WD Passport external drive problem

[Chrissie Smiff]

After downloading essential Windows updates on Win 7 and Win 8, hubby's WD external hard drive is no longer recognised by either of his computers. So he cannot access any of his data.
He has tried contacting Western Digital who have not been at all helpful. They have persuaded him to buy 2 different driver programmes that should solve the problem but haven't.

I have a separate laptop which hasn't had all the current updates and can access my WD Ex hard drive and also HIS. I am now afraid to download any essential updates from Windows until this has been sorted out.

We have 4 WD Passport external hard drives between us - all bought at different times and all are affected.

Any suggestions please?

[Anne in Carlisle]

Get a different external device (hard drive, flash drive, DVD) and save your stuff and OH's to it from your laptop before you can no longer do it! All may be well in the end but safety first is really needed quick I would say.

Anne

[Chrissie Smiff]

He is gradually saving his stuff to DVD Anne, whilst he can still access it on one computer.
The problem is that he has a LOT. He has videos of every play that he had directed and photos too and that's apart from all the general things.
We don't feel inclined to go buying all new external hard drives in a different brand as we don't even know if they would work and it would be very costly.

[Elaine ..Spain]

Chrissie, there is a WD support forum - might be worth asking there.

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-External-Drives/ct-p/external_drives

[DavidNewton]

Chrissie
There is a discussion of this problem also on

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/cannot-get-windows-7-to-recognize-my-wd-passport/ab0421bb-3fff-431f-85f5-230b53c79f77

Hope it helps.

David

[Chrissie Smiff]

Thank you both very much That is really useful.

Hubby isn't here at the moment but I have had a look at that discussion David. I am not very good with computers, but from what I have read so far, I am beginning to think that WD have given him bad advice by twice suggesting that he needed to pay for 2 downloads (which turned out to be more expensive than appeared on the page). I shall get him to read that link and hopefully those troubleshooting suggestions will solve it for him.
I can still (touch wood) open my WD external Passport ok but am now afraid to allow any Windows updates until he has solved the problem. As this is what has caused his problem. He has now gone back on one of his computers to a point before the updates and can open his WD but obviously he needs to sort it as we can't refuse windows updates for ever.