Western Digital My Book Essential Edition (WDG1U5000N) 500 GB Hard Drive Logo
Posted on Nov 09, 2007
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MyBook 500gb won't show up?

I've had this 500gb mybook external hd for about 3 months. My system always seemed a little slow at recognizing it. Today i go to plug it in and nothing. I can hear the mybooks rpm go up and down a few times with a little bit of clicking and then it just spins down and nothing. I've got about 200gig of edited home vids on this thing and hours upon hours of time invested on everything that is in there. Music, photo's ect. some of it unreplaceable. Is there any way to get this thing going or at least transfer stuff off onto another? From the looks of other posts on here these MyBooks aren't worth a S*^#. Can anyone point me in the direction of something that is worth buying? Should I just always have 2 backups going?

  • vogel28 Nov 11, 2007

    Im having the same problem ive had it since january and now it isnt showing up i can select it to do a safe hardware removal but i cant get it to read as a hard drive...mine is the 500gb version ive tried everything i can think of but im running out of ideas anyone have an ideas?
    Sorry i didnt see the same problem button.

  • thatbillguy Nov 12, 2007

    No Bensi it does not show up in my computer or divice managment. I can just hear it wind up a little bit and a bit of clicking and then nothing. This is the first external hd I have owned and the whole idea just scares the hell out of me now. What the hell would I do if I had this thing full with all my pictures and home vids, trusting it as a back up and the thing crashes and it's all gone forever? Should I back up on 2? From the looks of this forum their not very dependable. Are there any that you can recommend. I was about to start some major video editing and use my 500gb for a backup and now im glad i only had it about 1/4 full and most of the important stuff was still on my laptop. Anyway, suggestion on how to retreive what was lost or get this thing going again are appreiciated.

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JPTMD

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  • Posted on Mar 18, 2008
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I have had this problem with several MyBook hard drives. They work fine for a bit and then the windows xp OS fails to recognize them. If they do show up the computer warns me they are not formatted. My solution does not help fix the MyBook as is. However, if you have data you must have on it this may be of help. I simply opened up the MyBook plastic case. It is different for each drive. The Pro/premiums I have found you must remove the rubber packing to get at the latch area. After I removed the bare drive from the holder I used an IDE/SATA adapter kit with external power and plugged directly into a USB port. The drive was recognized immediately and I offloaded the data. The drive actually works better now then when it was in the Mybook holder. I am taking no chances though and have switched to LaCie drives. Hope this helps somewhat.

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  • Posted on Nov 12, 2007
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I have one of these on my desk at work:
http://www.startech.com/Product/ItemDetail.aspx?c=US&productid=USB2SATAIDE
It makes diagnosing hard drive problems incredibly easy. Also comes in handy removing stubborn viruses and malware. I'd suggest removing the standard hard drive from the MyBook and attaching it to the StarTech adapter. You'll quickly find out if it was the enclosure or the hard drive at fault.

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arben pllana

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  • Posted on Nov 10, 2007
arben pllana
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If u can do back up so do it?
Did it show in my computer or device menagment???

  • arben pllana
    arben pllana Nov 12, 2007





    1) External are damanged

    2) Hdd is ok ( not damanged )

    3)Put HDD in another external if u have.If u have't put in DESKTOP PC JUST HDD ( REMOVE JUMPER FROM HDD IF IT HAVE ).

    4)Buy new EXTERNAL ( without hdd )

    5) There is no way to repair external!









    BUT BEFOR U DOING THIS TRY THIS METOD TO FIND OUT IF THERE IS SOFTWARE PROBLEM ( OS )







    1) One of your USB devices have faulted, or is causing a resource conflict (or similar)
    -- Remove all USB devices, and reboot.

    2) Your USB chip/ports have been damaged.
    -- Find a spare HardDisk or bacjup your data and re-install Windows and see how that goes.

    3) Your Power Supply Unit (PSU) isnt supplying enough power to your PC (usually caused by a Video card upgrade). Try a more powerful PSU ... 400watts should do the trick

    4) Bad memory (RAM) can cause wierd problems. run memtest for an hour to make sure your memory is ok











    It seems that many people are still getting the 'USB Device not Recognized' problem from time to time. Unfortunately there is no easy fix.

    Firstly, it's recommended that you make sure every one of your motherboard drivers are completely up-to-date, but you probably already knew that.

    In XP, after a USB port isn't used for a long while the USB driver built into the OS sets the OHCI controller to suspend. When you plug a device back in, it can sometimes fail to 'wake up' properly. This problem was supposedly fixed in SP1 but there is a related registry hack that may still be able to help.

    Run regedt32.exe and navigate to;

    HKEY_LOCAL_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Usb

    Create the Usb key if it doesn't already exist. Under this key, create a new DWORD value called DisableSelectiveSuspend and give it a value of 1. Then restart the PC.

    A long shot perhaps, but I recall having similar problems with a USB hub built into my Microsoft keyboard and adding this key seemed to solve it. It wouldn't hurt in trying .

    Alternatively, removing all entries relating to USB in Device Manager and all associated USB drivers will force XP into refreshing the USB driver stack.

    Begin by unplugging all USB devices, then use Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel to uninstall any USB driver software. Next, boot up into safe mode and go to Device Manager. Once in device manager make sure 'Show hidden devices' is checked under the View menu. Uninstall all device entries in this order;

    1. USB peripheral devices (printers etc.)

    2. HID and/or Composite USB (Human Interface Devices) You're using PS/2 input devices so you may not have this entry.

    3. USB Root Hub(s)

    4. USB Host Controller(s) (Universal or Enhanced Host Controllers)

    Then boot back into Windows (not safe mode) and it should populate the Root Hubs & Host controllers again. Proceed to plug your USB devices back in, starting with your powered hub. Be aware that most USB printers and scanners need to have their drivers installed first before you plug them in.

    Hopefully some of this may be of help, let us know how you get on.

  • arben pllana
    arben pllana Nov 12, 2007

    Let me know please if ur problem is fixeda and rate this solution as SOLVED

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  • Posted on Nov 11, 2007
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Have you tried to plug it on another PC / Laptop ?

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