Defective External Hard Disk ?
Hello XPerts,
last week I purchased an external HDD which is giving me a hard time.
HDD: Western Digital "WD Elements" 1 TB USB 3.0
I unpacked it and plugged it to the Windows 8.1 notebook and expected it to show up under MY PC like all other external HDD and USB Drives do. The Drive would not show up so I could not right click it to mange it or creat a folder in it. I opened my Paragon Partition Manager and was able to see the drive as connected to my PC but it had no drive letter assigned to it. (never seen this before). I also was able to see the drive on the "Eject Drive" icon on the taskbar.
I ejected the drive and plugged it back in many times. Nothing happened.
I used Paragon Partition Manager to assign a drive letter to that drive and THEN I was able to use it as expected (as any other drive).
A day later I plugged the drive back in and same problem ! No drive letter assigned. My question: Is it defective? I still have the store receipt and I could ask for a full refund store credit, SAME HDD or a different brand. Any suggestions? Should I get the same drive or a different brand? When I picked the drive I made sure it was not Automatic Backup drive. I wanted a regular EXTENDED STORAGE Drive. I don't want to use it for system backups. I only want to transfer files MANUALLY.
Your help is greatly appreciated!
SvenB
last week I purchased an external HDD which is giving me a hard time.
HDD: Western Digital "WD Elements" 1 TB USB 3.0
I unpacked it and plugged it to the Windows 8.1 notebook and expected it to show up under MY PC like all other external HDD and USB Drives do. The Drive would not show up so I could not right click it to mange it or creat a folder in it. I opened my Paragon Partition Manager and was able to see the drive as connected to my PC but it had no drive letter assigned to it. (never seen this before). I also was able to see the drive on the "Eject Drive" icon on the taskbar.
I ejected the drive and plugged it back in many times. Nothing happened.
I used Paragon Partition Manager to assign a drive letter to that drive and THEN I was able to use it as expected (as any other drive).
A day later I plugged the drive back in and same problem ! No drive letter assigned. My question: Is it defective? I still have the store receipt and I could ask for a full refund store credit, SAME HDD or a different brand. Any suggestions? Should I get the same drive or a different brand? When I picked the drive I made sure it was not Automatic Backup drive. I wanted a regular EXTENDED STORAGE Drive. I don't want to use it for system backups. I only want to transfer files MANUALLY.
Your help is greatly appreciated!
SvenB
CompProbSolv
That does seem like odd behavior, but I wouldn't immediately conclude that it is a problem in the drive. I would try the drive on another computer (connect multiple times and see if it keeps the drive letter) and also try a different external drive (if one is available) on your 8.1 computer. I'm more suspicious of some issue on your computer.
SOLUTION
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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Hello CompProbSolv, John Hurst and rindi,
I really appreciate your feedback and suggestions.
Here's the thing. I did plug in and eject the drive many times on different computers. Windows will not assign a drive letter and Mac wont list it at all. I did the same with other available WD extrnal hard drives and pendrives and they all worked as expected (listed on device manager and automatically got a drive letter assigned).
I DL the diagnostics tool as rindi suggested and did a quick test of the external hard drive. To my surprise A) the tool listed the drive B) the drive passed the test.
The drive is listed on device manager and I can MANUALLY assign a drive letter to it. It will only then immediately show up on MY PC and even show the files and folders on it. It will work as expected as long as I manually assign it a letter. Wierd, isnt it? So technically it isn't defective :/
krass.....
I really appreciate your feedback and suggestions.
Here's the thing. I did plug in and eject the drive many times on different computers. Windows will not assign a drive letter and Mac wont list it at all. I did the same with other available WD extrnal hard drives and pendrives and they all worked as expected (listed on device manager and automatically got a drive letter assigned).
I DL the diagnostics tool as rindi suggested and did a quick test of the external hard drive. To my surprise A) the tool listed the drive B) the drive passed the test.
The drive is listed on device manager and I can MANUALLY assign a drive letter to it. It will only then immediately show up on MY PC and even show the files and folders on it. It will work as expected as long as I manually assign it a letter. Wierd, isnt it? So technically it isn't defective :/
krass.....
SOLUTION
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To confirm the suspicions about the drive, try a USB key in all the same computer and all the same USB port. If the USB key works as expected and the USB drive does not , then yes it would appear to be defective.
ASKER
Hello Xperts,
I decided to go to the shop and get a replacement even without knowing what really caused the drive not to show up on MY PC. Drive got replaced without even being looked at, the new drive (same brand and model) works as expected! The mystery is killing me but I will have let this one go ....
I appreciate your time, effort and feedback.
SB
I decided to go to the shop and get a replacement even without knowing what really caused the drive not to show up on MY PC. Drive got replaced without even being looked at, the new drive (same brand and model) works as expected! The mystery is killing me but I will have let this one go ....
I appreciate your time, effort and feedback.
SB