WD Hard drive stopped working on Laptop

[aa2120]

Hello:

I am completely disappointed with this Laptop from HP.   My WD external drive is not being detected by it.  It works because I connected it to my old Dell laptop and it was detected and opened with no issues.   This is not the first thing that stopped working, also the Bluetooth is a nightmare it connects for a second and disconnects and they are devices that I end up connecting very well in my old Dell.    Now please tell me what is wrong.  And how can this be fixed and prevented from happening again. 

[WAWood]

@aa2120 

Is it a WD passport? Asking because those models automatically install access software on the first PC they are connected to and will then generally. NOT connect to other PCs.

Also, is the older Dell running an OS other than Windows 10? I suspect it is, as Win10 still today has MAJOR issues with BlueTooth (BT).  I have three older PCs, all running either Win7 or Win8 and Win10, and in ALL cases, BT devices pair just fine with the older OSs but not with Win10. And this is using the same hardware in each instance.

[aa2120]

Hi:

Thank you for your reply.

They work on different computers, It used it on both before.  Actually the last time I used the external drive was in the HP laptop.  The Old Dell is windows 10 and I have tried them all in a friends Dell PC with windows 10 also and they all work fine.  In this HP blue tooth stopped working and the hard drive stopped working.  I also reinstalled the USB drivers just in case, but it does not even know it has the External connected.  (I have 2 WD externals one about 6 years old and the new one and both work fine in any other computer I have tested them, they just don't want to be seen by HP.)  Believe me I have tried everything. 

[WAWood]

@aa2120 

I have external drive that work MOST of the time, but sometimes, Win10 does not see them.

Use the search box to enter Create and Format and select that  option.  That will open the Disk Management console.

Scroll down through the list to see if the external drive is in the list.  IF it is, you may be able to access it simply by assigning a drive letter.  If it is in the list but says RAW, that means the PC thinks the drive is unformatted. If it is NOT in the list, then the BIOS does not see it and there is nothing then you can do to force the BIOS to see it.

[aa2120]

Hello:

Thank you for asisting. 

This is what I was able to complete. 

So I have  WD externals, both have 3.0 USB,  The blue WD cable, the cable of the  new Hard drive works fine in all other computers tested but the HP. I actually used the new cable on the HP before.  I read it had to do with the 3.0 so I looked for the cable of my other External, it was recognized, now the old one is also 3.0.  So the new cable works on all computers but my HP.  The other cable is detected and detects both hard drives, even though both are 3.0.  Now the BlueTooth issue I have not been able to resolve it.