The 1.0 TB External drive just quit being recoginized to either of my computers. It makes the connect and disconnect sound when plugged and unplugged but the computers never give me a external hard drive when I look for the connection. When plugged in the lights flash on and off or up and down 4 times then back to both and does this about 20 times.

Does the drive work with a computer? This is an important test to determine if the drive is bad, or if it is an interface problem. Check the satellite receiver instructions for using external USB devices. Many times, these types of devices do not have interfaces with drivers for external hard drives.

It is quite likely the drive is failed. If it is quite new it should still be within warranty. Return it to your place of purchase and get them to confirm it's condition. If the drive prooves faulty they should repair/replace it for you.

Try plugging the unit into another working computer. If the same thing happens then the external drive is toast. U may be able to remove the drive with within the unit, set it up as a slave, install on working computer and possibly extract any and all needed files before throwing it out.

External hard drives not only provide additional storage space on a computer system but also allow data to be conveniently transported from one computer to another.

These drives typically plug right in to a port on the computer and function without any additional setup; however, if you are running into trouble where your external hard drive is not being detected, you must troubleshoot the situation to determine why the drive appears to be missing.

Check the USB connection running from the hard drive to your computer.

If the USB cable is not seated securely in the port, the computer will not detect the external drive.

Disconnect the USB cable from the computer and plug it into a different USB port. Occasionally, a USB port will fail to function with some hardware and changing the USB connection may correct this issue.

Switch from a USB to a Firewire cable connection, if possible.

The USB port on the hard drive may have died; if so, changing to a Firewire connection will resolve this issue.

Install the driver for the external device from the installation disc provided with the product. Older computer systems may require you to manually install this driver.

After inserting the installation CD, follow the prompts from the installation wizard to install the driver on your computer.

Restart the computer.

If you connected the external drive while the computer is powered down, it may not recognize the device when you turn on the computer.

After restarting the computer, connect the external drive to the system.

The drive should now be detected by your operating system.

Connect the external hard drive to a power source and then plug it into your PC computer using a USB or Firewire cable.

Log on to your PC computer using an account with administrative privileges.

Open the Start menu and click on the "Control Panel" icon.

Open the "Administrative Tools" folder and then double-click on the "Computer Management" icon.

Select "Disk Management" from the list of options on left side of the window.

Right-click on the drive you want your computer to recognize and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths."

Select a drive letter for the external hard drive to be recognized as and click "OK."

The drive will now appear in My Computer.

Hope this helps.

External hard drives don't need any program installed on your computer to run. Your operating system Windows, Linux should handle it as soon as you plug the usb in your computer. The programs included in your WD external hard drive are tools to backup your data.

If you try to hook up your hard drive to a Windows prior to XP, maybe your computer will not handle it.

It is always safer to safely remove your drive using the green arrow icon in the lower right corner of your screen. This way, the drive is shut down properly and you minimize chances of fails when you plug it again on another computer.

Hope this helps!

Probably not the right answer for your problem. Mine is an external 1 TB Simple Drive. Mine wouldn't respond at all. I unplugged the power cable from the back of the hard drive and replugged it in and instantly it worked (with the computer and hard drive plugged in). I had tried rebooting the computer, plugging/unplugging over and over into the computer and that didn't work.

Probably not the right answer for your problem. Mine is an external 1 TB Simple Drive. Mine wouldn't respond at all. I unplugged the power cable from the back of the hard drive and replugged it in and instantly it worked (with the computer and hard drive plugged in). I had tried rebooting the computer, plugging/unplugging over and over into the computer and that didn't work.

If the 1 tb is spinning up, which I assume it is, the new PC (assuming a Win 7 OS) should see it and mount a driver to be able to talk with it. I would double check all my connections at the drive and the PC, try different USB ports just in case one is dead.

Hello,

First of all make sure that the USB port that you are using to connect it to your PC is a USB 2.0 port, and not USB 1.0.

Also if it came with an external power, connect it to the external power before putting on your PC.

This is because the voltage supplied by USB 1.0 is lower than that of USB 2.0 and therefore might not be enough to power up your USB Drive.

After making sure about this, power up your system, and plug the external drive, then Right-Click on my computer icon, select manage, then go to Disk Management Option.

On the Disk management option Page you should see ALL the drives installed on your system, including the hidden ones, so what you will just do is, try and locate the one representing your external drive, and right click on it. then select "Change Drive letter and Paths".

Give the drive any new, unique letter (i.e alphabet) different from the ones already on your system, and click on OK.

This should make your external Drive to be detected automatically.

Hope this helps you out.
Goodluck!

If you hear a click-click sound it means that your drive's mechanics ia failing. BAD NEWS !!