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The computer does not see the external hard drive at all. External HDD not detected? Tips on how to fix

Every day external hard drives are becoming more and more popular among users. And no wonder, because they are compact, they can be easily connected from one device to another, and the amount of memory in them is decent - 1-2 TB. But a situation may happen when the next time you connect, the computer simply does not see the hard drive.

Sometimes this situation occurs when you connect a brand new hard drive to your computer, sometimes this can happen with your old hard drive.

your old hard drive

To begin with, let's figure out why the external hard drive that you previously connected to the PC now does not want to work.

1. Check the cable with which it connects to the computer. The wire must not be damaged and the USB plug must be properly connected to the cable.

2. Try connecting it to a different USB port on your computer. It also happens that the USB port is faulty.

3. Go to "Device Manager", you can through "Start", and check if there are any yellow exclamation marks or red crosses opposite the connected drives. Otherwise, you can reinstall the drivers on the USB ports of your PC or laptop.

4. Check your device for viruses. Sometimes they are the cause of its inoperability.

Then click on the item "Administration".

In the next window, select from the list "Computer Management".

A new window appears, in which we select the item on the left "Disk Management". Now click on the external hard right mouse button and select from the menu "Change Drive Letter or Drive Path". Select the letter that is not yet in the operating system.

You may also need to change the letter if you bought a brand new external hard drive, but the computer does not see it.

new hard

Now we have smoothly approached the question of why the computer does not see a new external hard drive.

1. Change the drive letter following the steps above.

2. The hard drive has not been formatted. This could be the reason why it is not displayed in "My computer".

To format it, in the window "Computer Management" tab "Disk Management" right click on the external hard drive and select from the menu "Create Simple Volume". Please note that this will delete all data from it!

3. Lack of drivers. If your hard drive does not appear in any of the "My computer", nor in "Disk Management", but it works, if you connect it to a TV or laptop, then the problem may be related to the operating system and drivers.

First, check if the USB port is working. Just connect your phone or tablet to it. If the device works, then this is not the problem.

Through the Start menu, as described above, go to "Device Manager". There open two tabs "Disk Devices" and "Other devices". If there is an exclamation mark opposite the hard one, this indicates that the drivers for it have not been installed.

In operating systems Windows 7, 8, when a new device is connected, drivers for it are installed automatically. If this did not happen in your case, then right-click on the hard disk item, opposite which there is an exclamation mark, and select from the menu "Update Drivers".

If you need help on how to install drivers, I advise you to read the following articles: installing drivers in Windows 7 manually, how to, how to install a driver on Windows 7.

After you have tried all the methods described in the article, and the computer does not see the external hard drive, you need to take it to a service center, now experts will deal with this problem.

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Webmaster. Higher education in the specialty "Information Protection". Author of most articles and computer literacy lessons

External hard drive not recognized

Most often, when connecting to a computer, an error occurs that the Windows operating system cannot recognize the USB device and it does not work correctly. Why does this situation arise?

First, try plugging it into a different USB port. If the external hard drive is recognized by another port, the problem is most likely a USB controller failure on that port.

When the error appears when connecting to a different port, you should check on another computer. If another PC sees a removable drive, you should check if USB support is enabled in the BIOS.

There may be problems with the drivers. You should check the "healthiness" of the drivers in the "Device Manager", which can be accessed from the "Control Panel". Go to the "Disk Drives" tab and see if an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle is displayed against the removable drive. If so, try updating the driver. First, uninstall the removable drive driver by right-clicking on the "Uninstall" item from the pop-up menu. Disconnect and after about a minute plug the device back into the USB port. The driver should be automatically detected.

If the above steps did not bring the expected result, then the Windows operating system cannot correctly determine the drivers for the external drive. In this case, download them from the official site. If you have a new external hard drive, then the drivers must be written on it. Extract them on another computer that successfully recognizes the device.

Sometimes the computer does not see removable media due to a lack of power. This problem appears when you use a USB hub that already has multiple devices connected to it. Try connecting it directly to the port. Some external drives have two connectors, you need to connect both, although on a second computer, removable media can work without problems on one.

Sometimes due to lack of power, the device is not recognized when connected to the front USB ports, reconnect it to the rear port. There are situations when the front ports were not connected when assembling the computer.

