- MY PASSPORT ULTRA USER MANUAL Using the Drive with a Mac The My Passport drive is formatted as a single NTFS partition for compatibility with updated Windows operating systems. To use the drive on Mac OS X operating systems, and to use Time Machine, if you want, you must reformat the drive to a single HFS+J partition.
- Consider replacing w/the WD Passport for Mac. It is already formatted for the Mac. Just plug it in & use it along w/Time Machine. That is part of the problem. I had a WD Mac Edition drive that was indeed formatted for Mac but would not behave like any Mac drive I'd ever used. That was the reason for my 'proprietary formatting' comment to the OP.
- My Passport Ultra Not Showing
- Wd My Passport Ultra Not Showing Up Mac
- Can't Find Wd My Passport On Mac
- Wd My Passport Ultra Software Download
- My Passport For Mac Troubleshooting
Easiest Way to Fix WD Passport Not Showing Error
- 1. In Control Panel, go to Devices and Printers. You can see your passport drive visible there.
- 2. Open its properties and then open drivers, simply uninstall it.
- 3. Unplug your passport drive.
- 4. Restart your computer and insert/plugin your passport again into PC.
Follow to learn how to make your WD Passport external hard drive detected again:
Much like my WD My Passport Ultra, most external hard drives out there are customized to work with Windows, not OS X. If you’re only going to use the external hard drive with Macs or you want to. List of all WD firmware and software available for download.
- Why Is WD Passport Not Showing Up
- 5 Fix for My WD Passport Is Not Showing Up on Computer Error
- Quick Fix. Try a Different USB Cable/Port or PC
- Method 1. Change WD Drive Letter to Make WD Passport Drive Detectable
- Method 2. Fix Corrupted File System/Bad Sector That Makes WD Not Showing Up
- Method 3. Update Device Driver to Make WD Drive Work, Detected
- Method 4. Uninstall/Reinstall USB Controllers on WD My Passport Drive
How Do I Fix My WD Passport Ultra Not Showing Up on My Computer
'I have a WD My Passport Ultra 1TB portable drive for storing movies, photos, and important personal files. This morning, WD My Passport suddenly became inaccessible, couldn't be detected by my computer.
The WD Passport ultra is not showing up on my PC and I couldn't access saved data either. Is there a possible way that can help me to repair the not detectable WD drive to work again?'
Question: Q: MY PASSPORT WD Drive not showing on my macbook but shows on others. For no reason whatsoever my macbook pro won't show my WD external HD. It powers up normally and I see the light on the HD, it reads on other macbook pro's and it even gets read by my LG smart TV. Sep 23, 2021 If the WD My Passport for Mac still does not work or not show up on Mac after the basic checks, go ahead to try out the solutions as below to make it show up on Mac. Solution 1: Check Finder Preferences. If your WD My Passport is not showing up in Finder and desktop, it's possible that the configuration of the Finder Preferences is stopping.
If you are having a similar problem on your WD My Passport Ultra hard drive or other brands of external hard drive or devices, don't worry.
On this page, you'll learn why is WD Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up on Windows PC and how to fix this error on your own with practical fixes and tutorials.
Why Is My WD Passport Not Showing UP
My Passport Ultra Mac Installation
There is a lot of reasons that will cause your external hard drive not showing up or not detected on Windows PC. Check the following list, you may find the exact cause that makes your WD Passport Ultra external not recognized error:
- 1. A faulty USB port/cable, or a damaged USB hub on PC
- 2. No drive letter is assigned to WD Passport drive
- 3. Corrupted file system or bad sectors makes WD drive unreadable
- 4. WD drive driver is out of date
- 5. Universal USB controllers drivers are outdated
So how to fix these errors and make your WD Passport Ultra external hard drive show up on PC again? Check the fixes and follow tutorials below to get rid of this issue immediately.
5 Fixes to Remove WD Not Showing Up/Not Detected Error:
Quick Fix. Try a Different USB Cable/Port or PC
When your computer cannot detect or read your WD hard drive, you can first try to change the USB cable and connect it with another USB port or new PC to see if the drive can be read or not.
Step 1. Switch a USB port/cable and replug it to your computer.
If the drive can be read via new a USB cable or on a new PC, then the drive is working fine. The problem exists on the USB cable.
Step 2. Reconnect the WD drive via a new USB hub or to a new computer.
