vista won't recognize drive

[JCHarris]

So I got a 500gb WD My Passport essential for christmas and everything was fine when I first started using it only Dell D630 laptop. I shut down the laptop last night with the drive still connected and when I started it up this morning my computer starts searching for a driver for the drive (when first plugged in, this happened and everything went fine, vist afound drivers). However, this morning it couldn't find the drivers. I have no idea where to look for the drivers in order to point vista back where it needs to look.

Any thoughts? I'm kind at a loss for answers on this one.

[BipolarBill]

Unplug the laptop and remove the battery for a few seconds. That may fix it.

These WD Passports are sort of touchy because they get power from the USB port. Avoid using it on a USB hub.

Self-powered drives are much more reliable.

[JCHarris]

Thanks for the tip but...so far, no dice. Vista is still not being cooperative. It finds the device but doesn't know what it is. It just keeps bringing up a screen where I can manually install drivers. Clicking the automatic option ends with vista telling me it doesn't have a clue what to do.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Hi, and WELCOME TO TECHIMO...!

I've done a couple of minutes of my bestest searching, and have a couple of links that could be of interest to you:

The first one I stumbled on was this, Where to download WD software, utilities, firmware updates, and drivers for Western Digital products.

I didn't go too much further than that as I got sidetracked searching the WD site and got the other link, which has two further possibubble links from the MSKB:
Windows Vista fails to locate drivers for an external hard drive.

Let us know how it goes, and what it was that fixed the problem...

[BipolarBill]

AS I've said, this is a drive that gets power from the USB plug. These types of drives are very unreliable.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

That's as maybe, but if it works with one OS but not another, then it could be a compatibility issue - which could be remedied by installing the latest driver(s) and/or updates.....

[Rootstonian]

Hmmm...been using WD Passport drives for about 14 months now....never a problem with them.

Wonder if his USB ain't up to snuff. My passports are on desktop machines and the most USB devices I have plugged in at any given time is 3 or less; maybe his isn't getting enough power.

Oh, and I format mine right off the bat; get rid of any WD software on there. I have drives on Vista 32 bit Business and Vista 64 bit Home Premium; never a conflict

[JCHarris]

I'm fairly certain that my USB is delivering enough power (5 volts can't be hard to come by), the drive worked for a few hours, and then following a restart it hasn't worked. I have to wait a week or so until I can actually use my Dell again b/c the main HD has crashed. Luckily enough for me, its a laptop I got from my college so they're gonna replace the HD for me. I'll let you know after a fresh install of Vista Business 32bit whether it was just a precursor to my HD failing or what. Thanks for all the help tho! I'll let you know in a week.