Finally, type "clean" and press Enter. If it works fine in both ports, perhaps your USB is dead. This is extremely common with SD cards formatted with Linux distributions for the Raspberry Pi, for example. If your external hard drive is not accessible please try these basic troubleshooting steps first. The external hard drive itself, under normal circumstances, should be detected by your operating system, without the need of drivers, software, or firmware updates. To do so, press Windows Key + X (or right-click... 2. Solutions to Fix External Hard Drive not Detected. When the prompt appears, type "list disk" and press Enter to see the disks plugged into your system. Fix External Hard Drive not Showing in Disk Management. Download PC Repair Tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically, USB 3.0 External Hard Drive not recognized, Windows 10 does not recognize the second Hard Drive, Telegram attacks Facebook over WhatsApp's updated Privacy Policy, NVIDIA fixes GPU vulnerabilities through latest display driver update, Easily Migrate Data between Cloud Services with Wondershare InClowdz, Wondershare DemoCreator Review: All-in-one Screen Recorder and Video Editor for PC, Create new partition on your removable drive. The external hard drive is not recognized in the system due to various reasons. Open Power Options from the Control Panel and navigate to Additional power settings. Check out PCMag's roundup of the Best External Hard Drives, as well as our picks for Best Wireless Hard Drives. Next, click on ‘Change plan settings’ option adjacent to your selected power plan. Step 3. . Case 2: External hard drive shows up in Device Manager but not Disk Management or File Explorer Unlike case 1, USB or external hard drive sometimes is invisible in File Explorer or Disk Management, but it can be detected in Device Manager, for example, an external HDD won't show up in explorer, but it shows in Device Manager. This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. If not, you can buy a new external SATA-to-USB adapter dock or enclosure, plug your bare drive into that, then connect that to your PC over USB. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time. If no errors show up, then the problem is not caused by the device. And there are some aid solutions to fix it. Finally, if your drive is online and formatted, but doesn't show a drive letter next to its name, right-click the volume and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths to add a drive letter. Download this PC Repair Tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically. If your drive is powered on but still isn't appearing in File Explorer, it's time to do some digging. The problem occurs mostly when the device driver is either corrupted or outdated. The problem may not lie with your device, but the port you're using to connect it... 3. Solution 1. If it's plugged into a USB hub, try plugging it directly into the PC instead. This post will show you how in details to update or reinstall device drivers. Select “Search automatically for updated driver software” and then follow the instruction to finish the process. If you're lucky, one of these simple steps should get your new drive up and running. I have downloaded the WD life diagnostics tool but it shows my disk is not available. 1. This will erase the disk, at which point you can follow the above steps to format it from the Disk Management console. 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(You can also try downloading drivers from the drive manufacturer's website, but again, that's probably a long shot.) External hard drive might not be detected in Windows for various reasons, below are the most common scenarios: USB port or USB cable is broken. Backing up your data is important, and while storing information on the cloud has become second nature to most, there's still nothing like having everything saved on a physical device. Step 1. “Disk 2”) and choose Online. Such problems can be quite tricky to fix. If the external drive is found listed in the Disk Management window, simply format it properly, so that it shows up next time you connect it to your PC. Open the Disk Management tool. Once Disk Management loads, scroll down to see if your disk appears in the list. If the disk is initialized but it appears with "Unallocated" space, use these steps to create a volume, format, and assign a drive letter: Right-click the "Unallocated" space, and select the New Simple Volume option. To resolve Wd External Hard Drive Not Recognized issue,contact our technical team by clicking the call button displayed on this screen. If it does, make sure it's online and formatted. Step 4. . To do this, disconnect your external hard drive from the computer. Console shows if an external drive or any error is detected under the Errors and Faults tab. It does not matter whether you have an external drive from Adata, LaCie, Samsung, Seagate, Silicon Power, Western Digital or any one of dozens of other brands – the process for recovering data is the same. There are mother manufacturers that tend to disable the unused ports in the BIOS by default. External drives are simple: you plug them in, they appear on your computer, and you can drag files right on over. I have an external hard drive (Western Digital Elements - 500GB, aproximately 2 years old), which is not recognized at all from a newly bougth ZBook 15 G3. How to Fix External Hard Disk not Detected in Windows? I am sharing an easy method which will correct almost all the errors related to your external hard drive. If you see that the drive is unpartitioned or unallocated, the format and then create a new partition there and see. You can also head to the Driver tab and try updating or uninstalling the driver and rebooting your computer. PCMag Digital Group. Click the Next button again. The hard disk doesn't have a drive letter or the drive letter conflicts with other disks. To sum up, there are lots of potential solutions for a Mac not reading an external hard drive. Select the unmountable Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar and choose First Aid at the top. If your drive still isn't recognized, you may have a dead drive. So, verify if Disk Management tool can locate the external hard drive. Whitson Gordon is a writer, gamer, and tech nerd who has been building PCs for 10 years. PCMag, PCMag.com and PC Magazine are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis, LLC and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. To regain your drive's full capacity, you'll need to run Windows' "clean" command, which will return the drive to a completely unformatted state. Contact him on Twitter @WhitsonGordon. Open the Start menu, type "diskpart," and press Enter. https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/what-to-do-when-your-external-hard-drive-wont-show-up. Applies to: Fix external hard disk not showing up or not detected by Windows PC. When the disk is connected to the computer it spins up properly but apart from that I receive no other indication or message. If your drive is beyond repair, it might be time for a new one. In some more specific cases, the drive will appear in Disk Management, but merely formatting the drive