Wd Elements Not Showing Up Mac
If you completed a previous backup successfully, verify that backup: Press and hold the Option key while choosing Verify Backups from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Make sure that the firmware of your backup disk is up to date. Check with the manufacturer of the backup disk for details. If no other solutions work, start over: Erase your. I have a WD External Hard Drive that I used with my old XP desktop. Since I have no switched to a newer CPU that is running Windows 7 Home, I am having trouble with my external showing up for me to access it. To give some back story, the drive worked as intended the very first time that I connected it. Yet, since a restart, it hasn't worked since.
Oh look, another person posting yet another thread about their shiny brand new WD Elements device not showing up on their computer! So I bought this hard drive thinking it was going to give me some extra back up space but when I plug it into the computer all it does is light up. (currently after being plugged in it is now blinking) It does not appear on the desktop, and nor does it show up.
When I bought the WD My Passport Ultra drive, I was surprised to see that it didn’t support OS X out of the box. Yes, it had some software specifically made for OS X on it, but even that didn’t help. Turns out, it just wasn’t in the right format. These hard drives are customized to run well on Windows (as you’d expect), and they don’t run well with OS X.
Western Digital NTFS Driver For Mac Download You can download the WD NTFS Driver for Mac from the official site. Click on the 'Download' button to download the Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac. The File Size, Version, and Release Date for the software are also available on the official site. Mac OS X is able to support HFS+, FAT32 and exFAT drives and Windows can support NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT. Here I recommend you to change the file system of the WD hard drive from NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT, thus the WD hard drive is able to be used not only with Mac, but also with Windows.
Wd Mac Software
So to get it running, what we’ll need to do is format it in Journaled format, which is OS X only format or MS-DOS (FAT), which means it will run with both OS X and Windows. If you’re only going to be using the hard drive on a Mac, I recommend you stick with Journaled.
Why You Need to Re-Format the External Hard Drive
When I first got the hard drive, I wasn’t able to copy anything over to it (but I was able to copy from it). Disk Utility showed that it was formatted to MS-DOS (FAT) but I’m pretty sure it would have been NTFS instead. If you experience the same issue, your only recourse is to reformat it in one of two formats.
If you’re only going to use the external hard drive with Macs or you want to use it for Time Machine backups, format it in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you’re like me who also needs to use at least a part of the hard drive from Windows PCs, you’ll need to choose MS-DOS (FAT) format. But here you won’t get great support for Time Machine. Plus you can’t make partitions bigger than 2 TB or move files larger than 4 GB around.
How to Re-Format the External Hard Drive
First, connect the external hard drive, bring up Spotlight Search by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Space and type in Disk Utility. Press Enter and Disk Utility will launch. You can also find it in Utilities folder in Applications.
Now, from the left column select 1 TB WD My Passport (or whatever your hard drive name is), and click on the Erase tab.
From here, in Format, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled), give it a name if you want, and click Erase.
You’ll get a warning. Again, click Erase.
In a couple of seconds, you’ll have an OS X ready hard drive to go.
Related: Check out our Ultimate Guide to OS X Yosemite.How to Create Partitions
I’m planning on using my hard drive for both Time Machine backups and to carry media files around. I might need to use the hard drive with Windows computers so I’m going to format one of the partitions as MS-DOS (FAT), fully aware of its limitations. The other one, for Time Machine backups, will be in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
To create a partition, select the hard drive from the left column and click the Partition tab.
From the drop-down below Partition Layout, select the number of partitions you want. Don’t go overboard here.
Now, just below, you’ll see a visual representation of the partitions. You can use the breakpoint to change the size of the partitions by moving it up or down. You can also click on a partition, give it a name and select the format.
Once you’ve decided all the details, simply click the Apply button. From the pop-up, select Partition.
Disk Utility: Check out the two tips for using Disk Utility and 8 ways to free up space on your Mac.What Do You Use It For?
What are you planning on doing with the external hard drive? Time Machine backups perhaps? Or just storing media? Share with us in our forums section.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See#backup #hard disk
Did You Know
DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc.
