Hard Drive Works On One Computer, But Doesn't Show Up On Another

[ponchothecat]

My external WD hard drive will turn the lights on when you first plug it into my computer but the lights will turn off quickly and it wont spin up. When I plug the same hard drive into another computer it is recognized and works perfectly. I am confused how a hard drive can work on one computer, but not even show up in the device manager or disk manager on another computer. I have tested and the USB port and cable are fine on both computers. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[BFG-9000]

It is likely the 2nd computer's USB ports simply cannot supply enough power to spin up the drive, especially if this is one of those 2.5" devices. If there is a power adapter port on the drive, plug it in. Otherwise, drives with no port usually come with an adapter in the box that plugs into two USB ports at the same time.

 

[ponchothecat]

It is likely the 2nd computer's USB ports simply cannot supply enough power to spin up the drive, especially if this is one of those 2.5" devices. If there is a power adapter port on the drive, plug it in. Otherwise, drives with no port usually come with an adapter in the box that plugs into two USB ports at the same time.

The hard drive doesn't have a port on it for power, and the box that it came in is long gone so I don't know if it had the cable with two USBs on it.

I plugged the hard drive into a port on a powered USB hub and it worked perfectly. Thank You!