What do you do when your external hard drive won't show up on your Windows computer?
Keep watching and I'll show you 3 solutions you can try.
This works with any external USB hard drive that powers up and is not making any strange noises.
However, please watch the entire video before making any changes to your hard drive to avoid
losing important data. So when I plug in my device, naturally it would just show up.
I know currently I can't access this one, so here are some simple things to check.
Try plugging the drive into another USB port or computer. If the hard drive doesn't show up,
then try using different USB cable. For me, swapping out USB cables has worked in the past.
Even though I couldn't see any damage, one of the wires inside could've been shorted out. The fix
actually could be as simple as changing the cable. But what if your hard drive powers up but still
won't show up in Windows Explorer? Here's the next thing you should look at. It's possible that
the drive hasn't been unassigned a drive letter. Without it, the computer knows the drive is there
but I can't access it. So let me show you what's happening. When I plug my drive into a USB port,
I can hear the chime alert. But it's not listed in the Devices and Drives sections here.
I do see another external drive here which is the E: drive. But the one I just plugged in can't be
found. What I need to do is right click on the Windows Start button and click on Disk Management.
In the next window it'll show me a list of all the drives connected to this computer.
In the bottom section I know that Disk 0 and Disk 1 are the internal drives labelled as the C:
and D:. But don't mess with these especially the C: drive. Disk 2 is the external USB drive
labelled as the E: drive which is already connected with no problems. But Disk 3 is
the external drive I just plugged in. Notice it has no letter assigned to it. But my computer
knows it's there but it's not letting me access it. Here's how to make it work. Right click
on the drive and click Change Drive Letter and Paths. In the next window click the Add button.
Then make sure the circle is selected where it says Assign the Following Drive Letter.
And in the drop down menu choose a letter. I'll select H. Then as soon as I click OK
the contents of my drive pop up and now I can use it like normal. Also going back to Disk
Management one more time, I can verify that Disk 3 is the H: drive. And just so you know,
there is no risk of losing data on your external drive by changing drive letters. But the drive
letter you choose could affect programs that have linked this hard drive under a different letter.
I hope that makes sense! One situation I've run into before is connecting 2 drives that have been
assigned the same letter. If this is the case, the 2nd hard drive will not show up. But following my
instructions to change the drive letter will make the 2nd hard drive accessible again.
If nothing else works it's possible that the drive is corrupted or malfunctioning.
There may be no way to fix a drive that is suffering from mechanical malfunctions. But
if the data is corrupted there is something you can try... but it will also erase all your files!
So I want to emphasize that the next step will delete everything on your hard drive!
So only proceed if nothing else works! Once again I've plugged in my external hard drive
but it's not showing up in Windows Explorer. I'll right click on the Windows Start button
and click on Disk Management. Here Disk 3 is my problem drive. It has no drive letter but it's
possible that if the drive is corrupted it won't work even if a drive letter has been assigned.
So when I've determined that I absolutely can't recover the files on my drive, I'm going to
have to reformat it. To do this, right click on the problem drive and this time choose Format.
Here I can rename the drive and choose a type of formatting. If you work on Windows only then
choose NTFS. If you want the drive to work on both Windows and Mac then choose exFAT.
And when you're ready to delete everything click OK.
Since my drive is working I'm going to cancel out. But please remember, once you click OK
everything on your hard drive will be deleted and there's no way to get it back!
Ok and here's one last thing. It's possible that your drive has been formatted for Apple computers.
So it's worth plugging it into a Mac to see if the hard drive will show up there. A Mac formatted
drive won't work on a Windows computer and it has to be reformatted so Windows can read it.
If any of these tips work, I would immediately back up the drives to a working hard drive to
avoid any loss later. Hopefully some of these tips help you get your hard drive working again!
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