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I recently swapped out the drive in my 320GB Western Digital Passport with the 120GB (Toshiba) drive in my PS3 (slim).

The 320GB drive works great in the PS3, but the 120GB drive isn't showing up in Windows 7.

The USB connected icon/sound properly trigger (and the device manager shows it as a USB mass storage device), and the drive lights up and I can feel it running, but I can't see it listed as a drive.

Any idea what's causing this and how I can get it running again? Could it be a power issue? Thanks.

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4 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Most likely the disk isn't formatted yet. To do this simply right click on "My Computer" and go to "Manage".


Then under "Storage" right click on your drive and select "Format".

Disk Management

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Ah, this looks like it could be the solutions. I'll be checking this at lunch time. Thank you very much and I'll be reporting back. –  th3dude Aug 31 '09 at 13:35
The disk isn't showing up under disk management. Any ideas as to what's next? –  th3dude Aug 31 '09 at 16:48
Actually, it's showing up as 'Disk 1' and 'Unknown' on the bottom of that screen, but not in the listing above to give me the format option. –  th3dude Aug 31 '09 at 16:50
It works! Had to convert it to a dynamic disk, and then it formatted. Thank you! –  th3dude Aug 31 '09 at 16:52
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Has it been formatted yet? I'm not sure what file system the PS3 uses but it may not be readable by windows.

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No, it hasn't been formatted. This is a quite possibly the solution. But how can I format a drive that won't show up? –  th3dude Aug 31 '09 at 12:55
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Western Digital Passports are not currently supported in Windows 7 for some reason.

Compatibility Chart

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oops misread...the passport wasn't going into the windows box. –  webjedi Oct 27 '09 at 17:41
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I had exactly the same problem, the only fix i found was if i lifted the drive in the air whilst connected and moved it around (like you would with an ariel to pick up a signal) then the PC suddenly recognises it and you can lay it flat again, must be a faulty connection somewhere.

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