I have this drive in my Win 7 Dell and as a USB backup. Windows knows the drive is USB connected but won't let me see or write to the drive?
1577966
Bad sectors on drive is main problem...if its a used drive this is common new drives have to be partioned
1577967
I replaced my Win 7 Lenovo's laptop hard drive with this one and it works fine. However, since the connector on this drive is not an USB type connector I wonder how you managed to get it to work as a USB. In any case, if you already have a primary hard drive with Windows on C, you need I would suspect you need to configure this "additional hard drive as a "slave" drive. Then you can only partition it as a logical drive, i.e. additional partition.
1577968
I use mine in my xbox 360. It works just fine in mine. Will it let you format it? If so see if you can format it to a fat32
1577969
Well, a USB back up? SO you have turned it into a external hard drive? If so it most likley just needs to be configured into what you want it to do. Odd though, never had this problem with any hard drive I have ever worked with or bought.
322550
Yes it's justs plug and play and it's recognized by any OS. I use windows backup with no problems.The drive itself is amazingly fast! I'd say it has cut hours a week in productivity.
1517560
Hello April, unfortunately there could be several reasons. To ensure the drive is actually working, can you hear the discs spinning? You should be able to tell if it is there would be a slight hum. If you are sure the drive works, and it does not show up on your computer, I would start by leaving it plugged in and then restarting your computer. Sometimes you have to clear the system's memory. If that does not work try a different USB port. My computer has one that doesn't work and I found out by accident. Depending on what operating system you are running, i.e. Windows 7, Windows 8, etc you can go to the device manager and see if the drive shows up under "HDD". If it does and you still cannot access the files there may be something wrong with the drive itself. Was this a working drive that you had used before? I'm sorry if I am not much help, I am trying to think of all the things I try on my pc. Please let me know. and Good Luck!
956891
Plug it into a USB port and use it much like a thumb drive. I can give a better explanation if you tell me which operating system you use. On my wife's Windows 8 PC the system recognizes the drive and gives three options for what to do with it. I don't know if it will give the same options the first time you use it. I first used it with Windows XP. There I used "My Computer" to find the drive. Then I used "drag and drop" to move files to the WD drive. You can also use the backup and restore software to make back-ups from your main hard drive to the WD. I've also used it with Linux. If you need more help please tell me your operating system and what it says when you plug into the USB port.
914719
Never had that issue with this item. try unplugging all cables and then try plugging the drive into the wall, with out any cables to the computer. If the problem persists, contact WD. Hopefully you are still under warranty, and they can get you a replacement.
1065546
You shouldn't have to. Try a different port. And also wait up to 60 seconds for the drive to be recognized.
1630968
the drive is not formatted with any version of windows. it is formatted with a run time version of linux.it handles the formatting. the windows 8 machines should see it in the network browser. did you set up user rights?
790830
I am running windows 8.1 (64) on a laptop. I probably loaded a driver that came with the drive, but I did not download anything. I have had no problems at all except that I would like to operate throught a usb3 hub and that is not reliable.I use the unit heavily and highly recommend it.good luck!
1458922
Yep. After using it initially, I couldn't get windows to see it any more so took it apart. The drive is a Toshiba, which gets great ratings on drives. The problem with the errors could be a windows USB3 driver. Still not sure. Might re-assemble it to see if anything has changed.
1185050
Recently I added a drive with data to mine. and I was able to restore the data, Back it up and format the drive for a new use. it worked well. I was using windows 7, I am not sure of the format I believe it was NTFS.
949497
Well, using the WD 120GB External HD should give issues. as of now, it is working fine for me. Try to verify the USB2 Enhanced Host Controller should appear in the Device Manager. If you installed the Dell Notebook System Software at last, this might not work properly. Thanks
1159278
I'd suspect not. When I upgraded from an XP computer to a Win8 computer, I just plugged the same USB cable into the new computer and it was business as usual. Of course, this was a completely "data" drive, with no active programs on it. Or am I missing something in the question?
1985281
I attached the USB drive to the standard USB port and use file explorer to browse it. It just simple worked.
1879836
I don't have this hard drive yet, they have not sent it back to me. But it is not a network storage device, it connects to your computer via firewire or USB. At least that's what it should do.
1430470
I'm making an assumption that you are using Window XP. Vista, Win7, or Win8. If that is the case the USB should be formatted for NTFS. not FAT32.
276372
the drive will connect via the usb port - then it functions across the home internet connection as if it where another PC your sharing files with.I use Norton to do the back up as well as using windows own back up on other computers and both work without issues.but the drive is slower then a smaller direct connect usb drive
459443
It wasn't viewable in any OS I tried all three,But the last solution here worked as I had to make new partition and quick format it and in this way it also gave it a drive letter.I did this on an XP machine and Now it worked.