- If the WD Passport drive shows up, it is the damaged USB hub on your computer that stops WD from showing up.
- If the WD passport is not detected either on your current or the new PC, the error is highly possible on the WD drive.
You can selectively follow below 4 methods to get problems fixed and repair the WD My Passport drive to show up and work again.
Method 1. Change WD Drive Letter to Make WD Passport Drive Detectable
When your WD become inaccessible, you can follow the guidelines below to change its drive letter so as to make WD passport detectable and accessible again in Windows PC:
Step 1. Press Win + R to bring up Run dialog > Type: diskmgmt.msc to open Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on WD drive which fails to show up and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths..'.
Step 3. Click 'Add' and choose the drive letter beside Assign the following drive letter > Click 'OK'.
If WD drive has already assigned with a letter, click 'Change' to choose another letter for it.
Step 4. Then restart PC and you can check out whether the problem still exists or not.
Method 2. Fix Corrupted File System/Bad Sector That Makes WD Not Showing Up
If the system files corrupted or the WD device contains bad sectors, you won't be able to access the drive. Your computer may not even able to detect it from File Explorer.
EaseUS partition manager software with its Check File System feature supports repairing corrupted file system and bad sectors on WD hard drive. Download it, you can easily make your WD external hard drive show up on the computer again.
Follow to see how to fix corrupted system files and bad sectors on WD device:
Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.
Step 2: In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.
Step 3: The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.
Method 3. Update Device Driver to Make WD Drive Work, Detected
When the WD Passport drive is not working, it's highly possible that the device driver is not updated. So the best way is to update its driver via the following two paths:
Manually Download and Install WD Device Driver:
Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon at the left corner and select Device Manager.
Step 2. Find and expand Disk Drivers, Portable Devices, Universal Serial USB Controllers or Other devices to see if WD device is shown as Unknown device.
Step 3. Right-click on Unknown device > select Properties.
Step 4. Go to Details tab > Set Property to be Hardware Ids.
Step 5. Right-click the top Value and click Copy.
Step 6. Paste what you copy into a browser to search the correct device driver, find and download the correct WD device driver and install it on your PC.
Step 7. Then restart your computer and everything shall work fine with your WD My Passport Ultra drive.
Update WD Device Driver from Device Manager:
Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select Device Manager.
Step 2. Expand Device Manager and right-click the WD My Passport Ultra drive.
Step 3. Select 'Update driver'.
Step 4. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software', wait for the process to complete.
Method 4. Uninstall/Reinstall USB Controllers on WD My Passport Drive
When the Universal USB Bus Controllers is outdated, it may also stop your WD passport from being detected or showing up. So the last efficient way that you can try is to uninstall and reinstall USB controllers:
Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.
Step 2. Find and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers > Right-click on USB controllers on your WD drive and select 'Uninstall device'.
Repeat to uninstall each USB controller one by one.
Step 3. Restart the computer and Microsoft will automatically reinstall the USB controllers software for your WD drive.
After this, you shall be able to visit and access saved data on your WD Passport Ultra drive normally by then.
Extra Important Tips
If your WD hard drive shows up and can be detected normally again, please don't rush to use it. Please do these tips first:
- 1. Copy and backup important data from your WD hard drive to another storage device.
- 2. Format WD hard drive or external hard drive to NTFS for saving data again.
If the WD hard drive still doesn't show up or cannot be detected, some physical errors may have occurred to your device. Please try these tips for a guide:
- 1. Search and find some manual guide online to check the physical error on your WD hard drive.
- 2. Or you can take your WD drive to a local hard drive repair center for professional help. (If you are not professional, please try this tip.)
Conclusion
Microsoft internet explorer for mac osx. On this page, we explained why is WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up on Windows PC and provided 5 practical fixes for you to follow and make the drive show up again.
If you are having a similar issue on other brands of external hard drive, internal hard drive, USB, or SD card, you can also try these tips to make your device show up and work again on Windows PC.
People Also Ask
For further issues related to the WD passport, check the questions and answers below. You'll get a satisfying answer:
1. WD My Passport not showing up on Mac
If you are having a similar issue that WD My Passport external or internal hard drive not showing up on Mac, you can try the following tips as listed here for help: （Some are similar as shown on this page)
- #1. Reconnect WD Passport to Mac
- #2. Change WD Passport drive letter
- #3. Remount WD Passport to Mac
- #4. Update WD Passport drive driver
- #5. Format WD My Passport on Mac
2. How to use WD Passport on Windows 10?
For a new WD Passport: Connect Passport to Windows 10 PC > Open Disk Management and Initialize Disk > Create a New Partition on WD Passport drive.
