My WD doesnt show up in my drives anymore. It was the G drive , but now isnt there. I have restarted and unplugged, both ways it made the bing sound as if it recognizes something is there, but it doesnt show up or auto play. Can you help?

ASK YOUR DEALER

Disassemble the case, and remove the 400GB disk-drive.
Connect the disk-drive as a "slave" disk-drive to some desktop computer, and see if you can still access the files.

Get the serial-number from the label on the top of the disk-drive, and access Western Digital's web-site, to check if the device is still under warranty. If it is, W.D. will replace it, at minimal cost to you.

If the warranty has expired, W.D. has a "Customer Loyalty" program -- you can buy another external disk-drive from W.D.'s web-site, at a significant discount.

Try unplugging the power cord from the hard drive and leave it it off for about a minute. Then plug the power back in. If it still doesn't show up, restart the computer. You can also plug the hard drive into a different USB port. Hope this helps.

Regards,

Matt

Hi,
Have you tried to connect the WD drive to a different Laptop or PC? Normally, in my experience, barring any serious error with the drive, connecting to different laptop would allow you to view the drive again. What happen was the drive was reading the folder when you restarted the PC. The best action then was to leave the pc to finish reading the files.

hello

i have the same issue, exact same unit MY BOOK ELITE WD 500G ..
FYI: if this doesnt work, it is a power module (inside the black box, MY BOOK ELITE) needs to be replaced.

UNPLUG both cables from MY BOOK ELITE WD - restart your computer

- with respect to the MY BOOK ELITE WD , make sure the power cord is plugged into AC outlet wall only, and the other end of the USB into computer only -- but disconnect both from the MY BOOK WD ELITE and leave unplugged for 20 minutes .

after 20 minutes have elapsed, plug the USB cable only for 1 minute , into MY BOOK ELITE WD. Then plug the power cord into the MY BOOK WD Elite. see if it works

if this doesn't work, let the drive sit for 24-48 hours.. then repeat above instructions -- this is how i got mine to work again. FYI: To avoid this issue, i just leave the unit plugged in , while computer is running

BUT -- be aware... i use UPS (Uninterruptable power supply) to avoid power failures throughout the house. So , i suggest , if you want to leave the computer running, use a power supply to run the computer if the AC power fails..

please issue 4 thumbs up

some WD drives need a firmware update from WD goto there website and see firmware update

Hello,

This is normal, simply because when your system is performing the boot sequence when it is first powered up, it checks all the possible drives that has an operating system on it according to the way it is configured to start checking it from the BIOS.

So possibly the default selected place for it to check first is the external drive, and since there is no operating system on it, it gets locked up and it might show NTLDR Missing...or Disk Error.

What you can do to stop that is :
When your system is booting go to setup, and depending on your BIOS type, try to locate where the boot sequence starts checking for Operating System from, if it is removable drives, then just change it to Hard Drive. Then save and restart.

Hope this helps you out.
Goodluck

If you look at the Power supply box there should be a green light. If you unplug the cord and plug it in again it might just blink then stay our..
It is a common problem with power supply on these WD Elements drives. If it is newer, then it is under warranty.

How to check the warranty on a WD drive or product
Link: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=915&p_created=1047361575

Title: What would void the warranty on my drive?
Link: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=916&p_created=1048294698

If not they will sell you another one.

A replacement or extra power supply for your external drive can be purchased from our phone support team by calling 1-800-275-4932. Any technical support representative will be able to sell this part. Please have the serial number or model number of the hard drive ready, as this is needed to determine the correct adaptor type for the hard drive.

I hope this helps,


Randy
FixYa Support Team

Unfortunately, you have probably lost all the files on the drive. It may be possible to take it to a PC Repair shop and have them run specialist software on it, although the clicking sound indicates a hardware failure, rather than software. You have my deepest apologies, but this does happen... although rarely.

Sounds like a bad cdrom drive. If it isnt even being picked up in the bios (cmos), then it'll never show in windows. If reseating the drive doesn't work, just replace it with a known good one. Unless there is damage to the plug inside, that should solve it.