Windows 10: Accessing An External HD: Sr. Citizen Question ?

Hi,

So simple a question, I'm embarased to ask.
Will blame it on old age now.

Should have stayed with W7.

Anyway, I have an external HD plugged into a USB Port for doing some backups

How do i get to it afterwards, please ?

I thought "File Explorer," but it doesn't seem to show up.

No problem using the right mouse button and "Send To," to load stuff easily onto this external HD, but how do I access it afterwards ?

Are there severaL (easy) ways ?

Thanks,
Bob

:)

 

Backup on external HD

I have several external HD units for backup.

All units turn on was accessible in computer and ready for backup via SyncToy.

In Win 10 the external HD sowed op the first two days. Then disappeared one by one.

All discs had its own drive letter.

Now only one external HD is accessible.

Wil that HD disappear too.

 

Windows 10 Upgrade failed - Boot no longer possible

Hi Mayank,

The HD is not accessible when running the install. Even if I get to command prompt the HD is not accessible to run chkdsk. As detailed if I remove the HD and put into external enclosure it is completely accessible.

Thanks,

David

 

Do you know if the drive is formatted? You can right-click the Windows logo on the lower left of your screen and click on Disk Management. See if the drive shows up in there. If it is formatted, it may just need to be assigned a drive letter.

 

And while you're there, you can post a screenshot of disk management and we can help you further:
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of - Windows 10 Forums

 

Hey Bob, the new name for "My Computer" is "This PC"

Since you can use SendTo to send your files to the drive, it should show up as one of the drives in "This PC".

Probably a drive letter of "D:" or "E:" or something like that. You can also check in the system tray for the USB-looking icon, the one used to safely remove hardware, and when you right click it, It should show the drive letter of the external hard drive. Note that you don't have to remove it, you're just checking which letter it has been assigned via the remove hardware menu.

 

The screenshot of Disk Management that NavyLCDR and Deacon Frost asked for, will help a lot. But, you should be able to access the drive from 'This PC' not file explorer. This PC in Windows 10 is much the same as Computer in Windows 7.

 

"This PC" is a shortcut to file explorer. I don't see how two can be considered different.

It's the virtual directory which {20d04fe0-3aea-1069-a2d8-08002b30309d} points to.

 

Hydranix, technically, you may be correct. However, under the default settings, hard drives are not shown in the main window under file explorer, they are shown in the left column if you scroll down enough. They are shown in the main Window under This PC. The OP is ,self described, not familiar with Windows 10. If he can 'send to' his external hard drive, it obviously has a drive letter and is visible to the OS. He just can't find it.