and Printers”
• Disk Management looking for the drive (FYI the external drive doesn’t show up here as well)
• Device Manager to look at the “USB Mass Storage Device” driver

An exclamation yellow sign will pop up on the “USB Mass Storage Device” and indicates these errors in the General tab and Events tab. :

• This device cannot start. (Code 10)

{Operation Failed}
The requested operation was unsuccessful.

• Device USB\VID_1058&PID_1042\575833314336324135333337 had a problem starting.

Driver Name: usbstor.inf
Class Guid: {36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000}
Service: USBSTOR
Lower Filters:
Upper Filters:
Problem: 0xA
Problem Status: 0xC0000001

Looking up online, these are the solutions I have tried but didn’t work:

• Uninstall driver, unplug and plug back in
• Uninstall driver, unplug, reboot and plug back in
• Disable “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” in USB Root Hub (USB 3.0)’s “Power Management” tab
• Replace the usbstor.inf file in Windows/INF folder
• Troubleshoot the external hard drive in “Devices and Printers” to fix the driver (it says Troubleshooting couldn’t identify the problem at the end)

I should note that the one time I got it working was when I tried the first solution. But when I try to replicate it again, it’s either hit or miss but mostly misses because I’ve only got it to work once.

Please let me know if you had this or similar issue like this before. Kudos in advance.

 

[dwd999]

It would help to try and determine if this is a Windows problem or if the drive is just dying or dead. If you have another usb port available, you could try creating a usb stick with a linux live distro on it, boot from that and see if at least you can access the drive to retrieve any essential files and move them off of it.

 

[Knallow]

It would help to try and determine if this is a Windows problem or if the drive is just dying or dead. If you have another usb port available, you could try creating a usb stick with a linux live distro on it, boot from that and see if at least you can access the drive to retrieve any essential files and move them off of it.

I think it's a Windows problem because I can use the WD external hard drive on my other laptop. It just doesn't work on this asus rog strix g17 one. I also have another smaller usb that also works on this one seamlessly.