Western Digital My Book Essential Edition (WDG1U5000N) 500 GB Hard Drive Logo

Related Tags:

Problem with Western Digital My Book Essential Edition (WDG1U5000N) 500 GB Hard Drive

PC won't recognize flashing Western Digital External Hard Drive

My computer won't recognize my WD external. It used to work just fine, and then one day it just... stopped. Basically, my computer won't recognize it. On the front of the harddrive, the big, blue button is just blinking, slowly-- like fading-- on and off. It doesn't register anywhere on the computer. It doesn't have to do with the USB port either. Thanks :D PC used to recognize WD My Book; now, I must re-boot and re-connect each time I start PC. Then the Drive shows up in the "My Computer" menu -- but I cannot access the supposedly saved files. Once I could. Thinking you have backed up files when you really haven't is worse than having no back-up. I am NOT impressed with the My Book drive to date...The button on the front is totally useless -- it does nothing except blink and rotate. It is a mystery to me why we cannot simply have the unit serve as an external drive, so that you could drag and drop files into it. What does it take?

Posted by avatar on May 29, 2009

Solutions (4)

Best Solution

First, I recommend changing the USB cable. Try it on another computer to see if it works. If that does not work the next part is more complicated. You may not want to do it.

Open the box and remove the hard drive. Open your turned off computer and attach the data and power cables and support the drive next to the computer with no stress on the cables. Turn the computer on and see if you now have a new drive.

Problem: there are two kinds of drives: IDE and SATA. IDE has a wide 40 wire data cable and big flat 4 connector power cable. SATA has a small (usually RED color) data cable and a small power connector. There is now way anyone could confuse the two types.

If your computer and external drive match you can check the external this way. If the are opposite, you are snookered. Beyond these suggestions, there is not much more I can do.

Did you try disconnecting the power supply cord from the wall, waiting a few seconds, and then reconnecting? Somewhat like a router, that's the way you reset the external drive. That's a pretty simple fix for what looks like a serious problem.

I just solved this issue, I have tried everything....
My WD would not work on any computer I plugged it into, just kept spinning. And pretty much gave up on it & just expected to lose all my data. It just would not show up in Disk Mangement etc etc.


THEN......

I opened it up (Removing the MyBook Premium case) and noticed the HDD had a few circuit boards attached (this where the LED lights etc are placed) & thought this my be causing the issue. So removed the HDD from the case & put it in a new External case plugged it in & BANG worked straight away!!!!!!

Must have been something to do with the WD circuits!

Maybe give it a go...A new HDD enclosure will only set u back a few bucks.

    • By avatarNerdski Apr 17, 2010

    • SOLVED MY ISSUE!

      I had the same issue.
      MyBook Premium would not work on any of my PC's. Tried everything, it wouldn't show in Device Manager, Disk Management but when I plugged it in I did recognize it & made the Plug & Play noise....But nothing. Just kept spinning.

      So just I as I was about to give up on all my data stored on there, I decided to open up the case & have a look. And I noticed that the HDD plugs into a little circuit board (this is where the LEDs are etc) & I thought maybe that the circuit board has something to do with it not working.
      So bought a new external HDD case (only cost a couple bucks) & put the WD HDD the new case so it didn't require the circuit board thing & then plugged it in to PC.................BANG~! Worked straight away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      So good to get me data back. Maybe you should try it if y still having issues.


    • By avatarNerdski Apr 17, 2010

    • Sorry doubled up on the comments.

i have the same problem,my vista or xp pc wont let me view files on my wd 1tb external hd

Suggested Solution (2)

please write down the error and contact me now

anaesarora online

  • by Author image doctor arora m p singh Over a year ago

Source: ibm t43, xp pro won't recognize my WD my book

Was this solution helpful?

No

Yes

http://www.wdc.com/en/library/eide/2579-001037.pdf
Try there it should help you out.

  • by Author image Sam H. Over a year ago

Source: Is there anyone who can tell me the jumper

Was this solution helpful?

No

Yes

Add Your Solution

Western Digital My Book Essential Edition (WDG1U5000N) 500 GB Hard Drive Unsolved Problems

See all Western Digital My Book Essential Edition Problems

Related Topics