How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing up

This article will show you how to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing up. When you plug an external hard drive into your computer, it doesn’t always show up. The problem where a portable hard drive doesn’t show up happens often on Windows PCs and Macs, and it could cause data loss. More and more people are using external hard drives.

They are perfect for work and for putting important things away. Both of them are easy to use. This is because all you have to do to get them to show up is connect them to your Windows PC. Because of this, a lot of people store their important things on hard drives so that they can get to them later.

These problems are rare, which makes them more annoying, and they may take a little work to figure out. An external hard drive that doesn’t show up on a PC or Mac is one of the most annoying things that can happen. Even if you’ve tried all of the basic fixing tips, it may still not show up. If you want to know more information about this Visit Official Microsoft Support site.

Ways to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing up

Check the Drive in Disk Management

First, you should see if Windows can see the hard drive when you plug it in. If you haven’t already, connect your portable drive to your computer. Next, open the tool for managing disks. To do this, press Win+X or right-click the Start button to open the Power User window, then choose Disk Management from the list. You can also open this tool by pressing Win+R and typing diskmgmt.msc into the Run window.

Disk Management is just what it sounds like: it lets you see all the hard drives that are connected to your computer. It lets you look at sizes, partitions, and other details about a disk. In the Disk Management window, you should see your external drive mentioned, probably below your primary and any secondary disks. Even if it doesn’t show up in the This PC window because it doesn’t have any files, it should show up here as a Removable volume.

Troubleshoot Device Driver Issues

If the drive shows up on other computers, or if you don’t have another computer around to try it on, Windows may have a driver problem with your device. You can use the Device Manager to find out if this is true. You can get to the Device Manager quickly by using the same Win+X menu we talked about before. You can also open it by typing devmgmt.msc into the Run box.

Expand the Disk drives group in the Device Manager and look for any devices that have a yellow exclamation point next to them. Check out the Universal Serial Bus controllers area as well.

If you see the error sign next to a device, it means that the driver for that device is broken. Right-click the device that is giving you trouble, click Properties, and then look at the error message under Device state. This information can help you find a solution.

Create a New Drive Volume

If your device showed up in Disk Management in step 2, or if one of the above troubleshooting steps made Windows find it, you can now start the drive so it can be used. The Disk Management tool can do more than just show you basic information about your drive. It can also fix problems with your partitions and file system.

If your removable drive only shows “Unallocated space,” you’ll need to make a new partition on it. This means that the device can be used with Windows and other running systems. To create a new partition, right-click anywhere on the Unallocated space, choose New Simple Volume, and then follow the steps in the wizard.

Once the drive has a split, you should be able to see it in the This PC panel and use it as usual. If your drive is partitioned, which means it has something other than Unallocated room, but you still can’t see it anywhere else in Windows, make sure it has a drive letter set. This should happen immediately, but if you removed the drive letter yourself for some reason, Windows might not let you access the volume.

Right-click the removable drive’s section and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths to change the drive letter. If the device doesn’t have a letter already, click “Add” and pick one. If it does, click Change and try a different one. Something like G or J, which are later in the alphabet, is typical for portable drives and will work fine. Avoid early letters like A and C, which Windows already uses for something else.

Try Another USB Port and Computer

Your computer might not be able to find your external drive because of the port you’re using to connect it to your computer. Unplug the drive from its present slot and try plugging it into a different USB port on your computer. If it works in one USB port but not in another, one of the USB ports may be broken. If you think this is the case, check out how to find and fix dead USB ports.

If the drive is connected to a USB hub, try connecting it straight to the computer. Some USB hubs won’t give an external drive enough power to work. What if, after taking both of these steps, the drive still doesn’t show up in Disk Management? It’s hard to tell for sure if the drive is broken or if the trouble is with your computer. If you have another computer close by, you could try putting the external disk into that one to see if it’s recognized.