External Hard Drive Not Showing Up or Recognized in Windows, How to Fix It?

Written By Oliver Powell
Approved By Rohit Arora
Updated on 16 Mar, 2023
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Summary: Sometimes, external hard drives do not show up while connecting and thus making the data inaccessible. Here are the ways to resolve external hard drive not showing up issue and steps to recover data from an inaccessible drive using the most trusted Stellar Data Recovery software.

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At times, when you plug in an external drive into your system it does not show up or AutoPlay in Windows. Here, you will be able, to take a look at ways to resolve external hard drive not showing up issue in Windows and make it accessible for use.

The problem starts when you plug in an external USB or hard drive to your system, and nothing happens. At times, you might hear the USB connection sound as well, but still, AutoPlay doesn’t run. When you check the drive in ‘Computer’, you don’t see any external drive there. Usually, external hard drive not showing up problem occurs when Windows names the drive to a letter that is already in use.

External Hard Drive Not Showing Up How to Recover files

Steps to Locate Not Showing External Hard Drive in Windows 10, 8, 7

Open ‘Disk Management’.

In the disk management window, a list of all the connected external drives and the existing ones along with their complete details will be visible. Here, you will be able to determine the drive you’re trying to access by its size and format type.
Now, right-click on the drive, select ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths’ option and then click on the Change button.

Select a drive letter from the available alphabets to rename it. Make sure the selected drive letter is not already in use.
A warning dialogue prompted and asked you to change the drive letter. Click Yes.
Now, you will be able to see the changed the drive letter
After the successful process, you’ll be able to see the AutoPlay screen asking what you want to do with the drive and ‘Computer’ also displays the drive that can be accessed.

Following these steps will most probably resolve the external hard drive not showing up in Windows. But what if the drive or new hard drive is not showing in the Disk Management as well?

External Hard Drive Not Showing Up in Disk Management

If Windows doesn’t list your external drive in the Disk Management, then possibly there could be a problem with USB port, a driver problem with Windows or you are using a dead drive.

1. Check USB Port:

First, try to plug your targeted drive in another USB port on your computer. If it works then, you might have a dead USB port. In case you are using a USB hub then try to connect the drive directly to the computer instead since some USB hubs don’t provide sufficient power to the external drive for their proper functioning.
If still, the drive doesn’t appear in Disk Management then connect it to another computer’s USB port to check whether the drive itself is bad or the computer has certain issues. Make sure you have checked whether the drive appears in the computer’s Disk Management window. If not then you are using a dead drive that needs to be replaced.

2. Update The Driver

If the external hard drive does work on another computer then your Windows itself may be having a driver problem. You can determine it using Device Manager.
Open Device Manager and check for devices with a yellow exclamation mark next to them. If you can find out a yellow exclamation mark, then there must be a driver problem. Right-click the device with a yellow exclamation mark and choose Properties, and go through the error message. This error message can help you resolve the issue.
To resolve such problem, you can also run System Restore or can also use the Update Driver button to install an updated driver. To revert any changes, select the Roll Back Driver button or use Uninstall button to uninstall the driver from your system. Hopefully, this will configure your external drive correctly when you reconnect the drive.

3. Partitioning And Formatting the Drive

At times unpartitioned drive is also a reason for an invisible or an inaccessible external drive. When the drive is full of “unallocated space,” then you need to create a new partition on it to show its visibility. Windows Disk Management tool can fix this partition and file system issue.

Right-click inside the unallocated space, select New Simple Volume and follow the wizard to create a new partition.

In case the drive is partitioned, but still, you can’t access the drive from another device, then probably it is not formatted as NTFS. At times many devices can’t read the Windows NTFS file system. To fix this problem format the drive with the FAT32 file system.

Note: This process will remove all the stored files on your external drive, therefore first try to copy important files to another drive. In case you are unable to access the data, recover it with an efficient partition recovery software .

4. Use Professional Recovery Software

Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows is a highly recommended tool that is capable enough to restore inaccessible files from the external hard drive. Its simple and intuitive interface doesn’t require any technical know-how to run it properly. Due to its highly positive reviews many windows users use this utility to recover data from their inaccessible external drive. You can download the software by clicking on below button.

From the main screen, ‘Select What To Recover Data’, choose the file types you want to recover and click on ‘Next’.

Then choose the external formatted or RAW (Unrecognized) drive from the options under ‘Connected Drives’.

Turn on the ‘Deep Scan’ toggle at the bottom and click ‘Scan.’

During the scan, you can turn ON/OFF the file preview.

Tip: Turning file preview OFF boosts the scanning speed.

After the scan, you’ll see that the files/folders get listed under ‘File Type’, ‘Tree View’ and ‘Deleted List.’

Select the desired files that you want to recover from the scan result, and click on the ‘Recover’ button.
Click ‘Browse’ and choose a save location.

Click ‘Start Saving’ to save the recovered files at your desired location.

Final Words

Overall, whenever you face issues with your external drives, it is always better to go with a reliable data recovery software instead of trying different methods to make it accessible as it might end up with a data loss situation.

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About The Author

Oliver Powell

Oliver Powell is a Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. He is a passionate technology blogger & content creator, He explores new applications and has deep understanding of data recovery. He has experience in Windows & Mac data recovery domain.

114 comments

Andy Baron says:

December 14, 2016 at 10:40 am

Nice write-up!!! I am impressed with the way you have written your blog regarding the issue related to data recovery. Thanks for sharing a helpful software to recover our data and a useful blog.

Reply
Steven says:

November 26, 2016 at 9:22 pm

I have a western digital external hard drive with backup data on it. It used to work but out of nowhere, I can no longer access it. The error is unrecognized file system. Can this be fixed ?