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'My 1TB WD external hard drive is not working on my Windows 10 PC and I can do nothing to the drive since it fails to show up in This PC.
I've changed the USB port but it still not working.
I don't know what reasons have made the drive not responding, and neither I know any solutions. I've saved quite a lot of important files inside the drive. If you have any methods to fix my issue and make the WD external hard drive work again, please help me. Thank you.'
Though it's no longer a new problem that external hard drive fails to work or suddenly fail to show up in PC. But it's still a tough issue for ordinary users when their external hard drive, USB or SD card etc devices suddenly become unrecognized, not working or responding in PC. Here below, you'll find 1 quick fix and 4 methods to fix WD external hard drive not working issue. If your external hard drive or storage devices are having this issue, relax and just follow to get your problem fixed right here now.
Quick fix WD external hard drive not showing up/unrecognized/responding error
1. Click Start > Type: devmgmt.msc in the Search box and hit Enter.
2. Open Device Manager > Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
3. Right-click on the USB Root Hub > Select Properties.
4. Go to Power Management and uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
After this, reboot PC and reconnect WD external hard drive to your PC, then you'll be able to use the drive again.
If this quick fix doesn't work, relax and just follow below-offered methods to repair not working WD external hard drive or devices now.
Fix WD external hard drive not recognized error
Here you have two methods to follow and fix WD external hard drive not recognized or undetectable error in Windows 10/8/7:
Method 1. Reboot PC into Safe Mode to make WD external hard drive recognizable
- Go to Setting > Update & security.
- Tab on Recovery > Advanced Startup > Restart now.
- PC will automatically boot into another Startup Settings screen.
- Press F4 to initiate PC reboot into Safe Mode.
- Then check whether the WD external hard disk can be detected or not.
Method 2. Change drive letter to make unrecognized WD external hard drive detectable
The other way is to change the drive letter with Disk Management tool so to make unrecognized or undetectable WD external hard drive to show up in PC:
- Right-click on This PC/My Computer > Select Manage.
- Go Disk Management > Find your external hard drive and right click it by choosing Change Drive Letter and Path...
- Assign the drive with a new letter that doesn't exist in your PC and mark the Partition as Active.
- Click OK.
- Restart PC and your External hard drive will show up and work again.
Fix WD external hard drive not working/responding issue
When WD external hard drive, USB or other brands of storage devices are not working or not responding to any operations in your PC, don't worry. You can follow below-offered methods to get problems fixed right now:
Method 1. Update WD external hard drive driver to make it work
1. Click on Start > Type: devmgmt.msc in Search to open Device Manager by hitting Enter.
2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers > Right-click every USB device found there and select Uninstall.
3. Then check out whether any devices show up as unrecognized or not:
- If WD external hard drive shows unrecognized, go to drivers tab and delete/uninstall the driver; Then check out whether the external hard drive shows up in My Computer/My PC or not.
- If it doesn't show up, reboot or restart PC;
- If it shows up but disappears later, repeat above steps and go to Disk Management, change the drive letter of your WD external hard drive and reconnect it to PC to let PC detect it again.
Wd Elements Mac Os X
Method 2. Repair corrupted system files/bad sectors on not working WD external hard drive
Corrupted system files or bad sectors on WD external hard drive or other storage devices would block your device from working or responding in Windows PC.
Professional partition manager software from EaseUS will repair bad sectors and fix corrupted system files to make your WD external hard drive work again. Free download, install it and follow below guide steps to fix bad sectors and corrupted system files on your drive now:
Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.
Step 2: In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.
Step 3: The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.
Format Wd Elements For Mac
Extra Tip: WD external hard drive recovery
Wd For Mac On Windows
After fixing not working external hard drive on your Windows PC, you may continue using it for storing fancy data again.
But if you lost files or valuable data on the drive, don't worry. Professional WD external hard drive recovery solution offered by EaseUS hard drive recovery software is what you exactly need. It will simply restore lost files from WD external hard drive within 3 simple steps on Windows 10/8/7 etc PC.
If you lost files after fixing WD external hard drive not working issue or cannot access saved data in your storage devices, just free download EaseUS hard drive recovery software and let it help now.
