Question External 3GB HD not seen in Win10, move it to another PC, is seen... what gives?

[Muse]

I've had this attached via USB for a couple years. Today, Windows 10 64bit doesn't see it. Go into Disk Management, it's not there, only the 500GB SSD C drive. I move the USB cable to several different ports. Still not there. The drive is warm, so it's getting power OK. I remove the drive and plug it into this Windows 10 64bit laptop and it IS SEEN! I open Crystaldiskinfo and it says the drive is GOOD.

Why am I having this problem? I mean I had to assume the HD had gone bad. It's a Western Digital MyBook 3GB external. I have had several WD external HDs (mostly 2GB) die on me so I assumed this was an addition to my WD cemetary. What's going on?

 

[Muse]

So, I move it back to the PC that didn't see it, it spins up and Disk Management shows it, and, of course, "Healthy." WTF.

This is (one reason) why I'm going to test all my external HDs and install "GOOD" one internally (ripped out of its former enclosure), into this mini-tower PC. Argh.

 

[Steltek]

Did you check the USB cable where it connects to the USB drive to ensure it was properly seated?

It also may have been a driver issue with that particular USB port. If it happens again on that system, try moving the USB cable to another port to see if it is detected. If the device is then detected, it might mean you need to delete the "ghost driver" associated with that device on the problem USB port in Device Manager.

 

[Muse]

Did you check the USB cable where it connects to the USB drive to ensure it was properly seated?

It also may have been a driver issue with that particular USB port. If it happens again on that system, try moving the USB cable to another port to see if it is detected. If the device is then detected, it might mean you need to delete the "ghost driver" associated with that device on the problem USB port in Device Manager.

I had tried several other USB ports and still nothing happened. The cable is attached to the drive, and I have tape holding it in. Seems unlikely there was an issue with that. Might be a driver problem. Just don't know. Maybe a reboot of the computer would have remedied it. I did reboot that computer within the previous 2 days. It's pretty mysterious to me.

 

[Muse]

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[Muse]

Searching on the part number I'm getting that same hit at Amazon, so I suppose that workaround is the one to use. And yes, says USB 2.0.