- Connect My Passport External Drive
- Install Wd My Passport Driver Windows 10
- My Passport Hard Drive Wd
- Download Wd My Passport Software
- Wd My Passport 1tb Manual
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.
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. Use 'recover partition' to recover files from Converting a WD 1TB My Passport into a Internal Hard Drive laptop partition,lost partition,changed,damaged partition.And if the size or position of partition is changed by format,It can not recover with 'unformat'so you can use 'recover partition'mode.
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.
Connect My Passport External Drive
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. Video editor pro online.
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.
Install Wd My Passport Driver Windows 10
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 :
When talking about storage manufacturers, you must have heard of Seagate and Western Digital. What the differences between the two companies' storage devices? Who makes the most reliable hard drives? If you don't know, this article from MiniTool will show you the answers.
Quick Navigation :
Most of you have heard of Seagate and Western Digital, but how much do you really know about them? Before I show you the comparison of Seagate vs Western Digital from several aspects, I'd like to show you some basic information about the two companies. Now let's have a look together.
About Seagate
Seagate Technology PLC is an American data storage company. It was founded in 1978 as Shugart technology. Since 2010, the company has been incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, with its operating headquarters in Cupertino, California, USA.
In 1980, Seagate developed the first 5.25-inch hard disk drive (HDD). In the 1980s, they became the main suppliers of microcomputers. Today, Seagate and its competitor Western Digital dominate the hard disk market. And their main products include Desktop HDD, Laptop HDD, Enterprise HDD, Archive HDD, SSD and so on.
The growth of Seagate was largely achieved by acquiring competitors. In 1989, Seagate acquired the Control Data Corporation's Imprimis division which is devoted to making HDD products. In 1996, Seagate acquired Conner Peripherals. Then Seagate acquired Maxtor in 2006 and Samsung's hard disk business in 2011.
Now, Seagate is a global leader in data storage solutions. It develops amazing storage products that enable home and business users around the world to create, share and save their most critical data.
About Western Digital
Western Digital Corporation, also known as Western Digital and WD, is a famous American computer hard disk manufacturer and provider of various data storage solutions. It develops, manufactures and provides storage devices, data center systems, and cloud storage services to solve the evolving needs of the information technology industry.
Western Digital has a long history in the electronic industry. The company was founded by Alvin B. Phillips in 1970 and was headquartered in Irvine, California. Now they have moved its headquarters to San Jose, California.
Like Seagate, Western Digital becomes one of the manufacturers of large computer hard disks, which is the result of successful acquisition of other enterprises. In March 2012, Western Digital acquired HGST (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies). The acquisition had a great influence on the hard disk industry, as it made WD become the world's largest hard disk manufacturer after the acquisition.
In May 2016, Western Digital acquired the storage chip manufacturer SanDisk. In August 2017, Western Digital acquired cloud storage provider Upthere to build better cloud storage features. In September 2017, Western Digital acquired Tegile Systems, a flash storage array manufacturer.
Now the main hard disk manufacturers are only WD and Seagate, indicating that the hard disk industry has entered the era of oligarchy. And many users will compare the two brands when choosing a storage device such as SSD, HDD. So today, I will show you the differences of Seagate vs Western Digital on storage devices.
Seagate vs Western Digital HDD
As is known to all, HDD is the main business of Seagate Technology and Western Digital Corporation. What's the difference between their HDD products? The following will give you a comparison of Seagate vs Western Digital HDD, which introduces the differences on reliability, speed, capacity of the two HDD brands.
Reliability
When you want to upgrade hard drive, choosing a high-performance and reliable hard drive is essential. Any drive you buy today will fail eventually, but the more reliable your drive is, the longer you should be able to use it. So the reliability is an essential factor.
Western Digital is the hard drive manufacturer that many users prefer for traditional platter drives. Many people have been using WD hard drives for years. And they assume WD hard drives have terrific reliability with very low failure rate.
However, according to a study from BackBlaze, it shows that Western Digital's drives were overall the least reliable among HGST, Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital. Is that true? Well, hard disk drive failures vary by brand, model, and capacity. These numbers are found only when the manufacturer is considered regardless of the model and capacity. So these numbers are not 100% percent accurate.
My Passport Hard Drive Wd
After searching on the internet, you will find many people hold the opinion that Western Digital's hard drives are more reliable than that of Seagate. And many users report that Western Digital HDDs fail less than any from Seagate.
Whatever the reliability, you may occasionally encounter WD or Seagate hard drive failure as not all hard drives are created equal. You can have drive failure from any manufacturer. So, no matter what drive you are using, the best way to protect your valuable data is to make a backup.
Are you looking for a free backup software? The partition manager MiniTool Partition Wizard is able to backup partition or backup disk in just a few clicks.
Speed
As for the HDD speed, I see such an analogy on the Internet: Seagate and the Western Digital are like two people of completely different character. Seagate is a young man in pursuit of superior performance. While the Western Digital is more like an old man with rich experience who does not pursue speed but pursue the reliability.
What does this mean? It means that Seagate's hard disk speed will be faster than that of the Western Digital. But despite of the faster read-write speed, its failure rate is also higher than that of the Western Digital.
The read-write speed of Western Digital HDDs is a little slower compared with Seagate, but it is more suitable for storage due to its good stability and durability.
In conclusion, Seagate hard disk drives are generally fast, fluent in reading and writing, and generally light. Skyrim ultimate hd edition. The HDD of Western Digital is relatively stable with low hard drive failure rate.
If you want to test their read write speed, a free disk benchmarking tool is recommended – MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, which can help you test hard drive sequential and random read/write speeds. If you want to perform Seagate/Western Digital HDD benchmark, download one now.
