WD external hard drive is unknown USB, Fix?

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Hypon Grey - Jun 1, 2010 at 07:31 PM
cskjoldhammer Posts 2 Registration date Wednesday September 1, 2010 Status Member Last seen September 1, 2010 - Sep 1, 2010 at 02:25 PM
Hello,

I recently used my WD external hard drive (640 gig for those who want to know) on a computer with Windows7. I recently had to re-install WindowsXP on my home computer due to a cousin reformatting my hard drive. Now for the crux, my external is only listed as an unknown usb device. It is not a "assign it a drive letter" problem because it does not even show up in disk manager. it is not a "delete 1384" problem either because I never had it in the first place, it not listed on my connections. Please help if you can.

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2 responses

cskjoldhammer Posts 2 Registration date Wednesday September 1, 2010 Status Member Last seen September 1, 2010
Sep 1, 2010 at 01:14 PM
Hi,

I also have this problem.
i have a 320GB WD external disk with all of my backup on it.
it shows up as "unknown USB device" and doesn't get a drive letter assigned. I cannot find it in administrative tasks either.

Any ideas?
The information on this disk is vital for me.
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cskjoldhammer Posts 2 Registration date Wednesday September 1, 2010 Status Member Last seen September 1, 2010
Sep 1, 2010 at 02:25 PM
Hey,

I found a solution to my problem. don't know if it would work for you.
i had a WD passport drive that showed up as unknown USB device, no driveletter and no data recovery software helped either.

as a last attempt I ripped the drive out of the casing and mounted it in a case that I bought at almost no cost, plugged the thing to my computer and it worked. no problems at all.. :-)

i am currently backing up my information to my harddrive JIC.
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