Are you facing external hard drive not showing up? Or, external hard disk not detected. If yes then here is good news for you. And the good news is, you are near to the solution. Since the guide, today will tell you the solution for the error, recover files from external hard drive not showing up.
In windows, it is quite a common issue, that you connected the external device and it is not recognized by the computer. Or, it is even connected to the system but still not showing.
The issue is quite common. And people often stuck while connecting their hard drive or external device to the system.
In today’s guide, we will let you know the ways to fix the issue. The solution to the problem sometimes can be easy and sometimes it can be time-consuming. Let’s check out all the possible ways to fix the issue.
How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing Up
The basic reason behind the issue may be, the drive is formatted and what file system is being used. And the other reason may be, simply the drive is not being recognized by Windows. We will try to look for all the possible solutions in this guide.
Let’s get started with the guide and check how to fix this windows error.
Step 1: First of all, you will have to figure out whether your problem is related to formatting or to not being recognized by the system. For this, you will have to go to Disk Management.
For this click on the start menu and make a search for disk management. In the search result, appears select disk management.
Step 2: If you see the drive shows up there, you might have to assign a drive letter to the disk. This situation occurs when any drive letter is not assigned to it even though it is recognized. So, for that, you will have to right-click on the disk and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Step 3: Choose any letter and you are done! Probably this should fix the issue.
But if you are facing an issue like, you have connected the external drive and no changes happened like it doesn’t even read the drive, then follow the below guide.
Hard Drive Not Showing Up In My Computer
The external hard drive issue can be of many kinds. One, when you connect the hard drive and the drive is connected but is not recognized by the system explained above.
Another issue can be like you connected the hard drive but it even doesn’t show like connected. This situation can occur due to various reasons. Some of them I have mentioned below.
- It may happen due to your hard drive. Like, maybe there is any problem with your hard drive.
- The other reason can be, lack of correct software or drivers. If the proper drivers or software wouldn’t be there on your system, the problem external hard drive connected but not showing error can occur.
- Last but not least, maybe there is something on your operating system not working properly.
In short, there can be various reasons for the same issue. Same for the solution. For every problem, there is always a solution. So, the solution for the problem drive not showing up, is given below. check it out.
Probably this method will work for you. But in case, if even after following the steps, the problem persists, you can drop the comment below. However, we will cover more than one solution. Any of them would definitely work.
Let’s check out the methods.
Step 1: Sometimes, the problem may occur due to old drivers. So to fix them, you will have to use the commands in the command prompt. Go to the command prompt and run the command I have given below.
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
Step 2: Once you are done with running the command, go to the device manager. To go to the device manager, click on the start menu and type, Device manager. In the list of options appear select device manager.
After going to the device manager, you will see a window as I have mentioned below.
Step 3: Once done, click on the view menu bar and select the option Show Hidden Devices.
Step 4: As sooner you do this, all the hidden drivers will start appearing in the list of drivers. Click on the arrow beside the portable devices and uninstall the device you feel inappropriate.
Apart from this, you can also expand the Disk Drives and try to uninstall the device from there if it is not showing up properly in Windows Explorer.
Step 5: And you are done. Uninstalling the drivers that do not show up properly in windows explorer, helps you fix the issue.
Another way to fix the issue external hard drive not showing up is by clicking on the link on how to fix that particular problem provided by windows.
When you connect the drive or any external device to the system, a message, USB not recognized appears. Along with the message, we also get some links. All you will have to do is go to the link and try following the instruction given there.
Many times, this method works. You can also try if the above two methods that I explained don’t work.
Moreover, The best and very common situation to the problem is by removing the drive and restarting the system. Most often these tricks proves to be very handy when the external hard drive not showing up.
So, this is how you can fix the issues that occur while connecting the hard drives to the system. However, the first method among all is the best and proven method. Most probably it will help you resolve the issue, but in case, it is not, you can try the other ways too mentioned in the article.
