I have a My Book Essential 1.5TB external hard drive. I installed it on a laptop with XP and it has worked fine backing up data. Now I am trying to also use it on a second Widows 7 laptop. When I plug it in and launch the WD Smartware, I get the My Book icon with the message no writable partition found. Can I use this device on the second laptop and if so how do I set it up?
Hello,
This drive has been designed to be used on as many computers as you want. The message your are getting means the software is not recognizing the drive.
Please go to “computer” and verify that the drive is seen there, If it is seen then uninstall WD Smartware and reinstall it. If it is not seen then try some basic troubleshooting:
1- Connect the power adapter to the wall directly.
2- If the computer is a desktop, connect it on the back USB port (directly to the PC, not through a hub).
3- Go to disk management and verify if the drive is seen there.
Thanks for the comment, however I still have a problem. When I plug the hard drive in to my Windows 7 laptop it does not show as a drive, but does show as a device. I went to Device Manager and uninstalled the My Book device, safely removed it from the laptop and then plug it in again. A window opened saying installing device driver and then it was again listed as a device rather than a drive.
If I plug the My Book into my other Windows XP laptop it shows up properly as a drive.