An external hard drive is a device that used to back up your most important files and data, but if it suddenly stops working or responding, don't worry. On this page, we'll focus on the external hard drive not working issue and you'll learn：

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Applies to: Fix external hard drive, USB drive, SD card, internal HDD/SSD, etc., not working or responding error on Windows PC.

Quick Guide - Fix External Hard Drive Not Working/Responding Error in 3 Parts:

No matter what brands of devices you are using such as WD Elements external hard drive, Seagate external hard drive, SanDisk or Toshiba hard disks, etc, just follow this article to get your problem solved with the provided methods here now.

Causes of External Hard Drive Not Working/Responding

Is your external hard drive suddenly not working for no reason? Is your external hard drive suddenly cannot be detected or recognized by your PC or laptop? Relax!

You don't have to buy a new external hard drive and give up all the precious data. First, check the causes that make your external hard drive not working:

• Problematic connection
• RAW, invalid or unsupported file system
• Drive letter conflict or no drive letter
• No partition
• Not initialized
• Outdated disk driver
• USB Root Hub is outdated
• Disk is physically damaged
• ...

Don't worry if you don't know what exactly causes your external hard drive not working. Continue reading, we've collected 100% working fixes here to help you fix the external hard drive to work normally again without losing any data.

You May Also Interest In:

If you are having a similar issue on your hard drive, you may directly try the fixes below.

Are your hard drives, be it new or old, internal or external, not showing up in File Explorer or Disk Management? Follow to learn how to make your hard drive showing up again in Windows 10/8/7 without losing data.

Part 1. Make Not Working External Hard Drive Detectable

Applies to: Fix external hard drive not showing, not detected error due to connection problem.

Mostly, when your external hard drive suddenly doesn't work or fails to show up on your computer, you should first check the device connection between your external disk and your computer.

Now, follow to make the not working external hard drive detectable and show up on your PC again:

#1. Check and Change External Hard Drive Connection Cable

The first thing that you should do is to check the external hard drive USB connection cable:

• If the connection cable is loosened, reconnect external disk to PC and tight it.
• Is the external USB connection cable broken or damaged, switch a new cable, and reconnect the disk to PC.

#2. Change a USB Port or Connect to a New Computer

If the USB connection cable is not broken, try to reconnect the external drive to your PC via a new USB port and check if the computer detects your disk.

If still nothing shows up, change a computer and reconnect the external drive.

#3. Check Power Management for USB Hub

If it doesn't work after changing the USB port or cannot be read by a new PC, try the quick fix below to repair an unrecognizable external hard drive:

Step 1. In Run (Windows + R), type devmgmt.msc and hit Enter.

Step 2. Open Device Manager > expand 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'.

Step 3. Right-click USB Root Hub > Properties > Power Management > uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power'.

After following the above 3 tips, your computer should be able to detect and recognize your external hard drive now. You can try to open the drive and access the data.

If you still cannot access the data, don't worry. Move to Part 2 and we'll offer you the best hard disk data recovery software to help you quickly access and restore all valuable data on immediately.

Part 2. Recover Data Before Fixing External Hard Drive With Not Working Error

After making the external hard drive detectable, we suggest you recover data from the drive first as some measures may bring secondary damage to your data on the disk. After this, we'll offer you some reliable methods to fix the external hard drive in the next part.

3 Steps to Recover Data from External Hard Drive

To recover data from your external disk, you'll need reliable HDD recovery software for help.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard with its powerful capacity allows you to scan and recover data from the external hard drive which is not working properly in only 3 steps.

See how to restore data from the external hard drive on your own:

Step 1. Choose the external hard drive

• Since you're going to recover data from the external hard drive, you need to correctly connect the drive to your Windows computer.
• Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and choose the exact external drive where you lost data.
• Click Scan.