For a used WD Passport: Connect it to Windows 10 > Open it in File Explorer to use it. If you need more space, delete some useless files on it to free up space.
3. Why is my external hard drive not showing up?
Accordingly, there are many reasons that may cause your external hard drive not showing up. Here is a list of major reasons:
- The external hard drive is not connected to the PC correctly
- Faulty USB cable or USB hub
- External hard drive is not initialized
- External hard drive is doesn't contain a volume
- External hard drive has no drive letter
- External hard drive contains file system error, bad sectors, or virus
For a resolution, follow to External/Internal Hard Drive Is Not Showing Up in Windows 10/8/7.
Summary: This article analyzes why the WD My Passport for Mac drive is not mounting/working on Mac and how to fix this issue. If you worry about losing data, you can recover data from the WD hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac at first.
What is meant by mounting a WD My Passport drive on Mac?
The WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is specially designed for Mac mini computers, iMacs, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. You can access My passport for Mac drives only when macOS recognizes the format of the drive. This process is called mounting.
However, once your computer fails to recognize that format (also known as file system), the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting on Mac computer.
Why is WD My Passport for Mac not mounting?
WD hard drives, including My Passport and Easystore, won't mount on Mac when the disk format is not recognized. Such error could be caused by virus infection, sudden power failure, sudden power outage, unwanted interruption during transferring data, etc. If the external hard drive won't mount, you can't open this WD My Passport for Mac drive and access your important files.
Here is one typical case from forums:
WD My Passport for Mac hard drive (2 TB) won't mount on my MacBook Air, grayed out in Disk Utility. I have 1 TB family photos on this hard drive, which are very precious for me. How to fix if WD My Passport for Mac not working on Mac? Any data recovery solution? Thanks a lot!
If you haven't got an effective workaround when WD My passport hard drive fails to mount in Finder or Disk Utility, this page will help. You'll know how to mount the Western Digital my passport drive on Mac again.
How to fix the unmounted WD My Passport hard drive on Mac?
The connected WD My Passport drive should be automatically mounted on the desktop, in Finder and Disk Utility. When it won't mount on Mac as you expect, you can try these methods.
1. Show the mounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive on Mac destop
Sometimes, the My Passport drive is recognized and mounted by the Mac, and you just don't see it. You can go to Finder > Preferences and confirm if the 'External Disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' is selected. This will ensure if the external drives connected to this Mac are allowed to show on the desktop.
But if your WD My Passport drive is not even showing up, it's reasonable that you can't see it mounting on Mac. Then, you shoud check the connections and some hardware issues.
2. Force Mount the WD Mac hard drive in Disk Utility
You can go to Utility and see if this hard drive appears in the left sidebar. If your WD My Passport for Mac drive for Mac is not mounting but grayed out in Disk Utility, you can right-click and select the 'Mount' button to force mount the hard drive. However, if this external hard drive is corrupted, the 'Mount' button will not be available and you need to try the next solution.
But sometimes, you can't mount a hard drive on Mac because of internal disk errors like file system corruption, partition table lost, the directory is corrupted, etc. You WD My Passport for Mac drive won't be recognized by your Mac in these cases. Fortunately, you can fix the hard drive not mounting issue with the native disk repair tool, First Aid.
3. Run First Aid to fix WD My Passport for Mac not mounting error
First Aid is a Mac built-in tool to verify and check minor problems of a hard disk. Whenever you can't mount a WD hard drive or My Passport for Mac is not working, First Aid should be a good disk repair tool.
Step 1: Go to /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/, then click Continue.
Step 2: In the sidebar, select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.
Step 3: Click the 'First Aid' button.
Step 4: Click Run.
If Disk Utility reports that the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive appears to be OK or has been repaired, you're done. Otherwise, this WD My Passport drive has been corrupted. You have to retrieve your data from this corrupted hard drive as soon as possible.
When those methods didn't make any difference and the WD My passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting still, you need to check some hardware issues that get involved in the disk connection.
Let's start with some basics factors.
