TV not picking up wd my passport ultra 1TB

[MariusImmelman]

Hi,

My wife bought a WD My Passport Ultra. My laptop (running Win XP), our LG 47" LCD and Samsung 32" LED doesn't pick up the drive in order to view the media files copied onto the drive.

I do have a WD My Passport Ultra 2TB which I can view perfectly on my laptop and both the TVs

Help?

Marius

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, @MariusImmelman!

What is the file system on your WD My Passport 2 TB? It's possible that the newly bought WD My Passport has a different file system (most probably pre-formatted in NTFS), whereas your older could have been re-formatted in order to wokr with your TVs (in FAT32 or exFAT), depending on the file systems you TVs read.
It's also possible that they read NTFS-formatted drives, though. In this case, I'd advise you re-format your new WD My Passport Ultra through Disk Management in Windows.

Hope this helps. Keep me posted if you encounter more issues with it!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[MariusImmelman]

Both drives' properties mention NTFS.....

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

In this case, you should definitely consider re-formatting the WD My Passport through your laptop using the guidelines shared in the hyperlink in my previous post. It will take you to our knowledge base where you will find a detailed step-by-step article on how to format & partition your WD drive. Make sure you select the NTFS file system again. If the issue is still present after the re-formatting procedure, let me know.

SuperSoph_WD

 

[MariusImmelman]

Hi,

Ok... I've done as you suggested, twice... 1st with a quick format and then with a full format
Still not working on the TV and I can still not see it on my HP laptop running XP.

Suggestions?

 

[Alabalcho]

Connect your new drive to Windows 7/8/10 PC, go to Disk Manager, check what partition style the drive is formatted to, most probably your TV recognizes MBR only. Delete all partitions, then right-click in the drive itself (most-left), and "Change to MBR", recreate volumes.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, @MariusImmelman!

I'm sorry to hear that! However, I'd strongly recommend you check how the WD My Passport 1 TB would appear if you swap the USB cables with the 2 TB WD Passport drive. IF that doesn't help, you should try formatting the problematic external drive in FAT32. This file system is easily recognized by many devices. However, you should be aware of the file & partition size limitations that come with it.

Hope this one works. Let me know how it goes.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[buck5000]

Connect your new drive to Windows 7/8/10 PC, go to Disk Manager, check what partition style the drive is formatted to, most probably your TV recognizes MBR only. Delete all partitions, then right-click in the drive itself (most-left), and "Change to MBR", recreate volumes.

Thank you Alabalcho, for your answer is the correct one - I followed your instructions(in Windows 10, I right-clicked on the Start button to get into Disk Management, Then right-clicked on the partition bar for the WD Ultra to delete it, Then the rest was as per your instructions). Requires reformatting with the unavoidable consequence of losing all contained data, of course.
Ran into this problem with both Samsung Bluray player and an older MyGica Android box I tried, but a new M8S Plus Android Box did see the drive and play movies I'd copied.
The older players did start working after changing the partition method from GUID to MBR (Master Boot Record).
I imagine that there are going to be lots of people running into this problem, but probably mostly antiquarians like myself with older hardware media players and poor streaming options.

 

[theDSsucks]

Connect your new drive to Windows 7/8/10 PC, go to Disk Manager, check what partition style the drive is formatted to, most probably your TV recognizes MBR only. Delete all partitions, then right-click in the drive itself (most-left), and "Change to MBR", recreate volumes.

Thank you Alabalcho, for your answer is the correct one - I followed your instructions(in Windows 10, I right-clicked on the Start button to get into Disk Management, Then right-clicked on the partition bar for the WD Ultra to delete it, Then the rest was as per your instructions). Requires reformatting with the unavoidable consequence of losing all contained data, of course.
Ran into this problem with both Samsung Bluray player and an older MyGica Android box I tried, but a new M8S Plus Android Box did see the drive and play movies I'd copied.
The older players did start working after changing the partition method from GUID to MBR (Master Boot Record).
I imagine that there are going to be lots of people running into this problem, but probably mostly antiquarians like myself with older hardware media players and poor streaming options.

I have the exact same problem
But i don't understand these step by step instructions.
1. "check what partition style the drive is formatted to" How do i do this EXACTLY?
2. "Delete all partitions" How do i do this EXACTLY? What am i clicking on and where do i find what i am supposed to click on to do this?
3. "then right-click in the drive itself (most-left) What does this even mean? What am i do exactly?

 

[Alabalcho]

Post a picture of Windows' Disk Manager window here, with your drive visible in it.

 

[theDSsucks]

Post a picture of Windows' Disk Manager window here, with your drive visible in it.

I don't know how to attach my screen shot here. I click on "picture" and it asks me for a URL.

EDIT: I think i figured it out. I had a GPT. I right clicked on blue bar. Delete "Volume" Then i had to Right click on the gray area far left to convert to MBR. But then you still have to add simple volume and reformat it to NTFS.
I think i did it right. Now i have to test it.. I will update soon, and i really hope this did the trick.

 

[Alabalcho]

The way to attach a photo/screenshot: Put that photo on some free image hosting (there're plenty of them to choose from), and then place the link.

 

[wind__]

https://neosmart.net/wiki/convert-gpt-to-mbr/