Cannot Read External Western Digital Mybook 500GB Drive

it depends which version you have, it could go up to 1 TB

Hi,

Check the file system of your hard drive. If your PC is recognizing it, check if its a FAT or NTFS. If it is NTFS then you have to reformat it using your Mac and choose FAT. Mac OS recognizes NTFS as a read only drive. If you plan using it with your PC and MAC you should format it using your mac and choose MS-DOS in disc Utility. You cannot format the drive using your PC Computer with a FAT file system because of the capacity. Only Mac can format it with a FAT file system.

Format it with NTFS. FAT32 is limited to a max file size of 4gb and goes wacky with a drive size more than 62 GB..

Does the external drive work when connected to some _other_ computer? (Friend? Office? Home?)

It could be a failure either in the "hardware" inside the external-case (the USB adapter & interface)
or in the disk-drive "inside" the external-case.

So, a qualified technician can open the external drive, remove the disk-drive, and connect it directly to a computer, to see if the files can be "directly" read from the disk-drive.

If not, then you should search online for a "data recovery" service -- they are expensive, but they physically repair a damaged disk-drive, just long-enough to copy your data to another disk-drive.

Doewnload Testdisk and run it to see if it can find a boot sector.

load the driver for mac use, the external hard drive comes with cd, the mac driver should be inside, load it to your mac computer. if you donot have the cd go online to western digital and download it. just load the driver and u will be fine, make sure u connect the cable in right places.

I’m happy to help further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/mustafa_06f84c65ab5cc745

I am having the same problem!!!! I have my time machine backups on there and I cannot access them! Class action lawsuit???

the easiest way is just buy a new mybook and not worry about opening the old box. they come in 500gb, 750gb and 1 terabyte.you can keep your current external and piggyback with the new

That is because the MyBook is set with a default IP address of 192.168.1.257. You will have to put a static IP address in that subnet range in order to be able to see the external drive. Hope this helps....

If it's making a clicking, rattling, or "leaking" (like the sound of air whistling out of a balloon) then the drive may be damaged and it's time to contact Western Digital support.