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XPS 8950, WD My Book external drive not recognized
I have a one month old XPS 8950, BIOS 1.8.0 with Windows 11. I bought a WD My Book 4TB external USB drive that comes formatted exFAT. When I first plugged it into the XPS 8950, the PC would not recognize the drive. I tried Device Manager which showed a problem with a USB device, and I tried Disk Management which didn't show the drive. I then plugged the drive into my XPS 15 laptop (Windows 11) and it did recognize the drive. I figured it was worth trying the 8950 again, and to my surprise the drive was now recognized. I've shutdown and or restarted a few times, and the drive is recognized.
Why wasn't the drive recognized when I first plugged it into the XPS 8950? And why do you think it is now recognized after plugging it into the XPS 15 laptop? This is a mystery to me.
Should I reformat the drive to NTFS? I will not use this drive with a Mac.
Thanks for any advice.
Chino de Oro
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January 17th, 2023 23:00
I think you should reformat the drive to NTFS. Not only because you don't use it with a Mac but exFAT external drives have been known to cause system hang at boot to some users.
johnblaustein
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January 18th, 2023 09:00
Thank you, Chino. I will reformat to NTFS. I didn't mention in my post that at first, with the drive plugged in, the computer would boot at all. After getting the laptop to recognize the drive, then the drive didn't prevent the desktop to boot. I'll reformat and report back.
johnblaustein
61 Posts
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January 18th, 2023 16:00
Chino,
Reformatted to NTFS and the drive is working perfectly. Device Manager and Disk Management show no issues.
Thanks again.