I have a Western Digital wd1600u017 and it stop appearing in my computer. I see its working properly in the device manager but does not show in disk managment. Any ideas

Windows 8 and Mac do not use the same data structure format.

Have to check it in the Device Manager that the new device have been detected or not. It may happen that when the external HDD connects to the computer for the first time computer cannot detect it as it is not properly formatted in proper file-system. Open Computer Management and click on Disk Management and format the device correctly to operate.

Does it show up as a drive in the Device Manager?

You might look in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management

Go in Disk Management along the left side...

You might have to make it into a Basic Disk ... before it gets a drive letter. Trying to remember what I just did in Vista when I got a Seagate FreeAgent external USB drive. Mine was already NTFS formatted, I would imagine yours would be too.

It could be that the OS is not assigning a drive letter to your removable drive. To do this, go to disk management and assign one.

Assuming OS is Win 2000/XP/Vista

Right-click My Computer then Manage
Click on Disk Management
Right-click the removable drive and click on Change Drive Letter
Assign a drive letter and click OK
Your drive should now show up on My Computer

Hope this helps.

It may be in raw format. Go to Control Panel-Administrative Tools- Computer Management- Disk Management. It will show all your drives and their formats. You can format from there if you need to.

Char S.

Check the Disk Manager to see if the disk has a valid partition and is recognized as being formatted. Start -> right-click My Computer -> Manage -> select Disk Management.

If not, then your MBR could be corrupted.

This troubleshooting external hard disk article should help you further.

Jules

I found this on this site. in case you havent seen it. It worked for me. Try this:

When I disconnected my backup drive and plugged in a USB drive the other night, my Windows drive letters got all wonky. D: became G: became F: became H:, and a bunch of my shortcuts didn't work anymore.
But it's easy to reassign the drive letters of your choice to add-on disks in Windows. Microsoft says you should log on as an administrator, and from Administrative Tools in Control Panel:
Double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths. Of course things can get wacky if the disk is in use - by your computer or another on the network - so proceed with caution, you drive alphabetizer, you.
How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP [Microsoft TechNet] Read More: Windows, Hard Drives

You can go to Adminisstrative tools/computer managment/disc managment and chance letter na partition. it will fix the problem

Since you say that it is detected in Device Manager and is shown as working properly, it would appear that the problem is that it is not getting a drive letter. Have you added anything recently that might take up a drive letter like a flash drive? If so, try removing both and then plugging the WD back in. If this is not the case or does not help, do this:

Assuming you are using XP.
Right click on My Computer and select Manage
The computer Management window will open, click on Disk Management
Do you see the WD in the window on the right?
Does it show a drive letter?
If not, you can assign it one by right clicking on it and selecting Change Drive Letter and Paths ...

If the WD does not show up in Disk Management, possible problems are:
1) USB cable is damaged, try another one.
2) USB circuits in the WD case not working properly, hard drive can be removed and put into another case.
3) WD USB case is good, hard drive is good but there is a loose connection inside. Open case and reseat everything.
4) WD USB case is good but the hard drive inside has gone bad (worst case scenario)

If it is showing up in your device manager - is it also showing up in the disk manager? If it is you can check if it has a letter name attached or if you need to give it one.