Windows 10: WD My passport not Recognized when Plugged in

Two computers. One with Windows 10 on which the drive doesn't work and the other with both Windows 10 and 7 and the drive is working fine on both. I connected the drive successfully to two other computer with Windows 7 as well.

WD Smartware is not installed anywhere.

I'll see if I can do that.

 

I have a WD My Passport portable USB hard drive which one of my computers can't detect when plugged in. It doesn't show up in My computer, Device Manage or Disk Management.
The only way to get the device recognized is to reboot the computer with it connected, enter BIOS (and do nothing), and reboot again.

The drive works fine on my other computer.
It has the WD Unlocker Software built in.

:)

 

WD Passport - will it work with Windows 10?

the problem is when connecting a WD (Western Digital) My Passport to a W10 (Windows 10) OS it does not recognize the drive; whereas W8/8.1 does. It has nothing to do with what USB its plugged into or hub. It just wont read the drive.

 

File History not Functioning Properly

Even though My WD My Passport Ultra is recognized in Disk Management, Device manager and Devices and Printers File History refuses to recognize it for use. All Passport drives etc. are up-to-date. Any suggestions? Oh, It is recognized by the Windows 7
backup program.

 

Hi Lagnaetti

If you plug in a USB Thumb drive is it recognized on this computer?

 

Everything is recognized except this one particular hard drive.

 

So when it is recognized is it listed correctly in device manager?

and if recognized, in the same section, if you show hidden devices, are there hidden devices?

 

Yes it is. And there are no hidden devices.

 

Sometime a usb device is misrecognised the first time it is plugged in and an incorrect driver is loaded. This will then always be used for that device whenever it is plugged in. The only way to correct this is to uninstall the device in Device Manager and let it discover the device again, hopefully loading the correct driver this time.

 

Hi Lagnaetti,

The main problem: You seem to have installed WD Smartware on your other PC and have set it up in a particular fashion - Password protected/ lock/unlock enabled/ Auto unlock enabled.

To be able to read your drive on another PC you may have to perform certain operations on the smartware-installed PC as well as the other PC on which you want to read it.

Unfortunately, anyone not using that PITA-software and conversant with it ( that includes me *Smile) will be able to guide you on it.

You are advised to raise your query on the WD Forum indicating how you have setup that software - full details and not a mere statement "I have installed Smartware / WD unlocker"..

Note: All WD external drives except Elements model are hardware-encrypted. If the electronics inside the enclosure fails ( fail, they do) you will be effectively locked out of the drive and have to seek the services of WD Data Recovery Partners to recover the data. Again if you have Password protected it using Smartware and you forget the password, you have to do a full erase to be able to use the drive again. You would lose all your data.

 

My friend, the problem is with only one computer.

 

Didn't help

 

How many computers do you have and on how many computers have you tried it on ?

Have you installed WD Smartware on the one computer on which it is accessible? What is the OS in it?

Please plug it in any one Windows 10 computer that is not yours and that which does not have the WD Smartware installed and tell us whether your Passport is accessible on that computer.