4. Check the power supply of the WD My Passport for Mac drive
It's well known that insufficient or no power supply in USB ports could also lead to hard drive not mounting issue. Therefore, you should make sure the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is getting the appropriate power. If the drive came with a Y-cable, use both USB connectors. Moreover, do not connect the drive through a USB hub, connect it directly to the Mac. Make sure the power adapter is connected directly to a wall outlet, not to an extension cord.
5. Check the USB cable
When external hard drive is not showing up on Mac, ensure the cable is properly connected to both the drive and computer. Then try connecting your WD My Passport for Mac hard drive with a new USB cable if you can fetch another one.
6. Check the USB port of your Mac
If the problem still continues, try using a different USB port. Perhaps your Mac has two USB port - the back and front ones. Assuming the My passport driveis plugged in the front USB port, try to insert the drive to the back USB port.
7. Check for driver update
If the hardware seems to be OK, let's check the software that related to this disk problem. The My passport disk driver, a software component, bridges the operating system and the drive to communicate with each other. But the files of My passport driver could be deleted, outdated, or corrupted for virus invasion or misoperation.
So, when the WD My Passport drive is not working or the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, check the disk driver.
Step 1: Click the Apple icon and select 'App Store…'
My Passport Ultra Driver For Mac Os High Sierra
Step 2: Click Update (NOT UPGRADE!) to install a specific update or Update All to install all available updates.
Sometimes, WD My Passport for Mac driver, software, and WD disk tool are needed, especially when you want to open a WD My Passport for Mac drive that is locked. You can go to WD official website and download software for WD My Passport troubleshooting and for WD My Passport driver update.
How to fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error without losing data?
My Passport Ultra Not Showing
However, if WD My Passport for Mac hard drive still won't mount on Mac, the last solutions is to reformat the hard drive. But reformatting will delete all data stored on the hard drive, and most of the time, many important files are stored on the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.
If you haven't backed up important files, how can you recover files from the WD My Passport drive? It's high time to recover lost data from the unmounted hard drive first.
Step 1: Recover lost data from unmountable hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
As for Mac data recovery, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is highly recommended as it's a free Mac data recovery software. It can easily retrieve files from WD Passport drives. This software can recover lost data from corrupted hard drive, unreadable hard drives, formatted hard drives, unrecognized hard drives, unmountable hard drives, inaccessible hard drives, and recover lost data from uninitialized hard drive. You can use this hard drive data recovery software on macOS Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/10.12 Sierra and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
1. Free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac and select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.
3. Click 'Scan' to search for all lost files on this drive.
4. Preview the listed scanning results, choose files we want, and click 'Recover' button to get them back.
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Hopefully, you'll get all your files off after the WD My Passport is not working nor mounting.
Step 2: Fix WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting error by reformatting
After getting lost files back, you can fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error by reformatting without worrying about losing data. This will reset the WD My Passport hard drive.
My Passport For Mac Drivers
• Guide to reformat WD My Passport for Mac external hard drive
Conclusion
WD My passport for Mac hard drives always offer quick and easy way to expand the storage space of your computer. It has amazing features like cloud storage, password protection with hard drive encryption, and compatiblity with Apple's Time Machine backup software, so that you can store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents.
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But the WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting issue will call a halt on all these good things. You need to repair the WD My Passport for Mac that is not working or corrupted first, and recover data with the assistance of iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
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For any questions or suggestions, please email us below.
Apr 09,2020 • Filed to: Hard Drive Recovery • Proven solutions
If you were to look at the most popular external hard disks on the market, WD My Passport will surely make it in the top three spots. They have gained much fanfare due to their portable size and high capacities.
Shop WD My Passport Ultra for Mac 4TB External USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive with Hardware Encryption Silver at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for. Creating Folders on your WD My Passport Drive. With your Passport drive connected you double. Part 3: How to Extend the Life of Your WD Hard Drive With a bit of care and concern, you can definitely improve the lifespan of your WD My Passport hard drive. Best practices in drive management ensure that your hard drive is working in top shape for years. Some of the ways in which you can extend the life of your WD hard drive are.
Everything about WD My Passport is great except one, reparability. The small form factor means that WD My Passport repair is not the easiest one to do. And hard disk errors can happen from both the hardware and software side of things. So before you jump into conclusions, you need to understand the root of the problem. Hence, the first part of that process is to identify the errors that your WD My Passport is showing in the first place. Let go over some of them.