Due to mechanical breakdowns of the device itself or breaks in the connecting cable. If the cable can be changed independently, then in case of mechanical breakdowns, you should definitely contact the service center.

Device recognized but not showing up

Sometimes, after connecting an external drive, an icon appears in the tray, the system sees it, but it is not displayed on the My Computer tab or in the file manager. Why is this happening? This situation is quite common if the hard drive is "detailed" into local drives. Windows can assign an existing local drive letter to an external device.

You can correct the letter on the "Disk Management" tab in the "Computer Management" section, which in turn can be called from the command line with the compmgmt.msc command.

Right-click on the rectangle with the name of the external hard drive and in the drop-down menu, click on the item "Change drive letter or drive path." The system will display all "unoccupied" letters, you can choose any.

Sometimes a removable hard drive doesn't show up in the My Computer tab because it's not formatted. To do this, on the "Disk Management" tab, right-click on it and select "Format" from the drop-down menu.

This problem is often encountered by owners of Windows 10/8/7. Its essence lies in the fact that an external hard drive is not detected when connected to a computer or laptop, or does it for a short time, correctly displaying the file structure, but, a little later, again disappears from the field of view of Windows Explorer. The culprits of the problem are system settings and drivers for USB devices. This problem is especially common when users connect an external hard drive to a high-speed USB 3 port. Reinstalling drivers doesn't seem to help...

The described steps are a special case of using tools when dealing with problems with all USB devices. You can find them in the article.

Why is the external hard drive not detected? Conflict with previously installed devices.

in the toolbar in the field View install Show hidden devices

plug in hard drive
go to Device Manager and find it in the list of connected equipment in the field Disk devices. Delete it via the right mouse context menu:

Expand USB Controllers below

remove all brightened devices
reconnect the external hard drive and wait for the system to install
reboot system

Why is the external hard drive not detected? Check your laptop power plan settings.

As you understand, this setting should definitely be checked if the problem with the disappearing external drive lay in wait for you when working with a laptop. So, a tricky setting is prescribed in the power plans, which sometimes allows you to turn off USB ports when running on laptop battery. Walk the path

Start – Control Panel – Power supply(and immediately select Balanced Plan) - Setting up a meal plan - click on the link Change advanced power settings- expand USB parameters- set value Forbidden for both USB Pause Options:

if Windows gets along with the disk, immediately check it for errors and the integrity of the file system. To do this, run the console as administrator cmd and enter the command:

chkdsk /f /r drivename:

For instance,

Chkdsk /f /r D:

where D– the letter of the problem drive

I hope it worked. Good luck

What to do if the computer does not see the external hard drive? Typically, such drives are easy to use because they are adapted for everyday use by the mass consumer. But there are situations when the HDD is not recognized after being connected to a Windows computer or other device with a USB port.

Most often, a computer or laptop does not see a removable hard drive due to a partition formatting error, using the wrong file system, a broken USB port, or lack of necessary drivers, but there may be other reasons. In the worst case, this may mean that the hard drive is out of order. It should be noted that the principle of operation of large external HDDs and pocket flash drives is identical, so the problems associated with them are usually solved in the same way. You can read the identical material on the invisibility of memory cards on various devices.

First of all, you need to find out why the external hard drive is not detected. To do this, you need to connect an external drive to your computer. If this is a full-fledged hard drive, then you need to turn on the power on it. Some heavy removable HDDs can even be connected to the mains using a separate cable. After connecting, you need to open the drive management tool. To do this, use the key combination Windows + R. In the line that appears, enter diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.

You should now see the external HDD in the list of all available drives. It will appear here even if Explorer on Windows XP does not recognize it due to the lack of partitions. If an external hard drive is detected but does not open, then it needs to be formatted properly, after which it will be recognized by various devices. In the case when the drive could not be detected even here, the reason may be something else.

What to do if the external hard drive is not detected? This can be caused by a hardware failure of the USB port, the lack of a necessary driver, or the failure of the drive. First of all, you need to try to run the disk through another free slot. If after such a procedure the opened HDD works normally, then the reason was in a broken USB port. It happens that the connectors on the front of the computer case have limited functionality and cannot ensure the normal operation of the external hard drive. It is recommended to use the USB ports on the back.

