I bought a Western Digital external HDD today and I can't get it working.

I plugged it into my main pc with Vista and it recognizes the drive has been plugged in but I can't see it. If I go into Manage I can see it there but it has no drive letter assigned to it. Also right clicking it doesn't give me any options either.

Also tried it in my other machine running XP and I get the same thing happening. It should be all ready to go outta the box but maybe I'm missing something.

Any help appreciated.

Thats weird Dude.
Is it USB ? Did it come with drivers you have to install?

This shouldn't be the same problem as mine, but I bought a WD external HDD, and a few weeks later dropped it. It powered up when it was plugged in, but wouldn't recognize the drive and I couldn't see it anywhere on my computer. I ended up having to get the case replaced (and lost all the data on it). Hopefully your hasn't already broken in the same way.

Yeah, it's a USB one. There's paper work in the box but no instructions and it also didn't come with any drivers either. The website said it has already been formatted and should work.

I'll check out the main WD site and see if there's anything there.

Hmm

Sometimes external HDDs that are powered only by the USB cable will require you to plug in to two USB ports on your computer in order to draw enough power. Did your HDD come with a cable that has two plugs on the PC end? If so and if you haven't already, try plugging them both in...

Dude, you may have to initialise the disk first.
Gimme a call at work an I'll explain.

PM sent Hermi

Try changing USB ports, my WD Passport wont work on a some ports, but will on the ones next to them.

This has happened on a few machines.