Windows 10: External Drive No Longer Being Recognized

I have been using an external drive with my computer for a while now, but lately my computer has been having difficulty recognizing that it is plugged in. I know for a fact that power is being given to the external drive because it lights up and I can feel it running. Likewise, I am able to plug the external drive into another computer and it works fine on that.


So far I have tried a few basics.

• Unplugging and replugging in the external drive.
• Tried other USB ports.
• Shut down and restart my computer.
• Looked for it in Disk Management (it doesn't appear there).
• Wait for a little while before trying one of the above again.

Any advice or direction would be appreciated.

:)

 

External usb drive no longer recognized by W10 backup

Hi Rob,

Maybe my post was not clear enough. Your suggestions only work when the external drive is actually recognized by the backup program, which is not the case (see the title of my post).

Do you have any suggestions about how to get w10 backup to recognize my drive? I can use the drive and see it in the file explorer, but the backup program doesn't see it.

Jo

 

External hard drive no longer recognized

Hello,

This issue could be due to the external Hard driver is outdated.

A quick question before we proceed:

• 
  Are you able to see the hard drive in the Disk management?
  

You may follow the steps below to check that:

• 
  Press Windows + R key.
  
• 
  Type diskmgmt.msc and hit enter.
  

Meanwhile let’s try the simple troubleshooting methods and check if it helps resolving the issue. Follow the below methods.

Method 1:

I suggest you to run Hardware troubleshooter to diagnose the exact issue.

• Press Windows + X keys on the keyboard and select Control Panel.
• Type Troubleshooting in the search bar on the Control Panel.
• Click on Small icon on the left navigation pane.
• Click on Troubleshooting and click on
  Hardware and Device.
• Click on Advanced on the Hardware troubleshooter dialog box and click on Run as administrator (Enter the credentials if required).
• Click on Next and follow onscreen instruction complete the Hardware troubleshooter.

I the issue still persist try the below method.

Method 2:

I recommend you to download the latest updated driver for the External hard drive from the hard drive manufacturer website and install the same.

Note: Make sure you provide the correct model number.

Hope this helps. Post us with status we will be glad to help you

 

External drive

Hi Richard,

There are several factors that can cause your external drive to not read DVDs even though the system is recognizing the device. This could be caused by a driver that needs to updated or corrupted files. For us to resolve your concern, kindly answer the questions
below:

• Just to confirm, the device that is not working properly is a external DVD optical drive?
• Were there any recent changes or updates installed on your computer?
• Have you tried to plug the external drive to a different port on your computer?

As a initial recommendation, we suggest that your run the built in troubleshooter in Windows 10. Kindly refer to the steps below:

• Type “Troubleshooting” in the Search bar and press Enter.
• Click on “View All” in the top left corner.
• This will display the list of troubleshooters which are built-in in the computer. You can click on
  Hardware and Devices from the list and you can run the troubleshooter.

This will check for common errors that affect hardware on your computer and attempts to correct them.

We look forward to your response after completing the steps.