How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing Up In My Computer - Hard Drive Not Detected On Windows 10

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!   If this video was helpful please give  me a thumbs up and hit the subscribe   button to stay up to date on all my weekly videos!

Channel: TheRenderQ

Views: 459,260

Keywords: my external hard drive is not showing up, external drive not showing up, external hard disk not showing in disk management, external hard drive not showing up in my computer, how to fix external hard drive not detected, how to repair external hard disk not detected, external hard drive not working, hard drive not showing up in my computer, external hard drive not showing in my computer, external hard drive not showing up windows 10 pc, external hard drive not showing up in pc

Id: FX-CI3DB4QE

Length: 4min 49sec (289 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 30 2021