I recently purchased a newer PC with Windows 10 as the OS. After running a scan on My Passport to make sure I was not bringing any old viruses into the new PC, I am no longer able to access the drive. The external drive is recognized ok, but when I try to open it so I can access files on it, I receive a message saying I cannot access this drive. I have not put a password on the drove. so I am not sure where the problem originated. How can I fix this and regain access to my files?
Can you access your files in a different system? Is your hard drive detected within Windows Disk Management? Do you at least get to -see- your files even though you can not open them, or do you get the error message as soon as you try to access the unit?
Can you access your files in a different system? I don’t know of any other
system to use.
Is your hard drive detected by within Windows Disk Management? Ok, that is
something I don’t know where to find either. But the PC does recognize the
drive when I plug it in.
Do you at least get to -see- your files even you can not open them, or do
you get the error message as soon as you try to access the unit? I get the
error message as soon as I double click it to try to open it to the files.
The following contains Disk Management access instructions:
Are you using the Windows File Explorer to access the drive, open it to see and access folders and files? If not, how then are you trying to access is?
Also, what version of Windows are you using?
I have Windows 10 on this PC. Yes, I have tried accessing it through File Explorer and also through my shortcuts on my task bar and my desktop. I have even gone into My Computer and tried through that connection. I always get the error code that I am not able to access it.
Sometimes a driver for hardware get bunged up. and uninstalling driver (for HD) and reinstalling it helps. This is probably what I would do next on my PC. But, I am not suggesting you do it. I suggest you contact (call) WD Support for assistance. If you are told to re-format it (and therefore delete all your files on the drive) – just say NO, I want to talk to someone in the next support level!. Good luck with this.
Thank you. I did receive a message from WD saying they will cover a data
recovery for me one time due to the circumstances. I need to pull
everything together so that I can send it out to whomever they have chosen
to attempt it. No guarantees they said though. Maybe I will try the
uninstall of drivers and re-installing them first and see if that works.
It makes sense to me. 
Great! Let me/us users know the outcome, please! Especially the driver recovery try.
I just installed Win 10 on my Win 8.1 laptop this week, and my audio was hosed after the experience. I searched around for a solution from other users who had same experience. I decided the person who said get the audio driver from HP had the right idea, did so, and my audio was just fine again. (Thank you Microsoft for bunging up the Win 10 install even though I waited a whole year before doing it!)
