Western Digital external HD not recognized

[emmarox]

I had a "windows delayed write failure" error originally as the problem and i tried to fix that by running cacheset.exe and increased my cache maximum. however now my computer recognizes that it has a mass storage device, but in My Computer and Disk Management my external hd won't show up at all. i'm afraid it may just be fried. any suggested would be great, thanks in advance!

Does it work on any computer?

Shenan's question (Does it work on any computer?) is pertinent. I personally
have had two WD external drives crap out on me. I currently have a third
which I only use for non-critical backup and which I do not trust at all.

YMMV.

I have about a half-dozen WD externals - including a MyBook World Edition
(networked) 1TB and they have been going strong for several years. I also
have about a 1/2 dozen Seagate external drives (USB, firewire and eSATA) and
they also are doing fine after several years. My older ximeta netdisk and a
few generic cases with drives in them still work - although the generic
cases have always been flakier (for me) than the name brand ones. Sometimes
they connect fine, sometimes they don't - and inside them are seagate and
western digital drives.... heh

The Newegg reviews for some of these products, give me all the advice
I need with regard to buying them. There have also been a few
posters in the newsgroups, who have put their only copy of files
onto a brand new pre-packaged external, only to find it dead a couple
days later. This is one of the reasons I assemble my own enclosures,
using an enclosure that has a fan for cooling.

This is what I look for. A vent or perforated cover on the front...

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggIma...604-006-02.jpg

and a fan on the back...

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggIma...604-006-03.jpg

The fan in that example, is actually an industry standard 40mm one,
and not 50mm as labeled.

[emmarox]

it did connect to any computer, i now only use it on my pc and my mac laptop sometimes if i need a file or two from my pc. the mac recently said, "the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" my mac has always just recognized it as an external and worked fine.

i ran the diagnostic test, first off instead of giving it a drive picture it was a usb symbol, and the model number was "(usb)" and the capacity was "0 MB." i tried to run a quick test anyhow and it failed at "cable test" - Cable Test::Read diagnostic sector error! I tried to switch the usb cable but still failed. any ideas anyone?

If you go to www.westerndigital.com and look in Support:Downloads,
you can get a diagnostic to test the disk. That will tell you
whether the disk is working OK. If the disk is OK, it could be a
problem with the file system. But a diagnostic is where I'd start.

OK, which do you prefer ? To get your data back ? Or to use
the Western Digital warranty, if any of the warranty period
is left. You'd need to leave the WD drive assembled, if you
want to use the warranty.

At this point, the next diagnostic step, is to remove the hard
drive from the enclosure. For some of the pre-packaged
drives, you can find a disassembly procedure on the web.
Sometimes there are little tricks to getting these
drives apart, such as obscured screws and the like.

With the drive out of the enclosure, plug it into a motherboard
interface port, either IDE or SATA. If the component is a
relatively recent purchase, the drive is likely SATA type.

(SATA Data and Power cables)
http://www.thg.ru/howto/20051125/ima...connected2.jpg

(IDE Parallel ATA interface, bottom one is a 3.5" drive)
http://www.thg.ru/howto/20051125/images/hdd_25_9.jpg

Once connect to the motherboard port, run the diagnostic again.

In some cases, the USB interface chip will have failed on
the enclosure. But the component with the worst reliability
characteristics, is the drive mechanism itself.

By testing the drive alone, you'll have a better idea whether
the little USB chip failed, the power supply used with the enclosure
is bad, or the actual drive mechanism is no longer functional.

[deoWo]

The main reason must be the incompatibility of the system, is that you are trying to use a USB 2.0 device in a system that does not have USB 2.0 support.What is the make and model of the drive enclosure?What motherboard make and model is this, or what make and model system?Does the drive enclosure still work on the other systems?