Windows 10: Computer does not recognize external hard drive

Discus and support Computer does not recognize external hard drive in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware to solve the problem; Here is an update,formatted to mbr,works good and dvd player recognizes it.One drawback,I don't know if I did something wrong but I followed the... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware' started by eore, Aug 15, 2017.

  1. eddman Win User

    Computer does not recognize external hard drive


    MBR is limited to 2TB when using 512-byte sectors, although I don't know if this is per disk or per partition. Seems to be the former.

    Have you tried creating a second partition? Does it even allow that?
     
    eddman, Aug 16, 2017
    #16
  2. eore Win User

    I have not tried that but think I will live with it the way it is.Still gives me more storage than I need.Sorry about the three previous posts,don't know why they are all the same.
     
  3. Bree New Member
    If you go back and edit each of the 'extras' there's a 'delete this post' above the editor.
     
  4. jumanji Win User

    Computer does not recognize external hard drive

    Your smart TV which is of recent origin can recognise GPT initialised drives whereas your old DVD Player would recognise only MBR initialised drives.

    Your old >2TB drives like 3TB, 4TB, came as advanced formatted MBR drives. Reason why your DVD player could see them. ( Those days Hard drive manufacturers resorted to this advanced formatted MBR drives to make these greater than 2TB drives compatible with GPT-blind Windows XP 32 bit systems which were prevalent then)
    .
    With support for Windows XP coming to an end, the HDD manufacturers jettisoned the advance formatted MBR drives and all new greater than 2 TB drives now come initialised as GPT drives out of the factory. http://knowledge.seagate.com/article...language=en_US

    So stick to 2TB drives and MBR if you want to use with your old DVD player. ( I believe that the newer DVD players may recognise GPT HDDs just like your Smart TVs)
     
    jumanji, Aug 16, 2017
    #19
  5. jumanji Win User
    Your smart TV which is of recent origin can recognise GPT initialised drives whereas your old DVD Player would recognise only MBR initialised drives.

    Your old >2TB drives like 3TB, 4TB, came as advanced formatted MBR drives. Reason why your DVD player could see them. ( Those days Hard drive manufacturers resorted to this advanced formatted MBR drives to make these greater than 2TB drives compatible with GPT-blind Windows XP 32 bit systems which were prevalent then)
    .
    With support for Windows XP coming to an end, the HDD manufacturers jettisoned the advance formatted MBR drives and all new greater than 2 TB drives now come initialised as GPT drives out of the factory. http://knowledge.seagate.com/article...language=en_US

    So stick to 2TB drives and MBR if you want to use with your old DVD player. ( I believe that the newer DVD players may recognise GPT HDDs just like your Smart TV)
     
    jumanji, Apr 5, 2018
    #20
Thema:

Computer does not recognize external hard drive

Loading...
  1. Computer does not recognize external hard drive - Similar Threads - Computer does recognize

  2. External Hard Drive Not Recognized...

    in Windows 10 Gaming
    External Hard Drive Not Recognized...: I have an external hard drive that I mostly use with my laptop. When I try and connect it with my desktop it never shows up in the File Explorer. Both the laptop and the desktop have Windows 11. I have connected and used other external hard drives to the desktop so I think...
  3. External Hard Drive Not Recognized...

    in Windows 10 Software and Apps
    External Hard Drive Not Recognized...: I have an external hard drive that I mostly use with my laptop. When I try and connect it with my desktop it never shows up in the File Explorer. Both the laptop and the desktop have Windows 11. I have connected and used other external hard drives to the desktop so I think...
  4. external hard drive not recognized

    in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware
    external hard drive not recognized: i recentley came accross a hard drive i had from and old Acer laptop, i think it had windows 7 or 8 on it, so i bought a SATA to USB 3.0, 2.5 inc case and plugged it in to the mac that i have been using for 3 years now, in finder there it was marked Acer open it up and could...
  5. External Hard Drives Not Recognized

    in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware
    External Hard Drives Not Recognized: We have just purchased a desktop unit and a touchscreen laptop and in both cases the external hard drives that were attached are no longer recognized by the new computers. Both of the computers have received all Windows Updates. I have downloaded the driver software and...
  6. External Hard drive Not recognized

    in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware
    External Hard drive Not recognized: The device I am trying to install is an external hard drive I purchased from thee MAC store Backup Plus Portable Drive. I have tried all three methods stated above and non of them worked for me. In particular in regards to method 3 I have downloaded and installed the...
  7. External hard drive not recognized in My Computer

    in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware
    External hard drive not recognized in My Computer: I have a USB External hard drive which is not showing up in My Computer although it was formerly. What can I do to correct this or access my data on it. I'm using Win10 with the latest updates. Thanks....
  8. external hard drive not recognized

    in Windows 10 Network and Sharing
    external hard drive not recognized: I had storage spaces From windows 8.1 that computer went down I moved Storage spaces to another computer. windows 10 machine. Everything works. I was able to Copy those files to another drives. now I want to reuse those drives but only let me rename it not to remove. I...
  9. My computer does not recognize my WD external hard drive

    in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware
    My computer does not recognize my WD external hard drive: My computer does not recognize my WD external hard drive. I've tried to go into Disk Management and I cannot find anything that helps. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/my-computer-does-not-recognize-my-wd-external-hard/aa33b279-5a52-46cb-b976-51aed92b90c1
  10. external hard drive not recognized

    in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware
    external hard drive not recognized: I have two Western Digital 300GB, USB3, external drives. Suddenly both are not recognized by Windows. 1) Neither appear as a drive in File Explorer 2) Device Manager reports that the "device is working properly", and the drivers are up to date. There is a message in...