I have a WDE1U4000N (Western Digital Essentials external hardrive with 400 gig memory) that has worked on 2 different computers. I recently plugged it into the USB drive of a third computer. At first it recognized the new hardware and established an E: drive in the My Computer folder, but when I attempted to click on the E: drive to open up the contents of the external drive, it informed me to please insert a disk. I waited a few seconds, and tried this several times, to the same effect.
I then unplugged the Elements External drive from the USB port, and attempted to plug it in again.
Yeah, oops. I didn't use the 'stop device' program when I unplugged it, so I expect that's the source of the problem that follows.
This time when I plugged it in I received a popup that said
"USB device not recognized."
"One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and windows does not recognize it."
I have tried restarting the computer with the USB external HD unplugged from the USB port, as well as giving the system time to cool down before restarting it (as mentioned in another thread), and then plugging in the USB drive once more, but I receive the same error. I'm at a loss as to what else to do but it is very important I get this device to work ASAP.
I realize similar issues were addressed in another thread but after spending an hour on that thread, I just feel miserable and confused. I'm not much of a computer person.
The computer is running Windows xp, recently upgraded from Windows ME, and the system is about 7 years old. It's 955mhz.
I at LEAST need to get things back to the drawing board, with the initial problem so I can address that with Western Digital. Please help
