Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive Logo
C
Clark Lambert Posted on Oct 16, 2013
Answered by a Fixya Expert

Trustworthy Expert Solutions

At Fixya.com, our trusted experts are meticulously vetted and possess extensive experience in their respective fields. Backed by a community of knowledgeable professionals, our platform ensures that the solutions provided are thoroughly researched and validated.

View Our Top Experts

Wd 500gb external drive - cannot recognize drive usb2 connection - drive flashing apparent code 6 flashes (bright) followed by 3 flashes (dim). Same result on multiple PC's.

Answer This Question

1 Answer

B.Boelens

Level 2:

An expert who has achieved level 2 by getting 100 points
MVP:

An expert that got 5 achievements.
Novelist:

An expert who has written 50 answers of more than 400 characters.
Scholar:

An expert who has written 20 answers of more than 400 characters.

  • Expert 100 Answers
  • Posted on Oct 19, 2013
B.Boelens
Expert
Level 2:

An expert who has achieved level 2 by getting 100 points
MVP:

An expert that got 5 achievements.
Novelist:

An expert who has written 50 answers of more than 400 characters.
Scholar:

An expert who has written 20 answers of more than 400 characters.

Joined: May 22, 2007
Answers
100
Questions
2
Helped
13326
Points
150

WD has a internet-page where you can find more info about the "flashing".

5 Related Answers

Anonymous

  • 341 Answers
  • Posted on Nov 26, 2008

SOURCE: Flashing light on WD 500GB External Harddrive

This may sound silly,but sometimes if you put the drive in the freezer overnight it will work long enough for you to retrieve your data.Make sure you are ready to copy the data to another as it will likely fail again once it warms up.

Ad

Anonymous

  • 1 Answer
  • Posted on Jan 02, 2009

SOURCE: My PC is not recognizing my WD Passport 120GB USB external drive.

I had the same issue. Its not a power issue because it shows up in device manager. Heres what I did.

Right-click on my computer and click Manage>Disk Management

Your drive should show up there. Right-click on it. If explore is not grayed out, assign a drive letter to it and you should then be bale to see it in my computer.

In my case explore was grayed out. I had to click on the option to format the drive. After re-formatting the passport explore was available. I then assigned a drive letter to it and I have access again.

I guess somehow using it on multiple computers srcewed up the file-system on it. I was using it between windows and linux.

This fixed my problem.

Anonymous

  • 1 Answer
  • Posted on Mar 08, 2009

SOURCE: My PC is not recognizing my WD Passport 120GB USB external drive.

I had a similar problem with my WD passport 320GB. When I connected it to my laptop it never showed up on My Computer even though the blue light on the hard drive came on.
Here is what I did:  Right click on "My Computer" and click on "Manage" and then "Disk Management",. you should see your WD hard drive listed. then click on "change driver letters and paths"  and change it from the listed to another drive. I changed mine from G to F drive and it worked for me.

Anonymous

  • 1 Answer
  • Posted on Mar 08, 2009

SOURCE: My I Mac doesn't recognize the WD 500GB external drive anymore

it must be initialised /mounted 1st for osx

darkoh69

danny

  • 77 Answers
  • Posted on Jun 01, 2009

SOURCE: Flashing blue light on external WD hard drive & not recognised

sounds like you are using the wrong power supply. Check the amp output on the power plug you plug into the wall make sure its the same as the amp input of your external harddrive

Ad

Add Your Answer

×

Uploading: 0%

my-video-file.mp4

Complete. Click "Add" to insert your video. Add

×

Loading...
Loading...

Related Questions:

0helpful
1answer

Wd 500gb hard drive is not shown any power it was working fine suddenly when i try to connect to my laptop nothing appearing. plz advice
Good day, this video tutorial will help you to recognize your WD 500GB. Just follow instruction and your problem will gonna fix.
Read full answer
Jul 30, 2011 • Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB...
0helpful
1answer

Formatting WD SATA 500GB AAKS in larger than 137GB
The best software that can fix this problem is "Power Quest Partition Magic".It works like a dream for drives of any capacity!
Read full answer
Oct 11, 2007 • Western Digital Caviar SE16 (WD5000AAKS)...
0helpful
1answer

Red light on on my Buffalo HD
Red ERROR LED The way the unit gives diagnostic codes is by long and short flashes of the specific light. The number of long flashes give the first of two numbers and the number of short flashes give the second. For instance, one long flash and three short flashes would indicate an error of 13 -
E 00
(No light, beep only) - MPU error E 01 DRAM data line error E 02 DRAM address line error E 03 RTC chip error E 04 Flash rom error E 10 UPS power loss E 11 fan error (RPM too low or not functional) E 12 cooling error (unable to remove heat by the fan) E 15 disk error E 16 unable to locate internal HDD E 17 Unable to communicate with the RTC chip E 21 unable to communicate with the Phy chip E 22 mount error. The original Buffalo firmware has the following error messages based on the number of flashes:
3 Partition problem with hard drive. Reformat the hard drive. 4 Fan problem. 5 ROM problem. 6 Hard Drive can not be recognized. 7 Problem with motherboard (RAM, LAN, or Hard Drive controller). Exerted from http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Information/LSProLED

I hope this has been helpful, unfortunately without more information I cannot help any further.
Read full answer
Jul 20, 2011 • Buffalo Technology (USA), INC. - 500GB...
1helpful
1answer

WD My Book Not Recognized
One or more of the hints below will probably sort out most USB problems with most USB portable / external hard drives and OTHER devices (though not always)

A few things to check but assumes USB and Windows for other interfaces / operating systems (mac/ Linux) similar steps may be adapted to suit.

