When you connect your WD My Book external hard drive to a PC or laptop, Windows OS will typically notify you of an external hard drive connection. If the WD My Book does not show up in Windows 10 or is not recognized, there might be an issue at hand. To diagnose the problem, review the following information:

  • ❌Broken cable or USB port. If your computer or laptop's USB port or USB cable is damaged, the WD My Book won't be recognized properly.
  • ⚠️Outdated driver. If the driver on your Windows OS for communicating with your external hard drive is outdated, the WD My Book won't show up.
  • ?Wrong file system. If your WD external hard drive uses the HFS+ file system, Windows won't be able to detect it.
  • ?Corrupted hard drive. If your external hard drive displays errors like "You need to format the disk in the drive before you can use it", the drive might have bad sectors or be corrupted.
  • ⛑️Physical damages. The external hard drive not appearing in File Explorer could be due to severe physical damage.

Upon understanding the reasons behind the absence of backups, proceed to the next section to prevent data loss.

Resolve WD My Book Issues Without Data Loss

We'll present two methods to resolve the WD My Book issue on Windows 10 without data loss. The first approach involves salvaging data from the external hard drive prior to attempting any potential fixes. The second method entails seeking assistance from a professional disk repair team to mend your WD My Book while preserving your data.

Tip 1: Utilize Professional Data Recovery Software

You might already experience data loss when the WD My Book suddenly fails to show up or get recognized in Windows 10. Download and install the tool Data Recovery Wizard Pro, which can assist you in recovering lost data from various storage devices under any circumstances.

Here's a step-by-step guide to recover data from your Western Digital My Book external hard drive:

Step 1. Use the correct USB cable to connect your external hard drive to your computer. Run tools Data Recovery Wizard, and you'll see your external disk listed under External drives. This software supports all popular external hard drive brands, including WD, Seagate, Toshiba, LaCie, SanDisk, Samsung, and more.

Select the external hard drive and then click the "Scan" button.

Select your Seagate external hard drive and click Scan

Step 2. As soon as the scanning process begins, the software will find more and more lost and deleted data, which will be displayed in the scan results. The recovered data will be neatly organized. You can quickly locate the desired files/folders by file type or search for them using the exact file name in the search box.

scan for lost data on the Seagate external hard drive

Step 3. You can preview the files found by the scanning algorithms of Data Recovery Wizard. Then, select the files and click "Recover". To prevent data overwrite, we recommend saving the recovered data to a different drive than the original Seagate drive.

select files and click recover
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If you find this data recovery tool useful, share this page on Twitter or other social media platforms to recommend us!

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2. Contact Data Recovery Services for WD My Book Repair

Professional data recovery labs can offer both recovery and repair services. If you experience issues like the WD My Book not appearing in Windows 10, you can reach out to online data recovery services. Click on the following link to initiate a conversation with our data recovery engineer.

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Consult with tools data recovery specialists for personalized manual recovery services. After a FREE diagnosis, we can provide:

  • Repair of corrupted RAID structures, unbootable Windows OS, and damaged virtual disk files
  • Recovery/reparation of lost partitions and re-partitioned drives
  • Unformatting hard drives and repairing RAW drives (including Bitlocker encrypted drives)
  • Resolution for disks converted to GPT-protected partitions

Solve WD My Book Not Showing Up in Windows 10 - 6 Solutions

If you prefer not to rely on professional experts, you can attempt to fix the issue with your WD external hard drive not showing up yourself. Here are six potential solutions to try, in sequence:

1. Solve Cable/Port Issues

Resolving hardware issues when the WD My Book external hard drive is not recognized by Windows 10 is your primary concern. How can you determine if your cable or USB port is functioning properly? Follow these guidelines:

  • ⭐Ensure that both ends of your cable are securely connected to your PC and WD My Book.
  • ⭐Try using a different cable to connect your WD hard drive again.
  • ⭐Inspect the USB ports, and clean any dust, foreign objects, or moisture from them.
  • ⭐Connect another external storage device to determine if the issue lies with the WD My Book external hard drive.

check the cable

2. Update WD Hard Drive Drivers Translate: Update Western Digital Hard Drive Drivers

If you discover that you haven't downloaded the WD My Book drivers, visit the Western Digital official website to install them. Once the driver is installed, it's crucial to keep it up to date. We'll guide you on how to update the driver in Windows 10:

Step 1. Quickly open Device Manager in Windows 10 using the search bar.

type device manager

Step 2. Scroll down to locate the WD driver, then right-click on it. Select "Update driver".

update driver in Windows 10

Step 3. The driver update wizard window will appear. Select "Search automatically for updated driver software." Follow the instructions, and your driver will be updated.