Summary :
WD My Passport Ultra is very popular. But many users encounter WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue in Windows 10/8/7. This article will show you how to fix WD My Passport Ultra not recognized Windows 10/8/7 issue in very simple steps.
Quick Navigation :
Do you know what WD My Passport Ultra is? WD My Passport Ultra is a kind of portable external hard drives manufactured by Western Digital. It is favored by many Windows users.
However, while it is an excellent external hard drive, users also encounter some issues such as WD My Passport Ultra not showing up, WD My Passport Ultra not detected and WD Passport not recognized.
If you encounter these issues, take the following solutions to fix it right now.
Solution 1. Plug It into Another USB Port
You can connect the WD My Passport Ultra to your PC with another USB port. Sometimes, it is not because your drive is problematic, but the port you’re using to connect it.
If your WD My Passport drive can be recognized after plugging it into another USB port, it indicates that your USB port is not working. In the same way, you can also plug it on another computer to see if that works.
Solution 2. Change USB Cable
The second quick fix to WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue is to change a different USB cable. WD My Passport Ultra not detected Windows 10 issue can be caused by faulty USB cable.
So before you try fixes target to your WD My Passport Ultra disk, you can try using a different USB cable and then check if it appears. If not, please go on with the fixes as below.
Solution 3. Change Drive Letter
The cases to WD My Passport Ultra not detected or recognized can be different. If you find that WD My Passport shows in device manager but not My Computer, you can assign it a drive letter.
Here are two free ways that you use to assign a drive letter for your WD My Passport Ultra. One is using Windows built-in Disk Management. Another way is to try using a third-party WD My Passport Ultra partition manager – MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
If you have the WD My Passport Ultra not detected Windows 10/8/7 issue, you might as well try this simple fix, especially for users who find that the WD My Passport shows in device manager but not My Computer or This PC.
Now I will show you the two ways to change drive letter one by one.
Change Drive Letter with Disk Management
Disk Management is a Windows built-in disk partitioning tool. It has some basic features for users to manage disks and partitions on their computer such as format partition, shrink partition, delete partition, change drive letter, convert basic disk to dynamic and so on.
So, you can change drive letter with Disk Management. And here are detailed steps.
Step 1. Open Disk Management.
Here are two ways for you to open Disk Management in Windows 10.
- Press Windows + R, input msc in the dialogue box and press Enter.
- Right-click the Windows Start menu and select Disk Management.
Step 2. Assign a drive letter for the WD My Passport Ultra drive.
1. Select the WD My Passport Ultra drive on the main interface of Disk Management.
2. Right-click it and choose Change drive letter and path….
3. Click Addto add a new drive letter for the USB drive.
4. Then click OK.
After that, you can go back the main interface to check if you can access your WD My Passport Ultra drive.
Although Disk Management can help you change drive letter, its features are limited as it lacks many basic but essential features.
However, if you not only want to change drive letter but also need a partition manager to manage your drive in an all-rounded way, it is recommended to use the MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
Change Drive Letter with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition
MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition is an all-in-one WD partition manager. It can help you not only change drive letter, but also it enables you to move/resize partition, extend partition, split partition, wipe partition on your WD My Passport Ultra drive.
You can also utilize this tool to check file system, convert MBR to GPT without data loss, copy disk, and convert FAT to NTFS and so on.
To change a drive letter with this marvelous tool, you should download this tool firstly. You can download the MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition by clicking the following button.
Then follow the simple steps as below to change drive letter with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
Step 1. Select a partition.
- Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
- Choose the target WD My Passport Ultra drive.
- Click Change Drive Letter after selecting the partition.
Step 2. Change drive letter.
- Choose a drive letter from the drop-down menu.
- Then press OKbutton.
Step 3. Apply the operation.
Click Apply on the upper left corner to allow the pending operation.
After that, you can go to This PC to see if the WD My Passport Ultra drive appears.
Apart from assigning drive letter, you can make use of its other features to manage your WD My Passport Ultra drive.
