external hdd not showing up

Try:

Win+R, enter "diskmgmt.msc"

Does the HDD show up in this list?
If yes, right click the partition name, choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths", and pick whatever letter you want. Should then show up in explorer.


If it does not show up, it's not being detected by the OS. This could happen for a number of reasons, bad USB cable, not getting enough power, the USB controller on the enclosure could be dead, or the HDD itself could be dead. The first two are an easy fix, just try another cable/use a Y-splitter, but the other two will likely be very difficult to fix if at all, since WD's Passport Ultra HDDs has the USB controller built right into the drive these days which means you can't shuck it and use it like a normal HDD.

 

Usually means the MBR/GPT partition is bad on the drive, which may mean the drive is dying/dead.

Right click the disk, try "Initialize Disk", if that works then should just be good to go. If not, congrats your drive is probably dead.

 

might not have a drive letter assigned to it. that would be in drive management. is this a new drive?

 

if it's never been connected to windows or whatever, it probably won't have a drive letter.