Western Digital My Book 500 gb External

I purchased this drive and it was working fine until now. When I plug it
into the computer it does not recognize the HDD. :sa: The problem
started after I reformmatted the CPU. I am running Vista Ultimate 32.
Any suggestions?

Did you install/reinstall the Vista 32 bit of the WD my book application
after you reinstalled the OS?

Usually you don't need to install anything from Western Digital for a My
Book to be recognized by Vista.

1. Test the drive by attaching it to another computer. Does it work there?
If yes, see #2. If no, then the My Book has failed and it was coincidental
to the reinstall of Vista. Contact Western Digital tech support.

2. After you reinstalled Vista, did you remember to install the drivers for
all your hardware? If not, that's your next step. Here is general
information about drivers:

Never get drivers from Windows Update. Get them from:

1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM computer
(HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).

Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the drivers.

To find out what hardware is in your computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific model
machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the drivers anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like Belarc
Advisor or System Information for Windows.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.gtopala.com/ - System Information for Windows

This sounds like my problem; could be along the same line. I have a
Western Digital external 500G HD, that will not be seen by Vista. I
called WD, and they vectored me off to some driver for 98SE, "...that
will work for Vista, too." :rolleyes: In any event, I cannot make this
drive work. Right now, it is a $100 boat anchor. Any observations?

I know this is really late of a reply so everyone probably solved their
problems. But I had the same issue and corrected it so I wanted to
share. My WD hard drive stopped working after I moved to Vista. The
drive would spin like normal but it wouldn't be recognized in Windows.
So I went to the WD website and looked up my Hard Drive. There is "Drive
Utility" software that you can download and install. That should
properly tell Vista (or windows 7) how to work with the HD. Mine worked
fine after that.