WD Elements HD not showing up

Hello,

I have a WD Elements external hard drive that will not show up in Windows.  I can plug any other device in all USB ports and windows see them with no issues.  I can also plug in the Hard drive on another older laptop with no issues.  The light on the drive comes on when plugged into the laptop I am trying to connect it too.  This drive was working on this machine previously.  Not sure what happened to cause this.  Would like some ideas on how to fix.  Thank you.

Is the drive listed in Disk Management? If yes, is there a drive letter assigned to it?

No it is not listed in disk management.  Thank you for the response.

Have you tried attaching the WD to the other USB ports on the computer? It's still undetected?

Is the WD listed when you open a command prompt and type

diskpart

list disk

Have you tried using a different cable?

Have you tried using a different cable?

May be a cable but OP says the drive connects fine on a different computer.

I have not tried a different cable.  As stated above the drive works on a different computer.  I did reset windows and that seems to work for the moment.  I do not want to have to reset windows every time this happens.  Thank you to all for your input and thought.

It's possible there was a driver conflict on the USB ports. When a device is added to a USB port a driver is added or a device ID. When multiple devices are added to a USB port a conflict can happen. You can use a utility called DeviceCleanupCmd to delete non-present USB devices or you can delete the USB Hubs in Device Manager and reboot the computer to reinstall the Hubs.

Thank you for the fix.  Much appreciated.

So, this issue is happening again.  I started today with the drive working and then all of a sudden it disconnected on its own and has not reconnected.  The drive was and still is plugged into a USB port on the laptop.  I did download the DeviceCleanupCmd as stated above, however that did not seem to do anything.  Currently the drive is showing up as hidden under disk drives in the device manager, (it is grayed out).  THe ligh on the drive is lit up.  Where do I go from here?

Post an image of Disk Management showing the external drive if listed. I'm not sure why the drive would be greyed out in Device Manager. The WD is still detected in a different computer?

DeviceCleanupCmd.zip

Unzip the file and copy the X64 folder to the root of C:

Open an elevated command prompt. Type CMD in the search box. Right Click > Run as Admin

Type the following command

cd c:\x64
devicecleanupcmd.exe *

It will create a restore point first then delete all non-present devices.

regarding the hidden external drive. Type the following commands in a command prompt

diskpart

list disk

select disk X     Where X is you external drive

list partition      There should only be one partition listed

select partition X where X is the partition number

detail partition

Post an image of the output.

How do I post an image?

Also, 

regarding the hidden external drive. Type the following commands in a command prompt

diskpart

list disk

select disk X     Where X is you external drive

list partition      There should only be one partition listed

select partition X where X is the partition number

detail partition

Post an image of the output.

This is not showing the external drive which is currently hidden.  It only shows the c: drive as disk 0.

Also, when the drive was working I changed the letter to the drive from D:  to S:  

You can use a image hosting service like postimages.org or imgbb.com. They will give you a direct url link you can paste into your post. You can also click More Reply Options next to the Post button and upload your image.

The drive is not showing in Disk Management either?

Does a USB flash drive in the same port get detected?

Edit: Is the drive detected in a different computer?

Edited by JohnC_21, 07 June 2024 - 12:55 PM.

i am working on the images. 

as far as a flash drive, yes  I have 2 USB ports and both will read a flash drive but neither will read the external HD.