Part 1: Signs of Western Digital Hard Drive Errors
All hard drives show some specific signs before they go out altogether. For the user, this is a great thing because you will get some time to find a solution or move your files to another storage unit. Spotting these signs will help you a great deal in doing preventive maintenance.
- Clicking or scratching noises: The WD My passport runs very silent and in normal use, you won’t even know that it’s working. However, if you hear strange clicking noises or scratching noises from the hard drive, it signifies a hardware problem, most commonly it is observed to be faulty bearings.
- Frequent crashes: Nowadays, hard drives are very well made and they rarely crash. If your hard drive experience crashes with a frequency like once in a month or two, it is fine. However, when the crashes occur multiple times every single day, then you must look for western digital hard drive repair solutions.
- Frequent disconnections and error message: If the hard drive causes disconnections even when you are not using the hard drive, there might be a problem with the controller. This sign is very easy to spot as you will be seeing the hard drive repeatedly connecting and disconnecting on its own even when it is firmly plugged into the computer.
- Very long response time: Response time is the measure of time that it takes the hard drive to respond to a read or write request. Hence, you would want this time to be as low as possible. However, faulty hard drives can show a severe delay between a request and an actual response.
- Data loss: The data that you have copied over to the WD My Password seems to be not there the next time you look for it. This happens when the drive is no longer able to hold the data that is being written on it.
- Broken files: Files that perfectly worked on your internal hard drive seems to be broken if you move it over to the external hard drive. This arises from the inability of the hard disk to save a file or properly read a saved file.
Part 2: How to Fix My WD Passport Not Recognized/Working Issue?
Thankfully, there are ways in which you can resolve many of the hard disk errors without having to take them apart. These fixes are aimed at optimizing your WD My Passport so that they run better. We have listed some of the most common and easy fixes below that you can try out when experiencing errors with your drive.
Fix 1. Check the USB port: The USB port is the hardware interface between the hard drive and your computer. If there is a problem with the interface, then it affects the communication between the connected devices. The frequent disconnections of your hard drive maybe because of a loose connection or a faulty hard drive rather than a problem with the hard drive. Check the USB port and or try plug in the hard drive into another USB port to see if it would solve the issue.
Fix 2. Try another PC: The best way to determine whether the fault is with the hard drive or your computer is to plug the hard drive in a different computer. This will narrow your search for the cause of the problem by a great deal.
Fix 3. Change WD hard drive letter and path: Hard drive letter is an alphabet assigned to a drive for easy recognition. If your computer is having trouble registering the hard drive, try renaming the hard drive and see how it works.
Fix 4. Update WD hard disk device driver: Drivers are the software suite that facilitates different hardware components to talk to each other. Without drivers, the different hardware will not send data to each other. Outdated drivers mean that the device doesn’t have the latest optimizations made for it by Western Digital. The update WD hard disk device driver to ensure that your device has the latest software on it.
Fix 5. Update the USB controller driver: The USB controller is the driver present on your computer that facilitates all the connections made through the computer’s USB ports. A faulty or outdated USB controller can cause a disruption in communication between the connected devices.
Wd My Passport Ultra Not Showing Up Mac
Part 3: How to Extend the Life of Your WD Hard Drive
With a bit of care and concern, you can definitely improve the lifespan of your WD My Passport hard drive. Best practices in drive management ensure that your hard drive is working in top shape for years. Some of the ways in which you can extend the life of your WD hard drive are:
- Keep it safe from physical shocks: Physical shocks are sudden impacts that are inflicted on the hard drive in the form of vibrations, movement, fall from a height, etc. Such occurrences can tamper with the disks that are working inside the hard drive.
- Defragment drive occasionally: Defragmentation is the process of grouping together similar data. This process is an important part of hard drive maintenance because your computer may often break up data into smaller pieces and store them in parts based on the availability of storage. Fragmentation improves drive speed and overall longevity of the drive.
- Keep it within optimum conditions: Every device has a range of optimum conditions where it performs the best. Keep your hard drive working in the right temperature and humidity so that the external conditions do not affect its internals.
- Install an antivirus on your computer: Viruses and malware are harmful programs that can affect not just software, but also your hardware. They can exert unnecessary stress on the hard drive, causing it to wear out faster. Keep your files and devices safe by installing a reliable antivirus program.
