External hard drive not being recognized

Hi,
I have a WD Passport external hard drive that was working fine, but suddenly it's not being recognized by Windows. But the light is on and it seems to be spinning. When I saw that it didn't appear in My Computer, I pulled the USB plug out.. oops, did I damage it?

I rebooted my computer and plugged it back in, still not being recognized. So I'm waiting to find out how to safely disconnect it, and whether it's still okay.

I have another one of these drives, and that one is working fine. Can I swap the USB cable to see if that's the problem?

Thanks,
Karen

 

Hi Karen,

Odds are that you didn't damage it when you pulled the plugs. At worst you could have data corruption if you pull the plugs while the drive is reading or writing. Swapping the cables from the known working drive is a good idea and a place to start. Do you have another computer that you could hook the drive to maybe? Is the drive still under warranty?

 

Thanks for the quick reply! I don't have another computer here to test it, but my other USB devices are working fine. Well, except that when I first plugged the external drive in today, my USB mouse froze, but once I rebooted all devices were okay but the external drive.

I will try swapping cables, but since the drive is spinning right now, how do I disconnect it?

Thanks again,
Karen

 

Best that you turn off the computer before you unplug the little bugger. That is certainly the safest way.....

 

The cable was it! Thanks for your help!
-Karen

 

Yay! Crisis and tragedy averted! You are quite welcome......

 

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