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2 August 2023  Amanda J. Brook  Senior Product Manager
 

Summary
Learn how to solve the issue of your WD external hard drive not being recognized by your computer. This article provides possible causes and solutions.



Table of contents

table iconI. What is a WD mobile hard disk, and what are the reasons why the hard disk cannot be recognized?
table iconII. How to solve the problem that the WD external hard drive cannot be recognized and the indicator light flashes?
wd external hard drive not recognized

I. What is a WD mobile hard disk, and what are the reasons why the hard disk cannot be recognized?

The full name of WD hard drive is Western Digital Hard Drive, which is a hard drive produced by Western Digital Corporation in the United States. Western Digital Corporation is a world-renowned hard disk manufacturer. The company was founded in 1970 and began to design and produce hard disks in 1988. Headquartered in Lake Forest, California, USA, it is one of the oldest hard disk manufacturers and one of the founders of the IDE interface. WD mobile hard disk has the characteristics of high performance and low power consumption, so it is loved by many users.
But when you are using the WD mobile hard disk, what is the reason for the problem that it cannot be recognized and the indicator light is flashing? Let’s first understand the possible reasons for this failure.
● Malware or programs in the system cause the WD mobile hard disk to fail. It is recommended to use anti-virus software to scan and anti-virus, and then use the disk inspection tool that comes with the system to detect and repair.
● The USB port or cable is damaged. It is recommended to replace the USB port or data cable and try again.
● WD mobile hard disk does not have a drive letter.
● Hard disk partition problems, such as hard disk partitions suddenly disappear and become unallocated space.
No matter what the reason is that the WD mobile hard disk cannot be used normally, you can try to solve it with the help of the following methods, let’s continue to learn.

II. How to solve the problem that the WD external hard drive cannot be recognized and the indicator light flashes?

1. Create a new partition for the WD mobile hard disk

When the WD mobile hard disk partition suddenly disappears and becomes an unallocated space, the hard disk partition cannot be found in the file explorer of the computer. You can create a new partition for the unallocated space in the disk management to solve the problem. The specific operation Proceed as follows:
Step 1: Press the (Windows+X) keys on the keyboard at the same time. Then in the pop-up list, select the (Disk Management) option.
Disk Management Options
Step 2: Then right-click on the unallocated space on the WD external hard drive and select the (New Simple Volume) option.
New Simple Volume Options
Step 3: Next, you can customize the partition size, drive letter, file system (NTFS, exFAT, FAT32) and other parameters. After setting, click the (Finish) button to complete the creation of the partition. Then you can reuse the unallocated space on the hard disk. If you need to create multiple partitions on the external hard disk, just repeat the above operations.
Tips: If the mobile hard disk is only used on Windows, you can choose the NTFS file system, while the Mac system can only read the files in the NTFS hard disk, but cannot write. You need to install third-party software. If you need to use it on both Windows and Mac systems, you can also choose the exFAT file system.
Set partition parameters
It should be noted here that due to the sudden disappearance of the partition (becoming unallocated) it will cause data loss , so after creating a new partition, it is recommended that you use professional data recovery software to retrieve the lost data. Here we recommend you to use Renee Undeleter , let’s take a closer look at this software and its use.
What is Renee Undeleter?
Renee Undeleter It is a software specially used to restore various data files. When you accidentally delete important files, empty the recycle bin, or format the disk/storage, you can use this tool to retrieve the lost data. The software covers four functional modules, including file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery and image creation. Therefore, it can help you solve all possible data loss problems that may occur during system use in an all-round way, which is very convenient.
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How to use Renee Undeleter to recover hard disk data?
As a professional data recovery software, Renee Undeleter not only has comprehensive functions, but also is very simple to operate. The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Download, install and run Renee Undeleter, select the (Partition Recovery) option on the main interface.
Note: Do not install on the disk that needs to restore data, so as not to cause data overwriting.
Select partition recovery option
Data recovery function introduction:
File Recovery – Quickly retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.
Formatted Recovery – Quickly recover files lost due to inaccessible or formatted partitions.
Partition Recovery – Analyze and get partition information and perform a full scan of the entire partition.
Create Mirror – You can create a mirror image for a partition to back up the current partition state.

Step 2: Next, select the external hard disk device to be scanned, and then click (Next). Select (default setting) on the advanced setting interface.
Select target device for partition recovery
Step 3: Afterwards, the software will analyze the external hard disk device. After the analysis, a prompt window of “select the partition you need to scan” may pop up. You can select the corresponding partition according to your needs. If you don’t select it, all partitions will be scanned. , it will take longer.
Partition recovery scans the data inside the drive
After scanning, you can preview the files in the preview window on the right, then select the files you need to restore, and click the (Recover) button in the lower right corner to restore the selected files.
Partition recovery scan result presentation
Step 4: Next, select the target folder, click (Browse) to select the path to store the file, and then click the (Restore) button to start executing the file recovery command, you only need to wait patiently. Notice : Do not save the recovered files on the original disk to avoid data overwriting, it is recommended to choose another disk to save these recovered files.
Partition recovery data recovery interface

2. Change the drive letter and path of the WD mobile hard disk

When your WD mobile hard disk cannot be recognized, it may be because the device does not have a drive letter, you can add a drive letter in the following way, the specific steps are as follows:
Step 1: Run the computer, enter “computer management” in the search box in the lower left corner, and then click to enter the function interface.
Search computer management tools
Step 2: Next, click (Disk Management) on the left window, if you see that the disk has no drive letter (such as D: / E: / F:), please check whether it is a WD mobile hard disk.
view hard drive
Step 3: After confirming the completion, right-click on the disk without a drive letter and select the (Change Drive Letter and Paths) option.
Change drive letter and path options
Step 4: Next click (Add) to add a drive letter to the WD mobile hard disk.
add drive letter
Step 5: Next, check (Assign the following drive letter) and select a letter, then click (OK) to assign a drive letter to the WD mobile hard disk, and you should be able to view the hard disk device in the file explorer .
Assign drive letter