Windows 10: External hard drive only properly works when restarting the PC

Hi, I've had this problem for many months now and I don't really know what else to do: a while ago I had installed some programs that probably modifed the windows settings while my external hard drive was plugged in. Then I started to notice that the external hard drive wasn't getting recognized like it was before and it didn't appear in the explore files list on the left. I noticed that I was able to access it from the "This PC" tab, but the thing is that the hard drive wasn't recognized as external. Somehow it was as if like it was part of the C drive. Also, because of this, all the files fr

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Seagate External Hard Drive

Hi Barbara,

Hardware failure or corruption within your system files are some of the possible reasons why you are experiencing an issue with accessing your external hard drive. For us to provide an accurate solution, we would need you to answer the following questions:

• Which build, version and edition of Windows 10?
• Are you experiencing the same issue when you are trying to access the external hard drive using another PC?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

In the meantime, we suggest running the automated troubleshooter for hardware. Follow these steps to do so:

• Open the Control Panel.
• Using the search box at the upper right corner of the window, type troubleshooting.
  
• From the search results, click on Troubleshooting.
• Click on Hardware and Sound and then choose Hardware and Devices.
• Once done, restart your computer and then check if the same issue persists.

We are looking forward to your response.

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.