Easiest guide for free hard drive/SSD speed test in Windows 10/8/7. Utilize best free disk benchmark software for Windows (10) to test hard drive, SSD, external hard drive speed for free.
Capacity
When talking about capacity, Western Digital impressed us, as it was the first one who introduced 2TB SATA hard drives to us. And its capacity of hard drives is ever increasing. In October 2017, Western Digital shipped the world's first 14 TB HDD, the helium-filled HGST Ultrastar Hs14.
As for Seagate, it has desktop-class drives with a capacity up to 10TB. And the capacity of this drive is not the largest. Its internal hard drive Seagate BarraCuda's Pro version has a capacity of 14TB, which enables you to store more games, movies, and music than ever before.
Both Western Digital and Seagate can satisfy your need on hard drive capacity. In this case, when picking up a hard drive from the two companies, you can focus on other critical factors such as price, performance, reliability and so on.
Seagate vs Western Digital SSD
Both Western Digital and Seagate were initially reluctant to invest in SSDs, but now they all offer speedy solid-state drives.
In the new NVMe series, Firecuda 510 is the one that makes Seagate stand out in the competition. Western Digital Black 3D NVME is not as fast as Firecuda 510, but its price is higher.
Seagate is currently leading the way in larger internal storage and speed competition, although the gap is small. Western Digital still has a place in the middle and low-end market.
Seagate vs Western Digital External Storage
External storage is important and necessary for users who want to backup internal drives. The following will show you three kinds of external storages.
Portable Drive
Both Seagate and Western Digital offer pocket external hard drives with different capacities and connectivity. Among those external drives, Western Digital's My Passport series and Seagate's Backup Plus portable drives are popular. If you are considering purchasing an external hard drive, the following Seagate/Western Digital is worth buying.
- Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2 TB
- WD 3 TB My Passport Wireless Pro
- WD My Passport Ultra 4 TB
Download Wd My Passport Software
This article will show you the specifications, excellent features of the gaming dirve WD My Passport X 2TB Portable Hard Drive. Check out this post now.
Desktop Drive
If you are a photo or video editor, or a movie buff, a portable drive may not satisfy you, as you will need several terabytes of space to store large media collections. In this case, you can consider a desktop-class drive.
If you want to choose a desktop-class drive, WD My Book Duo Desktop drive is a good choice. The desktop drive has up to 28TB capacity in RAID 0 or RAID 1 configurations. As for Seagate, they can provide 10TB of storage from a single-drive Backup Plus Hub or Expansion Desktop.
Both desktop drives have mass storage for photos, videos, music and document backups. However, if you want to do 4K or even 8K video editing, or backup other massive media collection, Western Digital is your best choice.
NAS Devices
NAS devices seem to be an afterthought for Seagate. Why? Because Western Digital offers the My Cloud Pro and Expert lines in up to 40 TB but Seagate currently does not have a first-party NAS server. Instead, they choose to produce NAS-designed drives, with the IronWolf range in up to 14TB.
Nowadays, My Cloud offers build-in support for Plex Media Server. This organizes your library and allows streaming to any enabled device - smartphones, Chromecast, PlayStation 4 and more, which is very convenient. While Seagate drives can be merged into NAS servers and used in the same way, they do not have high-capacity servers with similar capabilities.
In this case, Western Digital is your best choice when you want to choose wireless storage products or use cloud storage.
The Best Disk Cloning Software for Seagate/Western Digital
After reading this post, you should know the pros and cons of Western Digital vs Seagate in terms of storage. Both of them are very good HDD brands. If you need to upgrade your HDD/SSD or backup your disk to an external device, you need to utilize a piece of disk cloning software. And MiniTool Partition Wizard can be your best choice.
MiniTool Partition Wizard is a reputable partition manager & disk cloning software. It can help you to migrate OS to SSD/HD, backup disk or partition, move/resize partition, convert MBR disk to GPT, and convert FAT to NTFS and so on. All of these operations can be performed with extremely simple procedures, so you don't need to worry about how to use.
And the following will show you the detailed steps on how to upgrade SSD/HDD without data loss or backup hard drive with the help of MiniTool Partition Wizard. Note that if you want to backup system related partitions or upgrade system disk, MiniTool Parition Wizard Pro Ultimate is required. After connecting the target disk to your computer, you can follow the steps below:
Step 1. Get MiniTool Partition Wizard by clicking the following button. Install it on your computer, launch it and get the main interface.
Step 2. Select the disk you want to copy and choose Copy Disk from the left panel.
Step 3. Select a target disk to copy content to and click Next. When you click Next, it will remind you all the data on the target disk will be deleted, click OK if there are no important files on the target disk.
Step 4. Review the changes you are going to make and click Next to go on.
Step 5. Read the note about how to boot from the destination drive. Then click Finish.
Step 6. At last, click Apply to allow the pending operations.
You see, it is very convenient to upgrade SSD or HDD with MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate. With only a few clicks, all the files on the old drive will be transferred to the new one. If you need to backup hard drive or upgrade HDD to SSD, try using the best disk cloning software MiniTool Partition Wizard now.
Bottom Line
Now, do you have a better understanding of Seagate vs Western Digital on storage? If you have different opinion on Seagate vs Western Digital external hard drive, SSD, cloud storage and other aspects, please don't hesitate to share it with us.
If you have encountered any issue when using MiniTool Partition Wizard, you can leave a message on the following comment zone and we will reply as soon as possible. If you need any help when using MiniTool software, you may contact us via [email protected].