Computer problems

Why does the computer not see the external drive? If the portable drive does not appear in the disk management manager on Windows 7 even after connecting to another connector, then it remains to find out if everything is in order with the PC and the external drive. When the computer does not see the disk, but there is another PC at hand, then you need to try connecting the drive to it. In the case when available computers do not detect an external drive, we can conclude that it is broken and cannot be restored.

If Windows 10 does not see the drive, but it is recognized by other computers, then the operating system does not have the necessary drivers to detect it. Surely this can be found out using the device manager on the computer. To open it, you need to call the command line using Windows + R, enter devmgmt.msc there and press Enter.

In the window that opens, the user must check all available drives for the presence of an icon in the form of a yellow exclamation mark. If such a picture is found, then the problem lies in the drivers. You need to right-click on the device with a yellow sign, go to properties and read the message that reveals the essence of the error. If you literally copy this inscription into the Google search engine, then with a high degree of probability the results found will help solve the problem, because other users have probably already encountered such a disaster.

Such system errors can be difficult to fix. If the computer stopped seeing the drive relatively recently, then you can start system recovery. In Device Manager, it is also recommended to try to update the driver or roll back to a previous version, as a result of which the HDD may start to open. You also need to try to remove the device from the list in the hope that when you reconnect, Windows XP will be able to configure it correctly.

File system and formatting

Disk Manager can be used to fix problems related to partitions and the file system. If the visible disk in the image is full and there is unallocated space on it, then you need to create a new partition on it, so that it can open. To do this, you need to right-click inside the unallocated space and create a new partition.

If the HDD is divided into sectors, but the computer has stopped seeing the external drive, then you need to make sure that it has received a designation in the form of a specific letter. The computer that sees the disc should do this automatically, but in some cases the user accidentally deletes a letter, causing the disc to not be recognized. If a letter is missing, you must enter it manually.

Why does the PC not see the external hard drive? There is always the possibility that the drive is unreadable because it is using the wrong file system. The drive can be formatted with ext4 for Linux or HFS Plus for Mac. At the same time, Macbook does not see ext4, and Linux does not see HFS Plus. Even a tablet does not work with such file systems, so the drive will need to be reformatted with NTFS or the older FAT32 in case the computer does not see it. To do this, you need to right-click on the drive and select the appropriate system. Note that this will delete all files on the drive. When the Macbook does not see the external hard drive, you need to format it with HFS Plus.

If the external HDD is no longer detected from another device, such as a disk player, smart TV, game console or multimedia center, then the reason may be in the NTFS file system. Many devices refuse to work with it, including the Xbox 360. In this case, you need to remove and format the portable drive using the old FAT32 file system. Keep in mind that this process will delete files on the external drive, so you need to copy them somewhere first.

All of the above recommendations did not help solve the problem, and Windows does not see the HDD? In this case, we can conclude that the external hard drive is out of order, cannot be restored, and information cannot be extracted from it. Unfortunately, such equipment quite often breaks down after a few years of intensive use, and this is quite normal. The proposed video will help you understand in more detail the question of why the computer does not see the external hard drive.

Despite the fact that most modern computers come with a capacious hard drive, many users additionally purchase an external hard drive. In principle, this device will never be superfluous, it is especially relevant in cases where the user downloads a lot of "heavy" files from the World Wide Web or, for example, the scope of his activity involves the storage of large documents, possibly photographs, etc.

In connection with the use of an external hard drive, a situation often arises when the computer simply does not see it. Most often this happens when you first connect it to the device. So, in the case when the computer does not see the external hard drive, what should windows 7 do? That is what I propose to talk about in this article. Earlier, I already talked about what to do if .

Causes and first aid

In a global sense, if the external HDD is not recognized by the computer, then the problem is either in the hard drive itself or in the computer. First of all, try connecting the hard drive through another USB connector, perhaps the first one is simply not working. If that doesn't work, try connecting to another computer. In the event that another PC "sees" the HDD, this means that the problem is in the ports of your computer.

Basic steps

If the USB connector is working, and the problem arose by no means because of it, then you need to look for its solution elsewhere. Next, I will list the most likely reasons for an external hard drive not being identified in your computer:

Unfortunately, an external hard drive is often not recognized by the computer, this is not such a unique problem. In any case, it is solvable, the main thing is not to delay its decision, but immediately get down to business.