Step 2. Check for scan results

The software will start immediately to scan all over the selected drive for all lost data. During the scan, you can see more and more data showing up in the results. The Filter feature is for you to quickly locate the files of one kind, such as Pictures, Word/Excel/PDF documents, Videos, etc.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

• Double-clicking a file will allow you to preview its content.
• Choose the file(s) and click Recover.
• Choose a different drive to save the recovered files instead of the original one.

Don't save the recovered data on your external hard drive before fixing and making it work normally again.

Part 3. How to Fix 'External Hard Drive Is Not Working/Responding' Error

Let's see how to repair the not responding external hard drive or undetectable external hard disk drive now.

To help you find the right fix for the 'external hard drive not working' error in Windows 10/8/7, please open Disk Management and check the state of your external hard drive:

1. #1. Check and Fix Disk Errors on External Hard Drive - Disk Contains Corrupted File System Error
2. #2. Format External Hard Drive to NTFS - Disk Shows RAW or Unsupported File System
3. #3. Create A New Partition in External Hard Drive - Disk Displays as Unallocated
4. #4. Assign a New Drive Letter to External Disk - Disk Shows as 'New Volume' with No Drive Letter
5. #5. Initialize External Disk and Create a New Volume - Disk Is Unknown, Not Initialized

Method 1 to Method 7 can fix most external hard disk not working issue, and if none of them work, turn to Method 8 and Method 9 for help. Let's start the external hard disk repair process.

Method 1. Check and Fix Disk Errors on External Hard Drive

Applies to: Fix external hard drive not working due to unknown disk error or corrupted file system.

Mostly, when an internal or external hard drive contains an unknown error or corrupted file system, the Windows computer will not be able to detect or open the drive.

Here you have two options to check up the disk and fix internal errors on a not responding external hard drive:

Option 1. Run Partition Manager Freeware to Fix External Hard Drive Not Responding Error

Download and install EaseUS Partition Master Free on your PC.

Step 1. Right-click the target partition that has a problem.

Step 2. Choose 'Advanced' > 'Check File System'.

Step 3. In the Check File System window, check the 'Try to fix errors if found' option.

Step 4. Click 'Start' to check errors on your partition.

Option 2. Run CMD to Manually Fix External Hard Drive Errors

Step 1. Type cmd in the Search box, right-click to open Command Prompt.

Step 2. Type diskpart and hit Enter.

Step 3. Type chkdsk /f /r /x g: and hit Enter to let the checking process to run.

Replace g with the drive letter of your external hard drive.

Step 4. When it's finished, type: exit and hit Enter to finish the process.

After this, your not responding external hard drive should now show up. If it still doesn't work, go on with an easier chkdsk alternative.

Option 3. Run CMD Alternative to Fix External Disk File System Error

The Command line is suitable for computer professionals since wrong commands can cause severe problems. Therefore, we strongly recommend you try EaseUS CleanGenius.

It is a practical computer fixing tool that is safe and light-weighted. To fix file system error or disk error:

Click to  DOWNLOAD EaseUS CleanGenius and install it on your computer. Let's start checking and refixing file system error on your device now.

Step 1. Click 'File Showing' to enter the next step.

Step 2. Choose the target device and tick the box of 'Check and fix file system error'. Click 'Execute' to start fixing the problematic device.

Step 3. When the fixing process completes, click 'here' to open and use your device.

Method 2. Format External Hard Drive to NTFS to Repair Not Working External Disk

Applies to: Fix external hard drive not working, detecting or responding error due to RAW or unsupported file system.

If your external or internal hard disk shows as a RAW or unsupported file system in Disk Management, the best way is to format the disk to a recognized format.

In order to make sure that the external hard drive is secure for storing new data again, you can format it to repair the not working drive to be usable again with Windows disk management:

Step 1. In Run (Windows + R), type diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter.

Step 2. Go to Disk Management, right-click the external hard drive, and select 'Format'.

Step 3. Choose a file system like NTFS or exFAT and tick 'Quick format'. Click 'OK' to start the formatting.

After this, your external hard drive is viable for saving data again.