- Keep your drivers up-to-date: As we discussed earlier, drivers play a major role in helping devices communicate with each other. Make sure that the drivers installed on your computer are up-to-date and working properly.
Conclusion
WD My Password is an impressive piece of tech that makes data transfer easy and efficient. Keep your drive safe from errors and damages by following some simple steps mentioned in this guide. With just the right amount of care, you can have your hard drive working for years without a hassle!
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- It is compatible with both Windows and Mac operating system.
- It supports a large number of storage device type including hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc.
- All major types of files can be recovered including music, images, video, documents, emails, and archives.
- It has a deep scan features for in-depth scanning of the hard drive for searching files to recover.
Easiest Way to Fix WD Passport Not Showing Error
- 1. In Control Panel, go to Devices and Printers. You can see your passport drive visible there.
- 2. Open its properties and then open drivers, simply uninstall it.
- 3. Unplug your passport drive.
- 4. Restart your computer and insert/plugin your passport again into PC.
Follow to learn how to make your WD Passport external hard drive detected again:
- Why Is WD Passport Not Showing Up
- 5 Fix for My WD Passport Is Not Showing Up on Computer Error
- Quick Fix. Try a Different USB Cable/Port or PC
- Method 1. Change WD Drive Letter to Make WD Passport Drive Detectable
- Method 2. Fix Corrupted File System/Bad Sector That Makes WD Not Showing Up
- Method 3. Update Device Driver to Make WD Drive Work, Detected
- Method 4. Uninstall/Reinstall USB Controllers on WD My Passport Drive
How Do I Fix My WD Passport Ultra Not Showing Up on My Computer
'I have a WD My Passport Ultra 1TB portable drive for storing movies, photos, and important personal files. This morning, WD My Passport suddenly became inaccessible, couldn't be detected by my computer.
The WD Passport ultra is not showing up on my PC and I couldn't access saved data either. Is there a possible way that can help me to repair the not detectable WD drive to work again?'
If you are having a similar problem on your WD My Passport Ultra hard drive or other brands of external hard drive or devices, don't worry.
On this page, you'll learn why is WD Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up on Windows PC and how to fix this error on your own with practical fixes and tutorials.
Why Is My WD Passport Not Showing UP
There is a lot of reasons that will cause your external hard drive not showing up or not detected on Windows PC. Check the following list, you may find the exact cause that makes your WD Passport Ultra external not recognized error:
- 1. A faulty USB port/cable, or a damaged USB hub on PC
- 2. No drive letter is assigned to WD Passport drive
- 3. Corrupted file system or bad sectors makes WD drive unreadable
- 4. WD drive driver is out of date
- 5. Universal USB controllers drivers are outdated
So how to fix these errors and make your WD Passport Ultra external hard drive show up on PC again? Check the fixes and follow tutorials below to get rid of this issue immediately.
5 Fixes to Remove WD Not Showing Up/Not Detected Error:
Quick Fix. Try a Different USB Cable/Port or PC
When your computer cannot detect or read your WD hard drive, you can first try to change the USB cable and connect it with another USB port or new PC to see if the drive can be read or not.
Step 1. Switch a USB port/cable and replug it to your computer.
If the drive can be read via new a USB cable or on a new PC, then the drive is working fine. The problem exists on the USB cable.
Step 2. Reconnect the WD drive via a new USB hub or to a new computer.
- If the WD Passport drive shows up, it is the damaged USB hub on your computer that stops WD from showing up.
- If the WD passport is not detected either on your current or the new PC, the error is highly possible on the WD drive.
You can selectively follow below 4 methods to get problems fixed and repair the WD My Passport drive to show up and work again.
Method 1. Change WD Drive Letter to Make WD Passport Drive Detectable
When your WD become inaccessible, you can follow the guidelines below to change its drive letter so as to make WD passport detectable and accessible again in Windows PC:
Step 1. Press Win + R to bring up Run dialog > Type: diskmgmt.msc to open Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on WD drive which fails to show up and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths...'.
Step 3. Click 'Add' and choose the drive letter beside Assign the following drive letter > Click 'OK'.
If WD drive has already assigned with a letter, click 'Change' to choose another letter for it.
Step 4. Then restart PC and you can check out whether the problem still exists or not.