1. Ensure it is connected directly to the computer to a USB 2.0 port not a USB 1.0 port as this can have effects on performance and reliability

2. Use only the cables that came with it NOT one that fits that may have been lying around or is longer. Not all USB cables are equal even though they should be)

3. Do not connect through an external USB HUB unless that hub is USB 2.0 AND has its own power supply.

4. Use ONLY the power supply that came with it if it has an external power supply Don’t use any other unless you know it has both the same voltage and current rating e.g. 12V 500mA anything rated below that would not work properly.

5. Always use the same port for connecting your devices. Some devices do not like being switched about. If switched they may want to install software / drivers again. This can be especially true if you move a HUB to another port
6. For FLASH DRIVES you should ensure that the device is set for "quick removal" using the drive control panel properties or use the USB "Safely Remove Hardware" option. If you dont do this there is a very strong chance that any files you transfer may not be there when you plug into another computer.

If you checked and fixed anything there and still have issues then check your hardware from CONTROL PANEL / SYSTEM / HARDWARE.
Any exclamation marks by hardware need fixing before you investigate any further

USB flash drives can fail for no apparent reason.
Sandisk Cruzers are especially bad for this.

USB hard drives should be treated with extreme care.
This is a real hard drive ! and knocks and bumps can quite literally kill them.

It is possible to remove drives from the enclosures in most cases and connect directly inside a PC to fully check it.
You should also do this to cheack the drives connections are not bad inside the enclosure

Note that if you hear a drive clicking or pinging this could be the worst thing you would hear.
Known as "The Click Of Death"

If none of the above steps help look at updating the drivers from the manufacturers web site in the support section
Read full answer
Oct 02, 2009 • Western Digital My Book Essential Edition...
7helpful
4answers

WD Elements USB drive not recognized
Try going to Disk Management and see if they show up there.

  1. Click Start
  2. Right Click My Computer
  3. Click Manage
  4. Click Disk Management
If your computer is recognizing a mass storage device they should show up in disk management and you can just assign them a drive letter.
Read full answer
Sep 15, 2009 • Western Digital Elements powered by WD 320...
0helpful
1answer

My I Mac doesn't recognize the WD 500GB external drive anymore
it must be initialised /mounted 1st for osx

Read full answer
Mar 08, 2009 • Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB...
0helpful
1answer

The green light on my WD 500GB external hard drive started flashing and since then my computer has not recognized it. How do I fix this?
It is possible that the connection between the two drives is interrupted. If you really go the safest way, turn off your pc and disconnect your external drive. Reboot your pc and see if you when reconnecting your drive Windows finds it.
Read full answer
Nov 25, 2008 • Computers & Internet
0helpful
1answer

Flashing light on WD 500GB External Harddrive
This may sound silly,but sometimes if you put the drive in the freezer overnight it will work long enough for you to retrieve your data.Make sure you are ready to copy the data to another as it will likely fail again once it warms up.
Read full answer
Nov 25, 2008 • Western Digital My Book Essential Edition...
0helpful
3answers

Trying to format a 500GB HDD at full capacity
check your bios if the disk is recognized as 500gb first. if it is not recognized, update your motherboard bios. most updates are available in their manufacturers site.
Read full answer
Oct 11, 2007 • Western Digital Caviar SE16 (WD5000AAKS)...
0helpful
2answers

Formatting WD SATA 500GB AAKS in larger than 137GB

I recomended you to use ULTIMATE BOOT CD 4.0 and to write HDD it will take ca 3 hours but u have to wait and checking for error i will post some pics some i hope will help you

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1614/14770099ga2.jpg

http://img511.imageshack.us/my.php?image=14770099ga2.jpg

http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/2526/35680833oz9.jpg

http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=35680833oz9.jpg

or open cmd console and start with cmd

http://www.imagehost.ro/viewer.php?img=11234653470e8bbd44f2d

http://www.imagehost.ro/pict/11234653470e8bbd44f2d.JPG

Read full answer
Oct 11, 2007 • LaCie External USB 2.0 500GB 7200 RPM 500...
Not finding what you are looking for?

View Most Popular

My Book Essential 1TB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive

  • Computers & Internet

Related Question

Wd 500gb hard drive is not shown any power it was working fine suddenly when i try to connect to my laptop nothing appearing. plz advice

  • Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB External USB 2.0 - WDH1U5000N 500 GB Hard Drive

Related Topics

186 views

Ask a Question

Usually answered in minutes!

Popular Questions

The device Generic volume cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later

Western Digital 500GB My Book World...

Not showing my external hard drive

Western Digital My Book Essential...

How to reset WD My Book World Edition to factory defaults?

Western Digital 500GB My Book World...

My Book makes clicking noise and does not show up anymore

Western Digital My Book Essential...

Western Digital 500GB My Book Essential won't start up

Western Digital My Book Essential...

Check Out the Mobile Browsers Report
Check Out the Mobile Browsers Report

View all Fixya Reports

Top Western Digital Computers & Internet Experts

Grand Canyon Tech
Grand Canyon Tech

Level 3 Expert

3867 Answers

Sean Wright
Sean Wright

Level 3 Expert

2045 Answers

Paul Bade

Level 3 Expert

1818 Answers

Are you a Western Digital Computer and Internet Expert? Answer questions, earn points and help others

Answer questions

Manuals & User Guides

PDF Manual
Manual. user-manual-My Book Essential...

My Book Essential...

PDF Manual
Manual. user-manual-My Book Essential...

My Book Essential...

Loading...