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How to Fix ‘External Storage Not Showing up’ Issue on Windows 10 PC – Guide
In Windows 10, you usually just connect an external drive to your computer and wait until it automatically appears in File Explorer to start using it. But it’s not always a straightforward process. Sometimes, for unknown reasons that might be related to your connection, driver, settings or hardware issues, Windows 10 will refuse to detect the external drive or detect the device, but it will not show up in File Explorer.
if you are trying to define up a new external hard drive, or you want to use a storage device previously connected to another computer, but it doesn’t show up, there are a series of troubleshooting steps you can follow to resolve the most common issues. In this Windows 10 guide, we walk you through the steps to fix most problems when your computer doesn’t detect an external hard drive.
Make sure your external drive is turned on.
This is a preliminary step, but it’s still worth checking. Almost all flash drives and many external hard drives do not require a separate power supply – they are powered via USB. However, some external desktop drives have dedicated power cords or at least a physical power switch.
If this is the case and your external hard drive is not showing up, you may have a problem with the device’s power cord. Try plugging it into another outlet or changing the cable if possible. Check for signs of activity, such as flashing lights on the drive or movement inside the drive, before proceeding.
If you don’t see any signs that the unit is working, no matter what you do, the device may be dead. Make sure you know the signs that your hard drive is failing so that you can detect it as soon as possible if it happens again.
Assuming your unit turns on but still doesn’t show up, go through the points below in order.
Check the drive in disk management
You should first check whether Windows detects your hard drive when you plug it in. Connect the removable drive to your computer, if it isn’t already.
Then open the Disk Management tool. To do this, press Win + X (or right-click on the Start button button) to open the Power User menu and select Disk Management from the list. You can also open the Run with Win + R dialog box and enter diskmgmt.msc to open this utility.
As the name suggests, Disk Management allows you to see all hard drives connected to your computer. It allows you to review disk sizes, partitions and other information.
You should see your external drive listed in the Disk Management window, probably under the primary disk and any secondary disks. Even though it doesn’t appear in the This PC window because it doesn’t contain any partitions, it should show up here as a removable volume.
If you see the unit here, skip to section 5 below. There, you will partition and/or format your drive properly so that Windows and other devices can access it.
If your external drive still isn’t showing up in Disk Management, continue. You will need to determine why your drive is not recognized. It’s possible that you have a hardware problem, a driver problem, or a dead drive.
Try another USB port and computer
The reason your external drive was not detected might not be on the device, but on the port you are using to connect it to your computer.
Disconnect the drive from its current USB port and try connecting it to another port on the computer. If it works on one USB port but not another, you may have a dead USB port. To see how to diagnose and fix dead USB ports if you suspect it.
If you’ve connected the drive to a USB hub, try connecting it directly to your computer. Some USB hubs do not provide enough power for the external drive to work.
And if the drive doesn’t show up up in Disk Management even after trying these two steps? It’s difficult to know for sure if the drive is damaged or the computer has a problem. If you have another computer nearby, try connecting the external drive to it to see if it’s detected.
If the drive does not work on any computer you connect it to, the drive itself is probably dead and you will need to replace it. When trying another machine, be sure to verify that it appears in the Computer’s Disk Management window, as discussed above.
Even if it is working, the drive may not appear in the This PC pane of File Explorer if there is no volume that Windows can identify.
Troubleshoot device driver issues
If the unit shows up on other computers – or you don’t have another computer around to try it out – Windows may have a driver issue with your device. You can check this using Device Manager.
You will find a shortcut to Device Manager in the same Win + X menu mentioned earlier. You can also enter devmgmt.msc in the Run dialog to open it.
In Device Manager, expand the Disk Drives category and check for any devices with a yellow exclamation point next to them. It’s a good idea to also check out the Universal Serial Bus controllers section.
If you see the error symbol for any input, that device has a driver issue. Right-click the device with the problem, select Properties, and check the error message under Device Status. This information can help you resolve the issue.
we explore how to fixes “This device cannot start (Code 10)” error, as well as fixes for “Unknown USB device” which provide good troubleshooting steps for driver issues. There are some more general steps you can follow if those guides doesn’t work for your problem, though.
Driver problems can be difficult to fix. If the problem started recently, try running System Restore to roll back the changes. If that doesn’t help, you can right-click the affected device in Device Manager and use Update Driver button to install an updated driver.
Create a new drive volume
If your device showed up in Disk Management in #2 above, or one of the troubleshooting steps above caused Windows to detect it, you are ready to initialize the drive so that it is usable. In addition to showing basic information, the Disk Management tool can also fix partition and file system issues on your drive.
If your removable drive only shows allocated space, you will need to create a new partition on it. This allows Windows and other operating systems to use the device. To make a new partition, right click anywhere in the Allocated space, select New Simple Volume and follow the wizard to create a new partition.
Once the drive has a partition, you can see it on this PC and use it normally.
If your drive is partitioned (which means it contains something other than just allocated space) and you still can’t see it anywhere else in Windows, make sure you have a drive letter defined. This should happen automatically, but if you manually removed the drive letter for some reason, the volume might not be accessible in Windows.
To change the drive letter, right-click the removable drive partition and select Change drive letter and paths. If your device doesn’t have a letter yet, click Add and choose one. If this happens, click Change and try another one.
Something later in the alphabet, such as G or J, is standard for removable drives and will work fine. Avoid front letters like A and C, which are reserved by Windows for other purposes.
After changing the drive letter, you may want to display all drives on this PC to make sure it shows up.
Final note
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