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  November 28, 2016 at 8:39 am
  
  Hi Steven,
  
  I advise you to go through to resolve your problem.
  If you still face any issue, kindly let me know.
  
  Thanks for asking a question.
  
  Reply
Stephen Grey says:

November 24, 2016 at 8:28 am

My 2 TB WD external hard disk was not visible on my computer screen. I need to transfer few important software from my external storage medium to my personal computer. I made a search for various methods online to overcome this problem. But, lastly I take the help of third-party data recovery software which is recommended to me by my one of my colleague. He recommended me to run Stellar Window Data Recovery on my system. I immediately made my mind and try this software to recover my data. Really impressed with fast scanning process and maximum retrieval of data. Wonderful Experience.

Reply
walter carroll says:

November 2, 2016 at 8:08 pm

What if the External Hard Drive doesn’t show up on the Disk Management?

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  November 3, 2016 at 10:56 am
  
  Hi Walter,
  
  I advise you to connect your external hard drive to any another working system and check whether it becomes visible there or not, or you can change the USB cable or switch the port where you were connecting your external hard drive.
  
  If any of the above options doesn’t work for you, then I recommend you to connect your external hard drive to another system and run our software to recover your data back.
  
  Good Luck!!!
  
  Reply
Gaurav says:

November 2, 2016 at 3:50 pm

Hi, I have connected my old laptop’s hdd to another laptop via an adapter to recover files, in the explorer I can see the other partitions but not the C drive from the old hdd.
In disc management 200 gb is shown as primary partition but no drive letter is assigned, nor I can change the drive letter or format it.
Please help.

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  November 3, 2016 at 10:54 am
  
  Hi Gaurav,
  
  I suggest you to follow the below steps to solve your query:
  
  • Run ‘Win+R’ and type ‘cmd’ command and Enter.
  • Then, type ‘diskpart’ to start.
  • Type ‘List Volume’ and press Enter. (In this step, you must be aware of the volume of whom you would like to assign, change the drive letter.)
  • Then, select volume n and press Enter. In this step, you have to select a volume of whom you would like to assign, change the drive letter.
  • Then, if you want to assign or change the drive letter, you have to type “assign letter=R”.
  
  By the above steps, you can manually assign your drive letter.
  
  Kindly share your feedback. If you still have any query, feel free to ask.
  
  Reply
  1. Gaurav says:
    
    November 3, 2016 at 6:40 pm
    
    Hi Jyoti Prakash,
    Thanks for your quick reply.
    I have used the disk part command and I am still not able to find out the missing C drive from the old HDD whereas the other 3 out of 4 partitions are seen i.e. E, F & G.
    Here you can see C & D drives are of the other laptop where I have connected this HDD.
    
    Regards,
    Gaurav
  2. Jyoti Prakash says:
    
    November 7, 2016 at 2:49 am
    
    Hi Gaurav,
    
    Thanks for your appreciation.
    
    If you are a Windows 7 user, then follow the below steps to unhide your partition:
    
    • Go to one of the partitions which are displayed on your system.
    • Then, click on the ‘Organize’ Tab and select ‘Folder and Search Options’.
    • Select the ‘View’ tab and search for the ‘Show drive letters’ option.
    • After checking this option, you’ll be able to see the missing drive letter in the Windows Explorer.
    
    If you still face any issue, kindly let me know.
    
    Thanks!!!
Hamer Paul says:

September 30, 2016 at 4:58 am

Hi, my external hard drive is unreadable, the light is blinking, but it is not showing up in the system. I checked it in the disk management, and it appears as unallocated. Can you please suggest me what I should do now? I have important data on my external hard drive which I don’t want to lose at any cost.

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  October 3, 2016 at 5:00 am
  
  Hi Hamer,
  
  It seems that your external hard drive has lost its file system and that’s why it appears as unallocated in the Disk Management. I would suggest you to use the data recovery software of Stellar and then format your hard drive for reuse. Thanks!!
  
  Reply
Jennifer L. Stine says:

September 9, 2016 at 5:36 am

WD External hard drive for Mac (Encrypted) not showing up in the Finder but seems greyed out in Mac’s Disk Utility. It’s a single partitioned disk. Is it possible to recover external hard drive on Mac running OS X Mavericks?

Reply
1. Vishal says:
  
  September 9, 2016 at 8:21 am
  
  Hi Jennifer,
  
  Stellar Mac Data Recovery software supports data recovery on encrypted hard drives and unmounted volumes. You can download the application and start a free scan to preview all the files tool can regain. For any assistant feel free to reply or call 877-778-6087.
  
  Best Regards
  Vishal
  
  Reply
Allee says:

September 8, 2016 at 10:27 am

As a newbie, I stuck with a problem that when my external drive is neither showing up in My Computer nor in the Disk Management. Somehow, I landed on this page and saw the software mentioned in it. I immediately purchased this software to recover my data, and luckily, I am quite able to recover my data as this software has a very easy interface. Thanks for sharing the blog with us…

Reply
Cole says:

September 7, 2016 at 6:14 am

I am using an external drive which suddenly becomes invisible one day. It is not detected in My Computer as well as in the Disk Management and other places where it could be found. So, without wasting my time in experimenting with it, I started my search for an efficient software which can at least recover my data back and luckily, I got this software and found that this software is lucky for me as I had easily recouped my data with the help of it. Thanks for this amazing software.

Reply
Katie Wilson says:

August 19, 2016 at 10:04 am

The situation becomes worsen when the external drive in which you had kept and saved your data becomes invisible, i.e., it is not accessible or we can say not showing up in My Computer and other such places. It’s not so easy to ignore such problems. My experience says that the user should opt for the data recovery software at the same moment, when they are facing such situation. I had done the same. I have downloaded your software and easily recovered my data back. Thanks for the post.

Reply