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How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing Up

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How to recover files from external hard drive not detected:
When connect your drive to a PC with a USB port and find the external hard drive isn’t showing up, how to fix? This video will show you three feasible methods to fix external hard drive not showing up in computer. (You can check the Timestamps below for specific methods with detailed steps)

1. Check the Drive in Disk Management 01:19
2. Initializing a New External Drive 02:19
3. Assigning a Drive Letter to an External Drive 03:10
4. Troubleshooting Broken USB Ports 04:35
5. Check for Driver Errors: 05:19

Following those methods above should fix most of the issues of external hard drive not recognized. If you’ve tried the external hard drive with multiple computers and it never shows up in the Disk Management window after these steps, the drive is probably broken.

By the way, after you fix the problem, if your data loss from the external hard drive and need to recover, don’t forget to try Recoverit, one of the most professional data recovery software.

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Text Tutorial for Reference:
https://recoverit.wondershare.com/computer-problems/hard-drive-not-recognized-on-windows-and-mac.html
https://recoverit.wondershare.com/harddrive-recovery/how-to-recover-data-from-external-hard-disk-not-detected.html
https://recoverit.wondershare.com/harddrive-recovery/western-digital-external-drive-file-recovery.html

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49 Comments

  5. I have a problem. I can't login to my seagate One Touch With Password 1 TB, even i put correct password it only pop up unlocking then disappear. please help me

  16. Years later and this video is still very helpful, thank you. The second solution worked for me. For context I was using an external hard drive that was formatted to my ps4 and wouldn't read on my computer.

  23. Are you still around? My computer detects my external hard drive: USB 3.0, 2.5"SATA. It is not opening it. How do I fix this problem. It just keep on going and I get the message: "working on it." And it does not open. And it does not let me right click on it. It simply keeps on processing without opening file. Can you help me?
    Thanks
    Everett

  29. Mine doesn't show up at all in the disk management, i also tried diff ports and switched cables. My HD turns on but it's not recognized at all. Help!

  30. My external hard drive works well when I use it in USB 2 but don't work in USB 3. My computer has only USB 3. I bought a USB hub with both USB 2 & 3 and use the external hard drive in USB 2 of that hub. It works fine.

  33. An "expert" is a smart looking guy/gal knowing everything about each and every problem in the world and having no clue about the problem I, the user, have here and now.

  36. I've got 1.5tb of photo's and video on a drive that stopped working while uploading from lightroom. Reformatting, partitioning etc would lose the lot.

  38. My pc suddenly stopped showing my external hard drive. Whenever I plug it in my PC makes the noise that something connected but it doesn’t show up anywhere. Not in device manager or disk management. It’s a sea gate 4tb drive. There are no drivers for me to install that I can find online. Funny enough, when I connect my drive to another laptop it can detect it. So what’s wrong with my pc? I tried every single USB port and I have 8 of them on this pc. Other USB’s and devices connect fine. What can I do?

  41. The thing is my new external hdd always forgetting the letter path and have the same problem everytime i start my laptop. So i had to assign the letter path everytime. I really hope you can help me.

  45. I wish you would talk a bit slower for us older folk. I am not a stranger to a computer, but it's still not showing my external hard drive anywhere.

  47. For me, the simple solution was to go to the SSD in Device Manager, uninstall, reboot. It came back up mapped to the wrong drive letter, but once I changed it back, it worked perfectly.