Windows 10: 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 that rules out power or a functional USB on the desktop. I have unplugged the other external hard drives from the desktop when I tried to use the laptop's external hard drive with the desktop. So, I think that rules out a conflict with the volume label which is E. Anyone have any thoughts?

:)

 

Toshiba external hard drive not recognized

Hi Philip,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that the external hard drive is not recognized by the PC. I appreciate your efforts in trying to resolve the issue.
It would be great if you can answer these questions to assist you in a better way.

• Did you try connecting the Hardrive to different USB Port?
  
• Does the Hardrive get detected if you try connecting it to a different PC?
  
• Are you aware of any changes made to the computer recently?
  

I suggest you refer and follow the steps mentioned in the KB article and check if that resolves the issueError:
“USB Device not recognized” when you try to access a USB external hard drive

Note: Ignore method 2 & 5 from the above article.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Zaki

 

external hard drive not recognized

Hello zbook
#1) I have tested the external drives in three different computers, win10 pro, Win10, and XP. The results are identical. When I plug in the external hard drive windows signals a new device with an audio signal and the light comes on on the external drive. The results on all three pc's is identical in disk manager, file explorer and device manager.
#2) I have tried all solutions presented to me by FreeBooter, from the simplest solution of uninstalling the external drive in device manager and rebooting windows, to using the various third party software that was suggested, obviously with out success.
#3) The attached screen shots will only show one of the drives attached because I don't have enough free USB ports to attach two drives and I didn't think it would have been a good idea to use a hub.
#4) one strange thing about one of the drives is that now device manager lists it as a Toshiba drive although it is a Western Digital.
#5) Sorry but I have no way of getting a photo of BIOS










I look forward to reading your comments

 

External Hard Drive Not Recognized by Windows 10

Hi Thomas,

Sometimes, PCs fail to recognize the External Hard Drive even after confirming a successful connection. This is usually due to a corrupted or outdated device driver. However, for us to isolate the issue, we need additional information. Kindly answer the
questions below:

• Have you tired to plug your external hard drive to another port or to another device to make sure that it is working properly?
• Are you getting any error messages when you plug in your external hard drive?

In the meantime, we suggest that you run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter. This automated tool will check the hardware/USB connected to your PC for any known issue and resolve it automatically. Refer to this link to access the troubleshooter:
Find and fix problems with devices and hardware.

Update us on how it goes.