Solution 4. Reinstall USB Controller
A Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller is a chip or device that enables the computer to communicate with USB devices. You can check the USB controller in Device Manager.
When there is a yellow exclamation mark next to Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller, it means that the device driver is not installed correctly. In this case, your USB devices cannot be recognized by your PC. This could be the reasons for your WD My Passport not recognized Windows 10 issue.
How to fix my passport not recognized error? Don't worry. You can reinstall USB controller to fix WD my passport not detected issue.
Step 1. Open device manager Windows 10.
- Press Windows + R, type msc in the dialogue box and press Enter.
- Right click Windows Start menu and choose Device Manager from the list.
Step 2. Start reinstalling USB controller.
1. On the main interface of Device Manager, expand the category of Universal Serial Bus controllers.
2. Find the controller through which the external hard drive is connected.
3. Right-click on it and select Uninstall.
4. Restart your computer and check if the WD My Passport not recognized issue has been solved.
If this fix doesn't work, try the next solution.
Solution 5. Update WD Device Driver
Corrupted or outdated driver could lead to the WD My Passport not detected or recognized issue. And some users reported that updating device drivers resolved their WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue. So if you have the same issue, why not have a try?
You can follow the detailed steps as below to update the WD device driver and fix WD My Passport not recognized Windows 10 issue.
Step 1. Open Device Manager in Windows 10.
- Press Windows + R, type msc in the dialogue box and press Enter.
- Right click Windows Start menu and choose Device Manager from the list.
Step 2. Find the Unknown device in Device Manager.
- To find it, you can expand the Disk Drives, Universal Serial Bus controllers, Other devices, or Portable Devices to check.
- Right-click on it and select Properties.
Step 3. Update driver software.
1. Click on the tab Details.
2. Click on the drop-down menu and choose Hardware Ids.
Format Wd Elements
3. Right-click the first code and choose Copy to copy the code.
4. Paste it into the search engine to download the drivers.
5. After downloading the drivers, right-click on the drive again and choose “Update driver”.
6. Choose the Browse my computer for driver software from the pop-up window. Now navigate to the driver you downloaded and saved on your computer. Then install it.
Wd Elements Not Showing Up Mac Computer
If you find this complicated, you might need a piece of driver updater software. This kind of software will scan for and list drivers that need updating or replacing. So you don't need to find it manually, which is very convenient.
Wd Elements Not Showing Up Mac Address
There is a great amount of driver management software on the Internet. You download one by yourself. Be sure to choose a reliable one.
Solution 6. Run Anti-virus Software
You may find it weird but it is true that some time malware or viruses can give rise to WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue.
You may perform a virus check on your computer and run anti-virus software to kill virus firstly.
If your WD hard drive still doesn't show up or cannot be detected after trying the above fixes, you may check if there are physical issues on your WD My Passport drive. You can also send it to hard drive repair center to check some physical errors may have occurred to your device.
If your disk is under warranty, you may contact the Western Digital for replacing it.
About WD My Passport Ultra
WD My Passport Ultra is a kind of external hard drive. With its sophisticated design and large capacity, it grabs people’s attention.
There are three kinds of capacities for WD My Passport Ultra. They are WD My Passport Ultra 1TB, 2TB and 4 TB. So, you have enough disk space to backup and store various files like photos, videos, music and documents if you are using the WD My Passport Ultra drive.
Besides, WD My Passport Ultra is formatted for Windows 10, Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 operating systems. You don't need to reformat it unless you want to use it on other operating systems.
My Passport Ultra Drive is manufactured with proven real WD components, which is durable and of assured quality. And with up to 4TB of storage and a 3-year limited warranty, you can use the storage for years to come.
Bottom Line
After trying the above fixes in this post, have you fixed the WD My Passport Ultra not detected Windows 10 issue? If you come across WD external hard drive not recognized Windows 7/8/10 issue, try the above fixes.
If you have better solution toward how to resolve WD Passport not recognized or detected issue or if you have any question, you can leave a message in the following comment zone and we will reply as soon as possible. If you need any help when using MiniTool software, you can contact us via [email protected].