won't work. If you never connected your hard drive to your PC earlier and are trying to connect it for the first time, then, the drive may not be detected since you do not have any partitions created for it. Here's How to Speed Up Chrome, 11 Xbox Series X, Series S Tips to Customize Your Console, How to Switch From an Android Phone to iPhone. Basic hardware troubleshooting steps: Locate Disk Utility and open it. One has to enter the BIOS to verify their current status. Check out our guide to updating your drivers for more details on this process. Usually, hard drives just use Windows' built-in USB and hard disk drivers, so this isn't likely to fix a temperamental drive, but it's worth a shot. Open the Start menu and type "disk management," and press Enter when the Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions option appears. If it's plugged into a USB 3.0 port, try a USB 2.0 port. Now turn off the PC for at least 1 minute. Then go to ‘Change advanced power settings’ and under USB settings, find USB selective suspend setting, and set it to Disabled. If the external hard drive is appearing in the disk management tool then the problem could be with the system and not the drive. If it is, right-click WD hard drive, choose “Properties” and click Update Driver under Driver tab or click on “Uninstall”. We’re going to take a look at how you can use Disk Drill data recovery tool to recover data from an external hard disk not recognized. © 1996-2021 Ziff Davis, LLC. 1] Uninstall & reconnect the external hard drive To do this, type ‘ Device Manager’ in the Start Search box click the icon. Step 2. . In the situation where you notice the external hard drive works with one computer while fails to be detected by another, you can try to update the USB driver of the computer in which the hard drive is not showing up. If it works, then your old enclosure (or its power supply) may be dead. You can further scrutinize the disk management tool to identify the issue that is causing the external hard drive not showing up in File Explorer issue. Click on the Launchpad on the Dock and find Other. To solve the problem external hard drive not showing up in Disk Management on Windows 10, you have to take specific steps based on different situations. 1. It's possible the port in question is failing, or just being finicky with your specific drive. While some drives can draw enough power from your computer's USB port, others—especially larger drives not intended to be portable—may require wall power to spin up. Then reconnect the external hard drive and turn on the computer. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product or service, we may be paid a fee by that merchant. Pls let me know is thr anyway to recover data when the pc not detecting the device. If your drive came with an AC power adapter but you haven't plugged it in, try hooking it up (and pressing the power button, if there is one). Also if you find any “Unknown device”,  update it too. Disclaimer Western Digital is an independent technical service provider for several brands of gadgets, and not, in any way, associated with the Manufacturer of devices mentioned on the site. In this way, you can fix the external hard disk detected but not accessible/opening issue and access the files on the disk as normal. The automated tools check the hardware/USB connected to the computer for any known issues and fix them automatically. Expand the Disk Drives menu and the Universal Serial Bus menu to see if your external drive appears in either set. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If you see a yellow/red sign appearing against the driver, right-click on its name and select “Update Driver Software…”. The first thing you want to do is run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter and the Windows... 2] Update or Reinstall the device driver. It's possible the drive just isn't formatted for the computer you're trying to use, and you'll need to copy that data onto a drive that's formatted for cross-compatibility. Quite often, issues such as a Seagate external hard disk light blinking but not being detected can be fixed by simply rebooting the computer. If the methods mentioned above do not yield the desired results then, try disabling the USB selective suspend setting. Right-click "This PC" and choose "Manage". If it came with two USB plugs, make sure they're both plugged into your PC. Here's what to do if your device is not detected in Windows and Mac. 1 When you plug in your external hard disk to your computer, you may find that your hard drive is detected by the operating system, but you're not able to open. Girish Updated on October 29, 2020 Flash Drive , Storage Device 30 Comments USB devices like Hard Drive, Pen Drive, and Memory Card, etc. Try these workarounds and see if the problem of the External Hard Drive not being detected in Windows 10/8/7 is resolved. are the easy way to store and transfer the data from one computer to another. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. You can spend hours but find no solution. create a new Partition using Disk Management Tool. Else, follow our suggestions: The first thing you want to do is run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter and the Windows USB Troubleshooter and check if it helps. Please read the entire post & the comments first, create a System Restore Point before making any changes to your system & be careful about any 3rd-party offers while installing freeware. You can fix all kind of errors like Hard Drive Not Showing, Not Recognized, etc. The components that convert that SATA drive into USB can fail, meaning the drive could be just fine if you connect it some other way. Click the Next button. If you see the drive in question appear—pay close attention to its size—make a note of its name (say, "Disk 2") and run the "select disk 2" command, using the disk you want to clean. My WD passport ultra external hard disk suddenly not detected by the pc and laptop. Second, the drive size matches the size of the drive we just installed (around 1 TB), and the drive is flagged as “unallocated”, which means none of the hard drive space has been formatted or assigned a partition. Method 2: Check & Fix the Drive in Disk Management. Sometimes, an … If this does not work, uninstall and then reinstall the driver. Occasionally, Windows runs into driver issues that will render a device unrecognizable. Open the Start menu and type "disk management," and press Enter when the Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions option appears. He eats potato chips with chopsticks so he doesn't get grease on his mechanical keyboard. Anand Khanse is the Admin of TheWindowsClub.com, a 10-year Microsoft MVP (2006-16) & a Windows Insider MVP (2016-20). The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag. Here are a few troubleshooting steps you can take to remedy the situation. The file system of your hard disk is not compatible with the operating system. If you have tried all these solutions above, but you still cannot access the external hard drive. Once Disk Management loads, scroll down to see if … To do this, go to Device Manager by pressing Win+R together to open the “Run” dialog, enter devmgmt.msc.