Computer Won't Read External Harddrive

My computer won't read my Western Digital external harddrive when I plug it in. I doesn't show up in "My Computer". I plugged it to my xbox 360 and it worked. I also tried it on my other computer and it worked. Help please.

 

try using another usb port

 

It is possible that the computer that you're using has plug and play service disabled or the driver is not installed. What plug and play does is it detects any device that is connected to the USB.

 

What do I do then?

 

Hey just use the dvd the external HDD came with or go to the website and download the driver.

 

Go to the Western Digital site or go to the Dell site?

 

when u bought the hd it should of came with a disc if ir dont go to there site. try it on another computer to see if it works

 

Western Digital site. Did it work on windows 7 & not vista ?

 

I doubt I have the disc now.

Windows XP.

 

Did you know that u can plug in an ipod and it won't read on your computer? lol, it happened to me once. I just had to download the launch program. Try doing that.

 

Do the following things:


WARNING DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING UNLESS I TELL YOU TO DO SO, IF YOU'RE UNCLEAR ABOUT SOMETHING EXIT AND COME BACK HERE AND TELL ME

Go to START > RUN

type in "services.msc" without the quotes and click [OK]

This will bring up a list of services. Resize the window so you can see the name of the services properly, usually the services are listed alphabetically by default. Scroll down until you see "Plug and Play." When you've found it look to the right under the following columns.

Status and Startup Type in those columns tell me what's next to "Plug and Play", it should say the following:

Status: Started and Startup Type: Automatic

If it does not say both of those then double click on "Plug and Play" and this will bring up another window. On that window set the following properties:

Under the [General] tab chage "Startup Type" from the drop down box to "Automatic" and then click the "Start" button next to "Service status."

After you've done that, restart your computer and try see if your Hard Drive works.

Please report status.

 

Western. or maybe something went wrong when you first pluged it in go to device manager in control panel and see it its there if it is remove it and plug it in again.

 

That's the thing, I don't see it showing up anywhere.

 

Rookie, I'll get back to you soon.

 

Hey do you hear the hard drive spining?, see since its a hard drive and not a memory card a good amount of power has to go to it. your computer my not be set to allow it .
Are you using a laptop or desktop?

 

Hey If your hard drive came with a shorter cable ( yes i said shorter cable ) use that one its all about the voltage drop and power supplied to the HDD.

 

The power drop can't be that much. Resistivity of Copper is 1.68×10−8 (0.0000000168) Ohm / Meter around room temp

 

No its working fine. I tried it on my xbox 360, my other desktop. But on this one computer, its not recognizing it.

 

Do you hear it spining when its pluged into the computer?

 

Did you try what I told you to try?