Perhaps an irrelevant question...icon in Win

Perhaps this one is irrelevant, but people here are so friendly and helpful, so here goes...
I am using a portable Western Digital Elements hard drive for about 2 years. When the drive was connected to my PC after few second I could open it and under My Computer it appeared with WD logo, on which you double click to open. Lately, instead of the WD logo appears an Unknown icon - the icon can be opened without a problem. It just disturbs me (me and my aesthetics...).
Why is it like this?
How I can restore it or change this icon?
See 2 attachments.

Possibility that you have a corruption in the program file and/or registry. First thing to try though is to right-click on the main icon on your desktop, scroll down to "properties" in the drop-down, and under the "shortcut" tab at the top of the dialog box, you shoule see a button towards the bottom of the window, marked "change icon". Run the program again, and see if that clears it. If not, re-install the program (I'm assuming it's WD Smartware). Basically, it will over-write the duff info with the correct info.

Worst case scenario is to go to your control panel, uninstall the program completely, restart your computer then load an entirely fresh copy of the program.

You can apply these tips to any other program that gives you a similar issue.

Edit: having looked at this again, I'm guessing you are seeing this when you click on the "computer" on the left-hand side of File Explorer? If so, you won't see "shortcut" on the drop-down. Instead, use either WD's own disk checker, which you should find in WD Drive Utilities. WDDU should have a tab called "diagnostics". Give that a click, to see if it finds a problem with the disc that may be causing this, or run checkdisk (CHKDISK) from the command window (CMD). CMD gives you a black window on your desktop, with a flashing cursor. Prior to typing anything in, the last line here will read something like "C:users(your name)>

After the ">" arrow, type in CHKDISK (if it doesn't recognise this command, use CHKDSK) followed by a space, then type in your drive letter associated with your WD drive.

The command line will look like this:

C: (back-slash)users(back-slash)(your name)> chkdisk X: (if X is the letter associated with your drive)

At the end of this command line, hit your enter key, and wait until it checks the disc. It might take a wee while (15-30 mins is not unusual), so go make yourself a wee cuppa!!

My computer loses icons like that occasionally. Then they reappear. Assuming your computer is still seeing your hard drive wouldn't fret too much about it tbh. Did you try something simple like switching the computer off and restarting for instance?

My experience is same as Gwyn's.

I'm not very technical with computers, so I just see it as the computer reminding me to back-up the files on the hard drive once in a while!

Thanks all, but my problem is still here. From day one this WD external hard drive is without any automatic backup software and I am doing all my backups manually. The icon used to be OK for almost 2 years and only lately have changed. I did not make any changes to my PC. Shutting down or restarting never helped either. Just very frustrating...

Here is Western Digital's support reply to my question - it might help somebody. I am going to do all they said and promise to update the forum -

We are sorry to hear about your problem with your WD drive. I would like you to go through a few questions regarding the issues you have encountered with the drive.

1. Is the drive detected by other computers?
2. Have you tried another cable?
3. Is the drive still detected as a USB device? (do you get an option in the system tray to Remove the Hardware Safely when you plug in the cable?)
4. Is the drive still seen by the Device Manager and Disk Management?
> Go to Start and right-click on 'Computer'.
> Select 'Manage'.
> On the left side of the Computer Management program you find a panel with options.
> Select Device Manager.
> Your WD drive should be in the list as a Disk Drive, not a USB Storage device.
> Do you see any entry in this list with a flag? (like a yellow Question mark or a triangle with an exclamation mark).
5. If not, right-click again on your Desktop drive and choose 'uninstall'.
6. After that, remove the USB cable and restart the computer. Then reconnect the device again.
7. Please run our Diagnostic tool, the DataLifeGuard Diagnostics Utility;
When you will get result form quick and extended test, please send me it, then we will be able to verify if the drive is fine.

BTW, very nice service from a well respected company!