Method 3. Create A New Partition in External Hard Drive

Applies to: Fix disk displays as unallocated in Disk Management that make external hard drive not working.

Mostly, when your external hard disk shows as unallocated, it means that there is no partition in the disk. As a result, the computer cannot recognize it. To fix this issue, you need to first recover data from the disk first (as shown in Part 2).

Then, you can follow the steps below to create a new partition, making the external hard drive working again:

Step 1. Connect the unallocated external hard drive to your PC and open Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click on the unallocated space of the external hard drive, select 'New Simple Volume'.

Step 3. Set partition size, drive letter and file system (NTFS), etc.

Step 4. Click 'Finish' to complete the process.

Method 4. Assign a New Drive Letter to External Disk

Applies to: Fix disk shows as 'New Volume' with no drive letter that causes external hard drive not responding.

Step 1. Go to Disk Management and right-click on your external hard drive.

Step 2. Go and select a new drive letter by clicking 'Change', and click 'OK' to confirm.

Then not responding external hard drive can be read and detected now.

Method 5. Initialize External Disk and Create a New Volume

Applies to: Fix 'Disk Is Unknown, Not Initialized' that cause external hard disk not working nor showing up.

Step 1. Right-click 'My Computer' > 'Manage' to run Disk Management.

Step 2. Here, right-click the Unknow external hard drive and click 'Initialize Disk'.

Step 3. Select the disk(s) to initialize and choose MBR or GPT partition style, and click 'OK' to confirm.

Now the drive is recognized as unallocated and if you have vital data saved there, revert to Part 1 and apply EaseUS data recovery software for help.

Step 4. Then right-click on the unallocated space on your external hard drive and create a new volume on it.

Method 6. Update Disk Driver

Applies to: Force not responding external hard drive to show up and work by updating disk drivers.

Step 1. Right-click 'This PC' and choose 'Manage'.

Step 2. Click 'Device Manager' then expand 'Disk drives'.

Step 3. Find and right-click the problematic external drive and select 'Update driver'.

Step 4. Click 'automatically search for driver software online'.

Method 7. Uninstall Universal Bus Controllers

Applies to: Fix external hard drive not working issue by updating Universal Serial Bus controllers drivers.

Step 1. Open 'Device Manager', find and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers

Step 2. Right-click on the USB controllers of your external drive and select 'Uninstall device'.

Step 3. Repeat to uninstall each USB controller one by one. Then restart the computer.

While rebooting PC, Microsoft will automatically reinstall the USB controllers software for your not working external hard drive.

Method 8. Run Antivirus Software

Applies to: Fix virus or malware that causes your external hard drive not working.

Sometimes, viruses or malware infections may also cause your device to malfunctioning. So it is to your external hard drive. When you tried all the above fixes, but the drive is still not working, you can try to run antivirus software to unlock the drive:

Step 1. Install and run antivirus software on your computer.

Step 2. Scan and unlock the external hard drive.

Step 3. Wait for the cleaning process to complete and restart PC.

After this, reconnect your external hard drive to the computer and check if you can use it again.

Method 9. Turn to External Hard Drive Manufacturer or Repair Center for Help

The last option that you can try is to contact your external hard drive producer or a local disk repair center for help. It could be the outdated firmware or disk driver that is outdated. For this issue, your disk support team can resolve and make your disk work again.

As for external hard disk data recovery, a local disk repair center or manual data recovery service can do. Here you may also try EaseUS Data Recovery Service.

To Sum Up

On this page, we explained the causes of external hard drive not working, not responding, and not detectable error. To make things easy for you, we divided the whole process into 3 parts:

Part 1. Make external hard drive detectable; Part 2. Recover data from the external hard drive; Part 3. Fix not working external hard drive with respective solutions.

The methods offered in this article can also be applied to repair and fix SD cards, memory cards, USB drives, flash drives, or hard drive partitions, etc devices with not responding/working or undetectable issues.

