Windows 10: My external CD drive and external hard drive no longer show up in Windows explorer.

When I plug my external portable devices into my pc (like Wester Digital hard drive or my ASUS portable CD drive) I here the blip sound that indicates they are plugged in, but I can't access them in Windows explorer. What should I do?

:)

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.

 

External Hard Drive

Hi,

Just to verify, did you mean, your back up files used to be on your external hard drive, but now it's no longer there? If this is true, kindly provide more answers to the questions below, so we can further assess the issue:

• When did the files start to disappear?
• What are the troubleshooting steps you have done so far?
• Did you make nay changes on the settings of your PC or hard drive prior to this issue?
• Are you getting any error messages when trying to plug in your external drive?
• Does your external drive shows that the space is consumed?

Please advise. We'll keep an eye out to your response.

 

unrecognised external hard drive on Windows 10

Since you already reinstalled the drivers of the External Hard Drive, let's run the
Hardware and Devices troubleshooter as it can resolve your concern. You can do that by following these steps:

• 
  Press the Start button.
  
• 
  Type and select Troubleshooting.
  
• 
  Click on View all on the left panel.
  
• 
  Select and run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter.
  

If the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter doesn’t resolve your concern, we suggest that you change the letter of the External Hard Drive. You can do that by following these steps:

• 
  Press the Start button.
  
• 
  Type and select Control panel.
  
• 
  Select System and Security.
  
• 
  Select Administrative Tools, and a new window will appear.
  
• 
  Double-click Computer Management, and a new window will appear.
  
• 
  Select Disk Management that is located under
  Storage in the left pane.
  
• 
  Right click on the External Hard Drive that is not showing on the File Explorer.
  
• 
  Select Change letter and network path, and a new window will appear.
  
• 
  Select Change, and choose the letter that you want for the External Hard Drive.
  

After changing the letter of the External Hard Drive, we suggest that you reboot your laptop for the changes to take effect.



Let us know how it goes.



Regards.