How to Fix External Drive Blinking but Not Detectable Issue?

I am using 2TB External Hard Drive since last 3 and a half years to store both my personal memories and business critical data. Till yesterday, I have not faced any issue, but today, I cannot access it. Whenever I connect it to my desktop, I get nothing in return apart from a blinking LED light and weak continuous beeps.

I even checked Disk Management, but it is not even detectable over there. The situation is scaring me as the drive includes almost 89.54 GB data and each of bit of this information is crucial for me. Any solution to Fix External Drive Blinking but Not Detectable Issue? I am in a state to handle the data loss. Please help me in external drive recovery. — Tom Webron

If your problem is similar to Tom and you are also looking forward to a solution, then this blog is for you. It entails you about various effective methods to fix the issue and get all lost data.

Getting Started

How to Fix External Drive Blinking but Not Detectable Issue?

Let’s take into consideration one by one.

Situation 1: External Hard Drive not Detected Error

Using several approaches you can fix External Hard Drive not Detected Error. Among all, the most common and widely used ways are:

Fix 1: Change USB Port

It is the first port of call. The reason being, there are equal chances of USB Port damage. Thus, plug in your hard drive into another Port to identify the exact cause and confirm whether a problem exists with the drive or not.

Fix 2: Turn On USB Root Hub

Another simple trick to fix the issue. In this, you just have to Turn On all USB Root Hub.

Execution Steps are:

1. Click Start
2. Type devmgmt.msc
3. Press Enter
4. Click Device Manager
5. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers
6. Now, right-click on USB Root Hub, choose Properties followed by Power Management
7. Disable Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power
8. Follow the process for all USB Root Hub
9. Reboot PC

Fix 3: Clean-up Virus

There are equal chances of virus infection. To resolve it the best solution is to use virus cleaning software. It has a potential to remove the virus from the drive as well as PC and make your drive accessible.

Situation 2: External Drive Not Working but Blinking

Solution 1: Unhide all Hidden Devices

1. Go to Start
2. Type: devmgmt.msc
3. Hit Enter
4. Under Device Manager, choose View followed by Show hidden devices
5. Click on + sign to expand all notes
6. Right-click on greyed entries and choose uninstall
7. Lastly, reboot the PC and try again

Solution 2: Uninstall Driver

1. Go to Start
2. Key in devmgmt.msc and press Enter
3. Expand Universal Serial Universal Serial Bus controllers
4. Right-click on each USB device and click Uninstall
5. Verify whether there is an unrecognized device or not.
6. If there is any, click on Drivers tab and uninstall the drivers
7. Again, check My Computer/My PC for external drive
8. If does not show, restart your PC. ( in case if it shows initially but disappear later, then repeat the above step and click on Disk Management -> Change Drive Letter -> Reconnect it)

Solution 3: Change Registry

Modifying the registry is another great approach to fix the issue. Steps to modify Registry are:

1. Go to Start
2. Type: regedt32 and Hit OK
3. Backup Registry
4. Click Export
5. In left side, click OK, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
6. Delete upper filter or lower filter
7. Retry External Drive

Now, open your drive to access your data.

Surprised as your data is not there!

Wondering what’s next? How can you recover data?

Don’t panic, third-party recovery tools like Stellar Data Recovery- Standard for Windows is available to help you. You just have to download, install, register, launch and follow its recovery wizard steps:

Steps are:

1. Select Type of Data and Location
2. Scan the Drive and Preview the found files
3. Recover the scanned files and Save them at desired location

Why is it a sure-shot solution?

1. Firstly, it is a software-directed approach so, there is no possibility of data loss or compromise unlike manual process
2. Secondly, you don’t need any technical expertise to solve the issue
3. Thirdly, it is secure, reliable and efficient
4. Fourthly, you might end up fixing one issue but failed to fix another.

Additional information

• Reasons for Drive Turning Undetectable

There is no any defined reason to turn your drive into the undetectable state. Many factors lead to this error. Some common factors are:

• Virus attack
• Partition Issue
• Dead USB Ports
• Driver Issue
• Wrong File System

Hard Drive Death Count on this comprehensive guide to fix the issue and restore the data with 100% data security!

If you are among those who have tried any of these approaches to fix the undetectable external drive, then please let us know which worked for you. Also, if there is any other fix way that worked for you, please share through comment.

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About The Author

Isha Rikhi

Isha is a technical blogger and data recovery expert. She has experience in Windows data recovery. She writes about technical tips and tutorials.