How to Fix ‘External Hard Drive Not Showing Up in Windows’ Issue – Guide
A user’s Seagate external hard drive is not appearing in their My Computer folder, even though it is recognized by the device manager. This post provides solutions to fix the connection problems between the computer and the external hard drive, so that it can be accessed again.
Check the hardware connection
To troubleshoot an unresponsive external hard drive, try plugging the USB cable into another USB port or PC. If that doesn’t work, additional fixes may be necessary.
Assign a drive letter to the drive
If the external hard drive isn’t showing up on your PC, it could be due to a missing or conflicting drive letter. To fix this, you can check and change the drive letter in Windows Disk Management.
The Windows + X shortcut can be used to access Disk Management, a tool for managing hard drives.
letter assigned, you can assign a drive letter to it. You can easily assign a drive letter to an external hard drive in Disk Management - simply locate the disk in the list and select the option to give it a letter.
You can assign a drive letter to the drive by right-clicking it and selecting “Change drive letter and paths” from the menu.
Click the Add button to assign a drive letter, or the Change button to alter it.
Update or reinstall device driver
If your external hard drive isn’t showing up in Windows 10, it could be due to a driver issue. To fix this, you can update or reinstall the device driver.
To access Device Manager, press Windows + X on your keyboard.
If the Device Manager window reveals a yellow or red mark next to your external hard drive, it indicates a driver issue.
To update the driver for an external hard drive, right-click it and select “Automatically search for updated driver software” in the Update driver menu.
If you want to remove the driver, select Uninstall Device. Afterward, restart your computer to reinstall it automatically.
Update USB mass storage device driver
You can update or uninstall the USB mass storage device driver by expanding Universal Serial Bus controllers in the Device Manager window, then right-clicking on USB Mass Storage Device and selecting either Update Driver or Uninstall Device.
Run the hardware and device troubleshooter
Users of Windows 10 may be able to resolve their external hard drive not being detected or recognized by troubleshooting hardware and device issues.
Press Windows + R, type msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic and hit Enter to open the Hardware and Devices troubleshooting window.
If you’re having trouble with your device or hardware, follow the instructions to diagnose and resolve the issue.
Create a new partition on the drive
To make your new external hard drive visible in Windows 10 File Explorer, you’ll need to create a partition. Follow the steps below to do so.
Press Windows + X and select Disk Management. If the external hard drive appears allocated or uninitialized, you can initialize it by right-clicking the drive and selecting Initialize Disk, then choosing either MBR or GPT format.
Creating a new partition on a drive is easy: simply right click the allocated area and select New Simple Volume in the Wizard window. Then, choose a file system such as NTFS to complete the process.
Format external hard drive to NTFS
If your external hard drive isn’t appearing on Windows 10, it could be due to an incompatible file system format. To fix this, you can reformat the drive to NTFS in Disk Management - but be warned, this will erase all data stored on the drive.
Run CHKDSK to check and repair disk errors
Windows 10 users may experience an “opening error” when attempting to access an external hard disk. This could be due to logical errors or corruption on the disk, and can be fixed using the Windows CHKDSK utility.
Press Windows + R, then type cmd and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter to launch Command Prompt with administrator privileges.
Run CHKDSK on your external hard drive to check and fix disk errors. Replace the asterisk with the drive letter of your device, then press Enter.
Final note
If you’re having trouble getting your external hard drive to show up in Windows, this guide can help. Got questions? Ask us. And don’t forget to share the love by passing it along to your friends.