It's recommended that you should create an extra backup of your files to another secure location, like Cloud drive. When you lost data on your disk, always remember to let EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard help.

Summary :

Sometimes, when you connect an external hard drive to your computer, you may find it fails to show up. The external hard drive not showing up problem occurs frequently on Windows PC or Mac, and it could lead to data loss.

There are some useful fixes to the external hard drive not detected on Windows 10. Please read this page offered by MiniTool to know how to access the drive without data loss.

External Hard Drive Not Showing Up PC

Whether you're plugging in a new hard drive or an old one to your computer, it is possible that you can't see it. Some people even reported that the external hard drive is showing up in devices but not in my computer. This is not a rare issue; it has ever happened to many people and will be happening to more.

What are the possible causes for external hard drive not showing up on computer issue?

• Insufficient power supply
• Lack of drive letter
• Outdated drivers
• File system issues
• Partition problems
• Dead USB port
• …

In the following content, I’ll mainly discuss external hard drive not showing up/recognized on Windows 10 in 2 different situations. After that, I’ll tell you what do I do if my hard drive is not detected.

What to Do When You Can't See External Hard Drive

Many people have the same experience – they suddenly find an external hard drive is not recognized by the computer; it won't show up in File Explorer (PC not recognizing external hard drive). The first thing to do at this time is checking whether there’s an AC power adapter and whether it’s plugged in. If not, please plug it into your PC properly.

After that, you should press Windows + E to open the File Explorer and check whether the external drive appears now.

Open Disk Management to Check

If the USB hard drive is still not showing up (WD external hard drive or Toshiba hard drive is not showing up in File Explorer), your next step is to open Disk Management and check.

1. Open Windows search by pressing Win+S.
2. Type disk management.
3. Select Create and format hard disk partitions.
4. Browse the drives list to look for your external disk.

If you find the external hard disk showing up in Disk Management as unallocated/not initialized/offline, it would be easy to fix the external hard drive not recognized problem (refer to Method 2: Check & Fix the Drive in Disk Management below). This is what people described as external hard disk detected but not showing in My Computer.

Seagate external hard drive not showing up.

I know there are a million posts about this issue, but I haven't come across one that fixed my issue and I really don't want to have to shell out a ton of money recovering my data. Running Windows 10 on an Asus K55N and connecting a Seagate Free Agent Go Flex Desk 2TB external drive. When I connect the drive, it shows in Disk Management and the Safely Remove Hardware icon, but I can't get it to populate in File Explorer. I have not tested on another computer, but I have tested with a different USB cable and was able to connect two other external drives. I did the trial of the Seagate Recovery Suite and was able to see all my files listed, I was just hoping to not have to pay to recover the data (if that's what it boils down to, so be it).- said Corey_23 on Tom’s Hardware Forum

Please read Recover Data From Disk Shows As Unknown Without Damaging It to learn how to fix this.

WD external hard drive not recognized Windows 10.

Case:

I have a WD My Passport portable USB hard drive which one of my computers can't detect when plugged in. It doesn't show up in My computer, Device Manager or Disk Management. The only way to get the device recognized is to reboot the computer with it connected, enter BIOS (and do nothing), and reboot again. The drive works fine on my other computer. It has the WD Unlocker Software built in.- posted by Lagnaetti on Windows 10 Forums, Drivers and Hardware

Obviously, Lagnaetti finds that his external hard drive is not being detected by My computer, Device Manager or even Disk Management. He wants to know how to fix the external hard disk not detected issue.

As said before, if the WD external drive doesn’t show up on your PC, you should first open Disk Management to have a look. If the WD external disk shows as unallocated/not initialized/offline, you can make it appear easily by formatting, creating a volume, initializing to mbr/gpt, or setting online. However, what if it doesn’t appear?

WD External Hard Drive Not Showing Up in Disk Management

If the WD external hard drive still isn’t showing up in Disk Management, you should considering detecting the USB drive by restarting computer, enabling legacy USB support, and using a different USB port. It’s possible that the USB port you use is failed. Please try a USB 2.0 port if you're using USB 3.0 and connect the drive directly if you’re using a USB hub.

