Steps to Fix External hard Drive Does Not Showing Up Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7
“Advancement to Windows 10 is might be exciting, but it also comes along with so many problems like broken drivers or devices are missing and not recognized. If your external hard drive is not working appropriately nor showing up in Windows 10 but was fine in the previous OS. Then it is most likely because the driver software is outdated or broken. In this write-up, we will be going to discuss the reliable solutions to fix external hard drive not showing up in Windows 10 issue effectively.”
Most of the Windows users have encountered this problem. After connecting an external hard drive to a USB Port, they have found that the system does not recognize it. The drive is not showing up by the OS and is no more visible in Windows Explorer. Possibly, the reasons could be due to issues with the USB drivers installed on the computer or anything else. The external hard drive is also called as the portable hard drive. With the large capacity, it is always utilized to store or back up valuable data. In most cases, external hard drive or second hard disk will present automatically after connecting to your local machine. However, it can be possible that the external hard drive not showing up in Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 etc. In this scenario, you can open Disk Management to see whether the hard drive is visible in disk management at first.
Next, you should have to check for any pending updates under Windows Update. Some of the updates might be regarding the drivers. Therefore, it required to be installed on the computer. So check, if you wanted to update the drivers. Visit the related website and search for the latest drivers available for the hard drive model and install it on the PC and check if that resolves the hard disk not showing issue or not.
10 Common Cases: External Hard Drive Not Showing Up
There are some common issues may lead to this issue such as “external hard drive not showing up Windows 10”. The possible common reasons behind this error listed here:
- The hard drive is not initialized properly
- The hard drive has no drive letter
- Partitions are lost
- The hard drive is hidden
- Faulty SATA cables or port
- Outdated or problematic troubleshoot drivers
- Malicious programs like virus or malware attack
- Defective hard drive
- Drive not enabled in the BIOS
- Unsupported or RAW file system
Solutions to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Windows
Here, are numerous cases where the Windows 10 fails to detect an external hard drive on your PC even if it is plugged in properly. This means your computer might not display the disk in the file explorer even if you can view it in the device manager. This issue has been there for pretty some time and can be resolved to utilize the workarounds outlined below:
- Fix Disk Not Showing in Windows by Some Basic Steps
- Resolve Hard Drive Nor Showing in Windows using Disk Management
Workaround 1: Executing Basic Troubleshooting Ways & Fix Disk Not Showing
Before we allow in carrying out high technical and advanced troubleshooting, you should execute the basic troubleshooting tasks to fix hard drive does not show up windows and see if they fix your problem. Most of the time, you might not be able to access your hard drive because of very simple issues. Ensure you follow all the instructions below before going on with the other solutions.
1. Try to plug in the hard drive in the USB port at the back of your computer. If you own a computer or to some other port if you own a laptop.
2. Initially, check if the USB cable of the hard drive is in working condition. You can also try plugging another cable and then check again.
3. You have to ensure that the hard drive is not physically damaged. External hard drives are very sensitive and tend to break even on the last fall.
4. Make sure that the USB port you are connecting into is in working state with the latest drivers installed.
5. If you view the device in hardware and printers and not on your device manager, you should have to uninstall the driver. Then go to the device manager and scan for hardware changes.
Note: – If the above-mentioned steps are not beneficial for you to fix external hard drive not showing up in Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10. Then move to the workaround 2.
Workaround 2: Start the External Hard Drive Through Disk Management
When the external hard drive is not displayed as an unallocated space or without appearing disk capacity, you can initialize it as follows:
Step 1: First of all right click on the hard drive that required to be initialized.
Step 2: Now, choose Initialize Disk and set the disk partition style as MBR and GPT
Step 3: Right-click the disk and select Create New Simple Volume.
Note: As initialization will encountered data loss. So, it is better to take backup all the important data on the external hard drive before initializing it.
Best Solution to Fix Data Loss from Storage Device
If you are unable to fix hard drive not showing up Windows and you does not get a satisfactory result. Also, you lost your valuable files and folders. So, it is time to switch to this prominent Hard Drive Recovery Tool. With the help of this application a user can easily solve the issue even recover data after fixing external hard drive not showing up Windows 10 issue. The software also recovers data after formatting hard drive. Just execute the above mentioned steps and resolve the issue external hard drive not showing up instantly.
User’s Query for Hard Drive Not Showing Up Windows 10
“I am using 640 GB Seagate external hard drive. Last night I tried to connect it in my Dell laptop. But it is showing an error Seagate external hard drive not showing up Windows 10. Please suggest me working solution.”
“The Western Digital external hard drive not showing up windows 8.1. I checked in the Disk management and the disk is not visible in it. Is there any possible solution to fix western digital external hard drive not showing up windows.”
“Using Windows 7 in my home laptop, I had bought a new hard drive. I connected it through USB cable. It creates the sound of attaching device but the external hard drive does not show up windows. Looking for the valid solution to fix this issue.”
Summing Up
In this article, mainly we have discussed the manual ways to fix external hard drive not showing up Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 etc. As we all know that the manual solutions having some limitations. Perform the steps listed above and resolve hard disk does not showing issue.