Windows 10: external hard drive not recognized

Discus and support external hard drive not recognized in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware to solve the problem; 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... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware' started by vallero, Jan 22, 2018.

  1. vallero Win User

    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 Events that says "device not migrated"

    3) Disk Manager shows the drive with the following information: no Drive Letter, Unknown, and not initialized. Right clicking shows the menu options however Initialize is greyed out and not available, clicking the Offline button results in message that says "device not ready"

    I tried a third party program (AOMEI partition assistant standard) but it also could not initialize either of the drives.

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks

    :)
     
    vallero, Jan 22, 2018
    #1
  2. KK48 Win User

    Automatic backups

    trying to setup automatic back up to external hard drive:

    when entering "update & security" then backup it gives the option to "add a drive". It recognizes a removable sc card but does not recognize my external hard drive. The file manager does recognize external hard drive.

    How can I get the drive recognized in "add a drive?" I have formatted the drive using ntfs.
     
  3. What about bluetooth3+HS in Symbian Anna ?

    An N8 can recognize a big external hard drive, the largest tested that works is a 250Gb external hard drive. The problem in recognizing is if the hard drive can be powered using the measly output of an N8.
     
    chanchan05, Jan 22, 2018
    #3
  4. external hard drive not recognized

    If a device shows the error “Device is not migrated”, it can be caused by damaged or non compatible drivers.

    1. Launch device manager and use the Uninstall button for external storage drives.

    2. If a dialog box asks to delete the drivers, check the checkbox for deleting the driver files from Windows driver store.

    3. Reboot Windows after uninstalling the driver and then let device manager search for new device drivers.
     
    FreeBooter, Jan 22, 2018
    #4
  5. vallero Win User
    thanks FreeBooter
    I tried the method that you suggested, but unfortunately it did not work, but the symptoms are now slightly different.

    When I go to Disk Management the information for the disk is: Unknown, Not Initialized.

    However this time the initialize button is not greyed out, but when I click on it the message is "device is not ready", I get the same error message when I click the Offline button.
     
    vallero, Jan 22, 2018
    #5
  6. Can you please post screenshot of the Disk Management console.
     
    FreeBooter, Jan 22, 2018
    #6
  7. Fix or rebuild MBR

    1. Download and launch EaseUS free partition software.
    2. Select the external hard drive, right-click and select "Rebuild MBR", and then choose the proper Operating System version.
    3. Apply the operation to add a pending operation of rebuilding MBR.


    Check and repair bad sectors and disk error

    1. Download and launch EaseUS free partition software, right-click the hard drive and click "Check partition".
    2. Choose the way that you want to use to check and repair bad sectors: "Check Partition Properties", "Call Windows Chkdsk" or "Surface Test" and Click "OK" to continue.
    3. Let the software automatically check and repair bad sectors. And finally, click "OK" to finish the process.
     
    FreeBooter, Jan 22, 2018
    #7
  8. vallero Win User

    external hard drive not recognized

    I downloaded EaseUs partition software, when I run the software it does not show the external hard drive in the list of connected drives, it only shows my main internal drive. Windows disk manager continues to show the external drive however with the same unresponsiveness.
     
    vallero, Jan 22, 2018
    #8
  9. This is a Windows version of the Data LifeGuard Diagnostics. It will test WD internal and external drives. Please do a EXTENDED TEST on the external drive - performs a Full Media Scan to detect bad sectors. Test may take several hours to complete depending on the size of the drive. Please post the result of the EXTENDED TEST.
     
    FreeBooter, Jan 22, 2018
    #9
  10. vallero Win User
    hello FreeBooter
    I did the extended test here are the results:
    capacity 0.00 GB
    SMART status - not available
    test result PASS
     
    vallero, Jan 22, 2018
    #10
  11. vallero Win User
    by the way FreeBooter the test took 1 second, I assume because the capacity is detected as 0 GB, I don't know
     
    vallero, Jan 22, 2018
    #11
  12. FreeBooter, Jan 22, 2018
    #12
  13. vallero Win User

    external hard drive not recognized

    tried mini tool, it lists the drive, but when I try to do anything I get a message that says 'no disk can be found'.
     
    vallero, Jan 22, 2018
    #13
  14. FreeBooter, Jan 22, 2018
    #14
  15. vallero Win User
    Same issue FreeBooter

    when I run TestDisk the external drive is not listed as a drive to repair.
    To confirm that everything is same as before I looked at the disk in Device Manager - it is working properly, and in Disk Manager it's status is the same - Unknown, not ititialized
     
    vallero, Jan 22, 2018
    #15
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external hard drive not recognized

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