In fact, there are some cases in which an external hard drive doesn't show up since it has being broken physically. Yet, there are still chances that the unrecognized hard disk can be repaired.

In addition, there are also some people who said their PS4 external hard drive is not recognized or Xbox One external hard drive is not detected/not showing up. I suggest that they connect the external hard drive to the computer and check.

External Hard Drive Still Not Showing Up

When your external hard drive won’t show up on PC, you should first go to check it in Disk Manager. If your computer is still not recognizing external hard drive, you need to try the methods mentioned in this part.

How Do I Get Windows 10 to Recognize My External Hard Drive

External hard drive doesn't show up is a hot topic. Many people said they can't find external hard drive on the computer (computer doesn't find external hard drive). If you also encounter the portable hard drive not showing up (external HDD not showing up) on Windows 10, please change a USB port, check in Disk Management, run troubleshooter, update driver, etc.

11 useful solutions you should try:

1. Change a USB port.
2. Check the drive in Disk Management.
3. Run the Troubleshooter.
4. Update/uninstall/roll back driver.
5. Reinstall USB controllers.
6. Enable legacy USB support in BIOS.
7. Update system to the latest version.
8. Disable USB selective suspend setting.
9. Update motherboard chipset drivers.
10. Fix the system built-in drivers.
11. Kill virus on the computer and external drive.

Is your external drive not showing up? There are many useful workarounds for fixing the external hard drive not being detected in Windows 10 (how to repair hard disk not detected in Windows 7 is basically the same).

Method 1: Change a USB Port

I find my computer doesn’t recognize my external hard drive because the USB port is broken. I tried a different USB port and it worked. If the external HD is not showing up when it's connected via a USB 3.0 port, you can also try a USB 2.0 port to detect the drive. Besides, you should try to connect the external hard drive directly to your PC and see whether your computer can detect the USB drive.

The USB drive not showing up Windows 10 may also occur when the power supply of a USB port is not sufficient. In this case, I advise you not to use USB hubs because some of them are not able to provide enough power supply to the external hard drive.

Method 2: Check & Fix the Drive in Disk Management

Sometimes, an external hard drive not showing in my computer (Windows Explorer) could appear in Disk Management. How to open Disk Management:

1. Press Windows + X keys.
2. Click on Disk Management option from the pop-up menu.

What prevents a drive from showing up:

• External hard drive Unallocated
• External hard drive Offline
• No drive letter

How to fix the problem in the above 4 cases:

Case 1: create a new volume.

1. Right click on the unallocated space.
2. ChooseNew Simple Volume(or other volume types you need).
3. Click on the Next button in the New Simple Volume Wizard Welcome window.
4. Specify the volume size and click Next.
5. Finish Assign Drive Letter or Path and click Next.
6. Finish Format Partition and click Next.
7. Click on the Finish button in the New Simple Volume Wizard Completing window.
8. Wait for the operation to complete.

Watch how to Create Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Case 2: Initialize Disk:

1. Right click on the unknown, Not Initialised disk.
2. Choose Initialise Disk from the context menu.
3. Choose a partition style from MBR and GPT and click on the OK button to confirm.
4. Wait for the operation to complete.

Use MiniTool Partition Wizard to Initialize to MBR Disk or Initialize to GPT Disk.

Case 3: set Online:

1. Right click on the disk which shows Offline.
2. Choose Online from the pop-up menu.
3. Wait a second.

Case 4: Change Drive Letter and Paths:

1. Right click on the disk partition which has no drive letter.
2. Choose Change Drive Letter and Paths from the context menu.
3. Click on the Add button in the pop-up window.
4. Assign a drive letter to the partition and click OK to confirm.
5. Wait a second.

Change Drive Letter more easily with MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Do you want to recover your files from external hard drive not detected? If yes, please read the following tutorial.