Search automatically for updated driver software

If you're using the Windows 11 operating system, you can refer to the following article to learn how to update drivers in Windows 11:

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update driver in Windows 11

How to Update USB Drivers on Windows 11 [2023 Guide]

Wondering how to update drivers on Windows 11? This article will show you the way to manage and resolve driver issues. Read more >>

3. Run the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter

The Windows Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter can automatically assist in resolving issues with WD My Book hardware. This built-in tool is capable of detecting and fixing problems not only with external hard drives like WD My Book, but also with keyboards, printers, USB ports, and network adapters. Let's review the step-by-step guide:

Step 1. Click "Start" > "Settings" to open the Windows Settings window.

open Windows settings

Step 2. Click on "Update & Security" then "Troubleshoot".

troubleshoot tab

Step 3. Select "Find and fix other problems" and run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter to resolve the issue of the hard drive not appearing.

run Windows hardware and devices troubleshooter

If the three methods we've discussed resolve your issue and make your WD My Book readable, please share this article on social media to assist more WD My Book users!

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4. Assign a New Drive Letter to WD My Book

It might be due to a conflict with the drive letter assigned to your WD My Book, which is clashing with other external storage devices or internal hard drives. It's recommended to avoid assigning drive letters like C or D to your external hard drive. How can you change the drive letter? Here's a tutorial:

Step 1. Right-click the Windows Start icon and select "Disk Management."

open Disk Management

Step 2. After entering the Disk Management window, right-click on the volume or disk, and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths…".

Change drive letter to make pc recognize it

Step 3. Click "Change" to assign a new drive letter to your WD My Book external hard drive. Don't forget to click "OK" to save the changes.

assign drive letter

5. Initialize WD My Book External Hard Drive Translation: Initialize the WD My Book External Hard Drive

If you've recently purchased a Western Digital external storage device and Windows 10 fails to recognize it from the start, it might be because the external hard drive hasn't been initialized yet. Let's explore how to initialize WD My Book in Windows 10:

Step 1. Use the same method we mentioned earlier to open Disk Management.

Step 2. Locate your WD My Book external hard drive, right-click on it, and select "Initialize Disk".

choose initialize disk

Step 3. Choose the partition style for your external hard drive. Both MBR and GPT are supported.

Initialize the hard drive to

Please refer to the following article to resolve the "disk not initialized" error:

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disk not initialized

Solving "Disk Not Initialized" in Windows 11/10

Discover 4 solutions for the disk unknown not initialized error: recover data, initialize the hard drive, and restore partitions. Read more >>

6. Format WD My Book

Here's the final solution to address the WD My Book not appearing in Windows 10 issue. Verify the file system of your external hard drive and format it to a file system supported by Windows. There's no need to download specialized software; simply follow these instructions:

Step 1. Open Disk Management in Windows 10.

Step 2. Right-click on the WD My Book in Disk Management and select "Format..."

Step 3. Deselect the "Perform a quick format" checkbox to ensure a complete data wipe. Then, confirm the formatting warning and click "OK" to start formatting your WD external hard drive.

format disk

After formatting the WD My Book, all data will be lost. Reading the following passage can assist you in recovering data from this external hard drive:

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recover data from formatted hard drive

How to Recover Data from a Formatted Hard Drive

If you unintentionally formatted your hard drive and lost crucial data, there is a method to restore your files. Read more >>

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Remember to regularly back up your WD My Book external hard drive to prevent data loss or the need to format the device due to disk errors. In case you experience data loss on WD hard drives, Data Recovery Wizard tools can perfectly resolve your issue!

WD My Book Not Showing Up in Windows 10 FAQs

Find more information about "WD My Book not showing up" in this section:

**1. Why is my WD My Book not appearing on my computer?**

Many reasons can lead to the WD My Book not appearing:

    • Physical damage to WD My Book
    • Cable connection issue
    • Broken USB port
    • Hard drive corruption
    • Drive letter conflict
    • Unsupported file system
    • Disk not initialized

2. How to resolve the issue of WD My Book not showing up in Windows 10?

Many solutions are available to help you resolve this issue:

  • Tools Data Recovery Services
  • Resolve cable/port issues
  • Update Western Digital (WD) hard drive drivers
  • Run the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter
  • Assign a new drive letter
  • Initialize WD My Book external hard drive
  • Format WD My Book

3. Will I lose data while fixing the WD My Book not recognized by Windows 10 issue?

某些解决方案可能会导致数据丢失,例如初始化和格式化WD My Book外部硬盘。您可以下载工具Data Recovery Wizard来扫描外部硬盘并恢复数据。