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I have a Western Digital 500gb external hard drive and when I tried to attach it to the USB port it will not recognize it - I have been downloading photos on it for about 5 months now. I use an apple macbook pro. what can I do?
I only have the 1 mac book pro - i am trying a apple software update and will connect again and try it out.I only have the 1 mac book pro - i am trying a apple software update and will connect again and try it out.
Have you tried it on another computer to make sure the drive has not gone bad?Have you tried it on another computer to make sure the drive has not gone bad?
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Try plugging the usb cable directly to a usb port on your computer and not through a usb hub. Also make sure the ac adapter for the Western Digital is getting power and the light on the drive is on. Also a recent update to your virus program could be blocking it( it happened to mine). Thanks for using FixYa
Try to hear if the hard drive is spinning. If yes then open Disk Management.
1. Open the Control Panel
2. Open Administatice Tools
3. Open Computer Management
4. Choice Disk Management.
Check if you can see the hard drive there if not is probably dead.
HI, YOU MAY WANT TO TRY, REMOVE SECURITY FROM WITHIN THE SMARTWARE, THEN AND AS ALWAYS, MAKE SURE THAT THE DRIVE, WHEN BEING CONNECTED/DISCONNECTED, THAT THE PC IS COMPLETELY SHUTDOWN.............. I HOPE THIS HELPS.........JEFFXC
Try downloading the device driver from western digital site for your respective OS. And try formatting it with the western digital inbuilt software, which works great.
did you find an answer to your question? I am currently having the same problem. The USB LED flashes and takes a minute to scan, followed by a pop up on the tv saying unable to recognize hard drive. help?
You need to first narrow down the problem to either your PC or the external hard drive. Do you have access to any other PCs you could try connecting your hard drive to? (think friends, family, public PCs, etc)
If the hard drive works on other PCs, we know it isn't a problem with the hard drive.
If it turns out that the hard drive is fine and the PC is the problem, I would suggest going in to Device Manager and uninstalling everything USB related. Once you have done this, either reboot your PC or right-click inside device manager and "scan for new hardware". All of your USB related devices should reload their drivers automatically. You may want to try this both with and without the usb drive connected.
I only have the 1 mac book pro - i am trying a apple software update and will connect again and try it out.
Have you tried it on another computer to make sure the drive has not gone bad?
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