How to recover files from external hard drive not detected?

Step 1: download MiniTool Power Data Recovery. Then, install and launch it.

Step 2: Choose Removable Disk Drive from the main window and select the external hard drive.

Step 3: click on the Scan button to scan the selected external hard drive.

Step 4: browse the scan results during the scan. Alternatively, you can wait until the end of the scan and then select the files you want to restore.

Step 5: press the Save button and choose another drive with enough free space to store the recovered files.

Step 6: press the OK button to confirm the selection and start external hard drive file recovery.

At last, you can check the recovered files to put an end to the recovery work.

Please read this page if your external hard drive seems dead and you need to recover important data from it:

If you are stuck in finding ways to recover files from dead external hard drive efficiently, this passage will be very helpful.

Method 3: Run Troubleshooter

For USB device not recognized in Windows, there is a useful tool to help: Hardware and Device Troubleshooter.

How to run Hardware and Device Troubleshooter:

1. Open Settings the way you like.
2. Choose Update and Security from Windows Settings panel.
3. Go to the Troubleshoot tab.
4. Scroll down to choose Hardware and Devices from the right pane.
5. Click on the Run the Troubleshooter button.
6. Wait for the detecting to complete.
7. Once the scan is completed, Windows will list the found issues.
8. You should choose the issue you want to fix and click Next.

Method 4: Fix Device Driver Problems

You can open Device Manager to check and fix the issue.

1. Press Start + X keys on the keyboard.
2. Choose Device Manager from the pop-up menu.
3. Expand Disk drives option.
4. Right click on the problematic drive.
5. Choose from Update driver, Uninstall device and Properties.
6. Finish the rest steps by looking at system prompt.

• The Update driver feature helps to fix the USB drive not recognized problem due to a corrupted/outdated device driver.
• The Uninstall device feature is used to uninstall your USB external hard drive with the issue. After that, you should remove the USB device from the computer and then reconnect it after at least 1 minute. This is useful when your USB driver has become unstable or corrupt.
• The Properties feature will help you further diagnose the problem by looking at the error Besides, you can choose to Roll Back Driver by shifting to Driver tab after clicking Properties.

Method 5: Reinstall USB Controllers

Also, you should open Device Manager using the above method or other ways you like. Then, finish the following steps:

1. Find and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
2. Right click on a device and choose Uninstall device from the context menu.
3. Click on the Uninstall button in the pop-up window.
4. Repeat step 2 and step 3 to uninstall all devices under Universal Serial Bus controllers.
5. Restart your computer and Windows will install the USB controllers automatically.

Method 6: Enable Legacy USB Support

Sometimes, you may find your hard disk not detected in BIOS. This may be caused by the disabled Legacy USB Support.

How to enable USB support:

1. Restart your PC.
2. Press the corresponding button to enter the BIOS utility.
3. Shift to Advanced tab.
4. Choose USB Configuration.
5. Select Legacy USB Support and set it to be Enabled.
6. Exit and save changes.

It’s not an easy task to recover data from a hard disk that is not detected in BIOS especially when the disk is an internal one. The good news is MiniTool Power Data Recovery bootable edition provides an easy way to recover data when the PC won’t start. As for how to recover data from undetected internal hard disk step by step, please read:

If you’re stuck in the data recovery from corrupted internal hard disk, the solutions and software provided here will be of great help.

Method 7: Install the Latest Windows Updates

This method has the same functionality as the Update driver.

1. Type Windows Update into the Cortana search box.
2. Select Check for updates from the Best match.
3. Click on the Check for updates button and wait.
4. Finish the rest operations according to prompts.

If you find some files get lost after Windows Update, please use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to recover data at once.

Method 8: Disable USB Selective Suspend Setting

1. Type power plan into the Cortana search box.
2. Select Choose a power plan from the search result.
3. Click Change plan settings next to the plan used currently.
4. Click Change advanced power settings.
5. Find USB settings and click on the + button to expand it.
6. Click on the + button to expand USB selective suspend setting.
7. Change Setting to be Disabled.
8. Click on the Apply button to confirm and click on the OK button to close.

