WD Passport External HD not showing up in My Computer

[Russell]

I have bought a new Western Digital External Hard drive and it used to work fine in my Vista system. Usually, when ever i connected this hard drive to my computer, then after a couple of minutes of its driver installation, vista would recognize the drive and i would be able to browse all and my files and can even play them. But since yesterday, after plugging this hard drive, it is not showing up in the computer. But there is still the safely remove hardware icon visible. Even in device manager the hard drive is working fine, as it says. I am totally blanked here, if the hard drive is working then why it is not showing in my computer, can anyone help.

[Sebastian.j]

I was also having this problem my Western digital Passport 250gb Hard Disk, but i solved it. I downloaded a tool called Tweak UI and opened it and then scrolled down to my computer and clicked on drives and then ticked the drive that was not recognizing by my Operating System. My hard drive started to appear in my computer, so you can also follow this method and solve your issue.

[SUpER CoP]

I think that you will need to update the hard drive firmware so that it can be recognized on your vista computer.

1. Disconnect all external drives from the computer except for the My Book or My Passport drive you want to update.
2. Ensure that the My Book or My Passport drive is connected to a USB port on your computer and if you have password protected your drive, make sure to unlock it or remove password before you begin the firmware and software update process.
3. Download the Firmware Updater for Windows from here.
4. Unzip the file and double click the Firmware Updater for Windows.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the firmware update.
6. Turn off the drive - For My Passport, disconnect the USB cable. For My Book disconnect both USB and power cables.
7. Wait 10 seconds. Reconnect the USB/power cables.
8. Continue to the next step by reading it from here.