New Connector for Hard Drive and It Works Again
Backing up your data is important, and while storing information on the cloud has become 2d nature to most, in that location's still nothing similar having everything saved on a physical device.
External drives are simple: y'all plug them in, they appear on your computer, and you can drag files right on over. But if your drive isn't appearing when you lot plug it in, you lot might have a problem. Here are a few troubleshooting steps you can take to remedy the situation.
Make Certain It's Plugged In and Powered On
Western Digital My Book
I know, I know, but hear me out: but because you plugged the drive into your computer doesn't hateful it's necessarily receiving the ability it needs. While some drives can draw enough power from your computer's USB port, others—especially larger drives not intended to exist portable, like the Western Digital My Volume—may require wall power to spin up.
If your drive came with an Air conditioning power adapter but you haven't plugged it in, endeavour hooking it upwards (and pressing the ability push, if at that place is ane). If information technology came with 2 USB plugs, make certain they'reboth plugged into your PC. With whatever luck, your drive will appear normally once it gets the juice it needs.
Try Some other USB Port (or Some other PC)
(Photo: Cronislaw/Shutterstock)
If the drive yet isn't working, unplug it and try a different USB port. It's possible the port in question is declining, or merely being finicky with your specific drive. If it'due south plugged into a USB 3.0 port, attempt a USB 2.0 port. If information technology'due south plugged into a USB hub, try plugging information technology directly into the PC instead. You lot might also try it in another computer.
If you're a multi-platform household, I'd especially recommend trying it in a computer that runs another operating arrangement—due east.m., if you can't become the bulldoze showing up on a Windows PC, effort plugging it into a Mac. It'south possible the drive simply isn't formatted for the computer you're trying to use, and y'all'll need to re-create that information onto a drive that's formatted for cross-compatibility.
Update Your Drivers
Occasionally, Windows runs into commuter issues that will return a device unrecognizable. Open the Offset bill of fare, blazon "device director," and press Enter when the option appears. Expand the Deejay Drives menu and the Universal Serial Bus bill of fare to come across if your external drive appears in either set. If you see an entry that looks like your drive with a xanthous exclamation mark, correct-click on the device and choose Properties—you may observe an mistake lawmaking you can Google. You can besides caput to the Commuter tab and try updating or uninstalling the commuter and rebooting your computer.
Usually, hard drives just use Windows' built-in USB and hard disk drivers, and then this isn't probable to fix a temperamental drive, but it's worth a shot. (You can also try downloading drivers from the bulldoze manufacturer's website, simply once more, that's probably a long shot.) Check out our guide to updating your drivers for more details on this process.
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Enable and Format the Bulldoze in Disk Management
If your bulldoze is powered on but still isn't appearing in File Explorer, it'due south fourth dimension to do some digging. Open the Starting time carte du jour and type "disk management," and press Enter when theCreate and Format Hard Deejay Partitions choice appears. Once Deejay Direction loads, scroll down to see if your deejay appears in the list. If it does, make sure it'due south online and formatted. If it'southward offline, correct-click the disk'southward proper noun (e.g. "Disk 2") and choose Online.
If the disk hasn't been formatted (it'll say "Unallocated" nether a black bar), right-click it and cullNew Unproblematic Volume. This volition also solve the problem if the bulldoze is formatted for another operating system, as described above. Exist warned that formatting it will erase any data on the drive, so only continue if yous're certain you don't need anything from it.
Finally, if your drive is online and formatted, simply doesn't show a drive letter next to its proper noun, correct-click the volume and chooseChange Drive Letter and Paths to add a drive letter of the alphabet. If yous're lucky, one of these simple steps should go your new drive up and running.
Clean the Disk and Starting time From Scratch
In some more specific cases, the drive will appear in Disk Management, simply merely formatting the drive won't work. This is extremely common with SD cards formatted with Linux distributions for the Raspberry Pi, for instance.
To regain your drive'southward full capacity, you'll demand to run Windows' "make clean" command, which will return the drive to a completely unformatted country. Over again, this volition erase annihilation on it, then only continue if you lot have no other options—and make actress sure you're cleaning the correct disk, or you could lose a lot of information.
Open the Start menu, type "diskpart," and press Enter to open the run control. When the prompt appears, type "list disk" and press Enter to see the disks plugged into your system. If you lot run into the drive in question appear—pay close attention to its size—make a note of its name. Nosotros'll utilise "Disk two" in this example.
Type "select deejay 2" and press Enter to select the deejay you lot want to clean. Finally, type "make clean" and press Enter. This will erase the disk, at which point yous tin follow the higher up steps to format it from the Disk Management console.
Remove and Test the Bare Drive
Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA External Difficult Bulldoze
If none of the above options work, yous should remove the drive from its external enclosure and exam the drive on its own. The components that convert that SATA bulldoze into USB can neglect, meaning the drive could be simply fine if you lot connect it some other way.
If you take a desktop PC available, and the technological know-how, y'all tin open it up and plug the drive direct into your motherboard. If non, purchase a new external SATA-to-USB adapter dock or enclosure, plug your bare bulldoze into that, and so connect that to your PC over USB.
If information technology works, so your old enclosure (or its power supply) may be dead. If your drive even so isn't recognized, yous may have a dead drive. Contact the manufacturer to see if you're still under warranty, and make sure your other hard drives are in working order.
Our Favorite External Hard Drives
ADATA HD830 (Photo: Zlata Ivleva)
If your drive is beyond repair, it might be time for a new one. Cheque out PCMag'southward roundup of the best difficult drives, wireless drives, and rugged drives. We besides have roundups of the best drives for Mac.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/what-to-do-when-an-external-hard-drive-wont-show-up
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