Windows 10: External USB drives cannot be mounted in Windows 10

My installation of Windows 10 is no longer able to mount partitions on external USB hard disks. The drives are recognized, they show up in the Device Manager, but the file system NTFS is not recognized and not mounted. In Disk Management, the partition is shown as healthy Logical drive.The same drives work just fine on a different Windows 10 PC. USB flash drives work just fine on my systems, only external HDDs are affected.I have tried uninstalling the drive and various USB controller-related devices in the Device manager. I have done a repair install of the OS, all to no avail.

:)

 

USB external drives not mounting

In the last couple of weeks my USB external drives have stopped mounting when I plug them in. The notification sound when a USB device is plugged in sounds, the activity lights on the drives power on and I can hear them spin up as normal, but the drives themselves do not appear in explorer, device manager, nor disk management. After 5-10 seconds the drives then power down.

I have tried all the usual fixes suggested by troubleshooting - updating/uninstalling/reinstalling drivers, uninstalling/reinstalling devices, disabling USB selective suspend settings - but the only way Windows recognises and mounts the drives is if they are plugged in when my machine is powered on, which is inconvenient when I need to swap drives for any reason.

I have had no problems like this previously, and have been using the drives on my machine without issue for over a year. Also, it just applies to external hard drives. Windows has no issues detecting my iPhone, memory sticks, and USB peripherals (mouse, gamepads).

 

Drive not mounted

Hi John,



Welcome to Microsoft Community. Your interest in Windows 10 is much appreciated.



I’m sorry to know that WD passport and
Seagate Free Agent Goflex Desk drive not mounted in the event window. I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you and I will be happy to assist you.

Please provide us the following information, to assist you further.

• As you are able to find the drivers in device manager, are you able to find the drivers in Disk management also?

Please refer the suggestions given by
Imran Chand in the below link and check if that helps.

Redirecting

Please let us know, if you need any further help and we would be glad to assist you further.

Thank you.

 

Installed 1903 and 1 of 2 external drives does not mount properly

Have been using Win 10 several months with good success. System set up with two 2TB external USB3 drives. Recently upgraded to 1903. Now one of the drives mounts normally, and the other doesn't. The troublesome drive shows up in the USB connections list
with the correct device name, but the secondary description is missing. The drive does not show up in the Disk Management window. Tried reformatting the drive that won't mount, using a Win 7 machine. Drive works perfectly there, but even after reformatting,
it still isn't recognized by win 10 after the upgrade. Need help!