Machine won't recognize the hard driver. (WDH1U5000N 500 GB) USB works but it doesnt appears the icon on ''my PC'' so i cant open it and of course i cant use it

SOURCE: XP doesn't recognize my external 500 GB WD My book essential edition hard drive

I had the same problem some have posted about. I had a lot of data on my drive and then one day it didn't show up in "My Computer" anymore. I had to assign a separate drive letter to the external drive.

Plug in the drive.
Right click on "My Computer"
Click on "Manage
Click on "Disk Management"
On the bottom half of the right side you should find "My Book" assigned to a disk number.
Right click on "My Book"
Click "Change Drive Letter and Paths"
Click Change
Select a new drive letter and hit OK

Hope this helps some people out.

SOURCE: My Computer does not show: Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500 GB external USB hard drive

Well i got a simple 320 gb external hard drive, and since the first month i had problems, i solve the recovery issue by opening the hard drive, and find it out, the inside was broken, and it got unplugged. so plugged it back and got my info. if your data its more important than 200dlls or less break the thing open, because if you claim the warranty they are not responsible for your information.

SOURCE: XP doesn't recognize my external 500 GB WD My book essential edition hard drive

I had a similar problem with a WDelements 250gig.
I found that if i plugged it directly into the computer USB and NOT through the USB i had attached to the computer it rectified the problem..
not sure if this will apply to you, but i thought id share.

SOURCE: HOW TO CHANGE 320GB SATA HDD TO 500GB SATA

Yes. The case doesn't care what size the drive is. The computer is just asking for the USB driver for the case. Check the WD site for the driver for the model of MyBook that you have. That should cover it.

SOURCE: un recognized drive

what you should do is search for a driver for it so put the name of the usb then driver in a search engine and download and install a driver this should make the computer able to recognise the usb's software