I bought a 3TB WD MY BOOK Studio external hard drive, but it's not showing on my windows PC. I've gone through the suggestions

[choice4u]

I bought a 3TB WD MY BOOK Studio external hard drive, but it's not showing on my windows PC. I've gone through the suggestions on community page, but no success

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, choice4u.

Really sorry to hear about the problems you are experiencing with your drive.

What suggestions have you tried? Did you check if the drive is recognized by Disk Management, Device Manager, or at least the BIOS of the computer? If it is recognized by Disk Management would you please be so kind as to post a screenshot of what you see there about the HDD (you can use imgur.com to upload the image)?

Since I'm not sure what suggestions you are referring to, I'd advise you to try the drive with a different USB cable and a different computer, to see if the same thing happens. You should also download DLG (Data Lifeguard) and run both tests (Quick and Extended), to see if it recognizes the drive and if there's anything out of the ordinary. Here's how to do it: How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.

Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Erik_L]

I also have a WD 3tb MyBook doing the same exact thing, since CHoice4U hasn't responded I figured I would let you know what I am seeing.

Running Win10, have tried all USB ports (2.0 and 3.0) on the laptop, rebooted a few times, when I go into My Computer it doesn't show its an available drive, BUT when I run Data LIfeguard Diag it sees the drive and passes each time no issue, Safely Remove Media option sees the connected drive (MyBook 1235) and allows me to disconnect it, which I have tried then reconnecting with no change, when in Disk Management it sees the space on the drive and the partitions within the MyBook, but there is no drive letter, when I right click the volume of the MyBook the only option available is Delete volume and help, if I right click on Disk 1 (mybook) the only avail options are Convert to Dynamic disk, Properties and Help.

Any insight as to how I can add a drive letter to it, or what I should try next would be great.

Thanks

Erik

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hi Erik.

It sounds really unfortunate indeed. Thanks for all the troubleshooting you've done in advance, I really appreciate it!

It seems like the only thing left for you to try is to check if the same thing happens with a different USB cable and a different computer. The drive is recognized indeed, but if the different cable/computer does not help the reason for this is that the files system might have become corrupted. Actually, there's no file system listed (not even a RAW one).

If you have data which you need to recover, I'd advise you to try and access the drive via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if this OS can properly recognize the partition and access the data so that you can back it up. If that does not help as well, you could go for data recovery software: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html & http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm.
You can also try a partition repair tool, but I'd recommend that you go with the other suggestions first, as this might mess things up even more.

Please keep me posted on your progress.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Erik_L]

Hi Erik.

It sounds really unfortunate indeed. Thanks for all the troubleshooting you've done in advance, I really appreciate it!

It seems like the only thing left for you to try is to check if the same thing happens with a different USB cable and a different computer. The drive is recognized indeed, but if the different cable/computer does not help the reason for this is that the files system might have become corrupted. Actually, there's no file system listed (not even a RAW one).

If you have data which you need to recover, I'd advise you to try and access the drive via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if this OS can properly recognize the partition and access the data so that you can back it up. If that does not help as well, you could go for data recovery software: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html & http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm.
You can also try a partition repair tool, but I'd recommend that you go with the other suggestions first, as this might mess things up even more.

Please keep me posted on your progress.
Boogieman_WD

I have another win 10 as well as win 8 laptop I will try this weekend...if it works on the win 8 it's got to be win 10 related..The cable is a proprietary two usb connection into the drive so no go on testing another....Either way it's prob going bk to amazon as it was just purchased, but I will post findings.

Any suggestions for a replacement external drive that does work with win 10 successfully, incase I need to go that way or should reordering this drive be fine?

Thanks!

Erik

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Let me know how it goes. As for the cable, would you please post a picture of it if possible, as I don't know of any proprietary cables for My Book Studio. It should work with standard USB 2.0 or 3.0 cables. My Book Studio - check the bottom right corner of the page where it says "Important interface information".

Basically all WD drive (both external and internal ones) should have no issue with any of the currently used Windows versions, including the Win 10. I really don't understand why this is happening. It might be an OS related issue if the drive passes the tests and if it work properly when you try it with the Win 8 computer.

Please keep me posted.