I have a WD 750 GB External USB drive which has worked flawlessly. However, now when I plug it into a usb port, the computer does not detect it and it does not show up under "computer". I've searched for an updated driver, but the result is that the most current driver is already installed. The device is visible in Device Manager which indicates the device is working properly. When I plug it in, the "savely remove hardware" icon pops up on the tray. I'm running Windows Vista. Any suggestions on how to "find" it?!?!/

I guess it's some kind of a problem with the way your USB port works. I have an external WD too, connected to a USB 3.0 port and definitivly it's not detected at boot, just after windows startup as a USB device.
After some initial wondering about this problem, I decided no to worry more because I use external drive for data backup and if it is not detected by BIOS makes no difference.
It might be a problem of an outdated BIOS or the USB port's driver. In my case, boths, BIOS and USB 3.0 are rather old.
You can do some reading about issue if you do a ggogle search for issue

USB 3 0 external Hard Drive not detected after Intel Communities

External USB 3 0 HDD is not detected in Windows after boot Help

I would try to plug it into a different USB port on the computer or try and see if it works on another computer. It could be that the computers USB port is no longer working or that the drive has failed.

Hello there,

Please try to plug it into another USB port. There is a chance that your port could be faulty. If its not with the port, try to assign the drive letter if you are using windows. You have to right click on the My Computer icon, select Manage. Once on Computer Management, select Disk Management. Locate your WD drive and right click again. Finally, click on the Assign Drive Letter and follow the wizard.

Good luck!

Sounds like the enclosure has a problem. If this is one of those free agent go flex drives with the removable USB to Sata interface you might try getting another drive like it and borrow the interface from that drive when you need to use this one. That's something I have to do now because one of my interfaces died also.




I’m happy to help further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/matt_7e951e081251ffbc

Your unit is detecting the electronics on your external case, not the internal hard drive it contains. If that is not being recognized that usually indicates a failure of the hard drive logic board, not a good thing.

Remove the drive from case and plug in directly into your pc. If still not recognized that confirms initial diagnosis. Your usb port is ok but the drive is fubar and since the logic board is toast data recovery will have to be done by the pros and be expensive, very expensive.
Always a good idea to have multiple backups!!!!!!!!!

If you got a USB casing for that, it would have come with a USB and power cable. Yes, power too!

Plug the power, and make sure you have a USB 2.0 hi-speed port. Also check "computer management" and check the hard disk works.

You run MS Windows Update to download and install the latest OS updates. Your WD external HDD should be detected after OS update.

For non updates system, try to connect WD to the USB Port where it worked before. If you have 4 USB ports for instance, try to connect it to these ports one try at a time. Windows XP might have assigned one USB port for your device before when it was working just fine.

This external drive dont need any driver it should be a plug and play device, what you can try here first is to connect the drive on different UBS port and then check if it will be detected by your computer if still NO , try connecting a different usb device so we cna check if this is a problem with your USB port...........

Try a replacement USB cable first. If that does not fix the problem, then the USB to SATA adapter board is faulty, in that case you will need to take out the internal disk to replace the external enclosure.

see
YouTube - How To: Take Apart A Western Digital My Book Enclosure

If unit is under warranty see : WD Support > Warranty Services > End User > Warranty Policy.

Note any SATA external enclosure willl work wthe same with the internal WD HD.

Just plug your USB HDD directly into your MBoard's USB port...