Method 9: Install the Latest Chipset Drivers for Motherboard

1. Look for the documentation of your computer to find the name of the motherboard manufacturer.
2. Visit the website of the manufacturer.
3. Find the drivers proper for your motherboard and install it on your computer.

Method 10: Repair the System Built-in Drivers

• Press F8 or another button to enter the safe mode during the boot process; select restart or shut down the computer and power on it later to enter the normal mode (to repair the registry).
• If the problem persists, please enter safe mode again to choose System Restore in order to restore your system to an earlier point when there’s no such problem.
• If the problem persists, please use the system disk to repair; open the command prompt, enter SFC / scannow, press Enter and insert the original system disk to repair the system
• If the problem persists, please set the CD-ROM as the first boot device in the BIOS; then, insert the system installation disc and press R key to select repair installation.
• If the problem still persists, I advise you to reinstall your OS.

Can Omnisphere 2 Run On An External Hard Drive Download

Method 11: Run Anti-virus Program

If your PC is attacked by virus, unfortunately, any external hard drive connected to this PC will be affected. The virus may cause the external hard drive not showing issue. Please run anti-virus software to kill the virus and get Windows 10 to recognize your external hard drive.

RECOMMENDATION:

To recover data from virus infected external hard drive, you can try using MiniTool Power Data Recovery because of its excellent performance, high security, and simple operations. How to recover files after virus attack:

Can Omnisphere 2 Run On An External Hard Drive Code

I feel glad to share solutions with users to help them recover files deleted by virus attack quickly and safely.

How to Fix: External Hard Disk Detected But Not Opening

There are also some people saying that their external hard drive could be detected by Windows, but can't be opened. The most direct reason is the file system problem.

When the file system of your hard drive is not supported by Windows, you won’t be able to access the drive. For instance, Windows gives no support for the ext4 file system (designed for Linux) and the HFS + file system (designed for Mac).

Can Omnisphere Run On An External Hard Drive

After clicking on the drive, you’ll be asked to format the disk before you can use it.

• If you choose Format, you should know that all your data saved here will be lost.
• If you choose Cancel, you will see the message: The volume does not contain a recognized file system.

Actually, themost common causes are:

• The file system is damaged.
• The file system is not supported.
• The drive becomes RAW.
• The parameter is incorrect.
• The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.
• …

2 Methods for Solving External Hard Disk Detected But Not Opening

1. Run CHKDSK in Command Prompt.
2. Reformat the drive by using MiniTool Partition Wizard.

There are two useful methods for fixing the external hard drive detected but not opening error: run CHKDSK and format the drive.

Method 1: run CHKDSK.

1. Type cmd into the Cortana search box on the taskbar (what if Windows 10 taskbar is not working?).
2. Right click on Command Prompt from the search result.
3. Choose Run as administrator from the context menu.
4. Choose Yes in the User Account Control window.
5. Type chkdsk /r * (* stands for the drive letter) and press Enter.
6. Wait for the stages to complete.

Method 2: format the drive.

1. Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard.
2. Select the drive with an unsupported file system.
3. Choose Partition from the menu bar and choose Format from the submenu.
4. Choose NTFS or FAT32 as the new file system.
5. Click on the OK button to confirm.
6. Press the Apply button in the main software window.
7. Choose Yes in the pop-up window to apply pending changes.
8. Wait for operations to complete.
9. Click on the OK button in the Successful window.

Click to see Format Partition Tutorial.

Conclusion

Though it may seem strange, it is not a rare problem that the external hard drive is not showing up/recognized/detected. There are many factors that could lead to this problem. When you find that your external hard drive is not showing up in your computer, please use the methods mentioned above to help your computer recognize the hard drive. You can also refer to this post to learn how to recover data from your external hard drive in different ways.

External Hard Drive Not Showing Up FAQ