Method 2. Fix Corrupted File System/Bad Sector That Makes WD Not Showing Up
If the system files corrupted or the WD device contains bad sectors, you won't be able to access the drive. Your computer may not even able to detect it from File Explorer.
EaseUS partition manager software with its Check File System feature supports repairing corrupted file system and bad sectors on WD hard drive. Download it, you can easily make your WD external hard drive show up on the computer again.
Follow to see how to fix corrupted system files and bad sectors on WD device:
Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.
Step 2: In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.
Step 3: The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.
Method 3. Update Device Driver to Make WD Drive Work, Detected
When the WD Passport drive is not working, it's highly possible that the device driver is not updated. So the best way is to update its driver via the following two paths:
Manually Download and Install WD Device Driver:
Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon at the left corner and select Device Manager.
Step 2. Find and expand Disk Drivers, Portable Devices, Universal Serial USB Controllers or Other devices to see if WD device is shown as Unknown device.
Step 3. Right-click on Unknown device > select Properties.
Step 4. Go to Details tab > Set Property to be Hardware Ids.
Step 5. Right-click the top Value and click Copy.
Step 6. Paste what you copy into a browser to search the correct device driver, find and download the correct WD device driver and install it on your PC.
Step 7. Then restart your computer and everything shall work fine with your WD My Passport Ultra drive.
Update WD Device Driver from Device Manager:
Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select Device Manager.
Step 2. Expand Device Manager and right-click the WD My Passport Ultra drive.
Step 3. Select 'Update driver'.
Step 4. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software', wait for the process to complete.
Method 4. Uninstall/Reinstall USB Controllers on WD My Passport Drive
When the Universal USB Bus Controllers is outdated, it may also stop your WD passport from being detected or showing up. So the last efficient way that you can try is to uninstall and reinstall USB controllers:
Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.
Step 2. Find and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers > Right-click on USB controllers on your WD drive and select 'Uninstall device'.
Repeat to uninstall each USB controller one by one.
Step 3. Restart the computer and Microsoft will automatically reinstall the USB controllers software for your WD drive.
After this, you shall be able to visit and access saved data on your WD Passport Ultra drive normally by then.
Extra Important Tips
If your WD hard drive shows up and can be detected normally again, please don't rush to use it. Please do these tips first:
- 1. Copy and backup important data from your WD hard drive to another storage device.
- 2. Format WD hard drive or external hard drive to NTFS for saving data again.
If the WD hard drive still doesn't show up or cannot be detected, some physical errors may have occurred to your device. Please try these tips for a guide:
- 1. Search and find some manual guide online to check the physical error on your WD hard drive.
- 2. Or you can take your WD drive to a local hard drive repair center for professional help. (If you are not professional, please try this tip.)
Conclusion
On this page, we explained why is WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up on Windows PC and provided 5 practical fixes for you to follow and make the drive show up again.
If you are having a similar issue on other brands of external hard drive, internal hard drive, USB, or SD card, you can also try these tips to make your device show up and work again on Windows PC.
People Also Ask
For further issues related to the WD passport, check the questions and answers below. You'll get a satisfying answer:
1. WD My Passport not showing up on Mac
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If you are having a similar issue that WD My Passport external or internal hard drive not showing up on Mac, you can try the following tips as listed here for help: （Some are similar as shown on this page)
- #1. Reconnect WD Passport to Mac
- #2. Change WD Passport drive letter
- #3. Remount WD Passport to Mac
- #4. Update WD Passport drive driver
- #5. Format WD My Passport on Mac
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2. How to use WD Passport on Windows 10?
For a new WD Passport: Connect Passport to Windows 10 PC > Open Disk Management and Initialize Disk > Create a New Partition on WD Passport drive.
For a used WD Passport: Connect it to Windows 10 > Open it in File Explorer to use it. If you need more space, delete some useless files on it to free up space.
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3. Why is my external hard drive not showing up?
Accordingly, there are many reasons that may cause your external hard drive not showing up. Here is a list of major reasons:
- The external hard drive is not connected to the PC correctly
- Faulty USB cable or USB hub
- External hard drive is not initialized
- External hard drive is doesn't contain a volume
- External hard drive has no drive letter
- External hard drive contains file system error, bad sectors, or virus
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For a resolution, follow to External/Internal Hard Drive Is Not Showing Up in Windows 10/8/7.