Windows 10: New External Drive not visible in "This PC"

If this "Brand New" Drive took 30 hours to Format, then it may be a Refurbished drive disguised as a New Drive. I would return it and ask for a replacement under warranty.
Then on your new drive, run Crystal Disk Info on it. If it shows any Yellow Caution flags, that drive too will be a Refurbished drive. You want a drive with no Bad Sectors.
You can run CDI on this drive as well, send this report to the manufacturer for warranty replacement.

 

Any time a 5 TB drive is completely scanned or a full format is done, it's going to take 2 1/2 forever's to complete.
A lot depends on your system.

Filling in your (My System Specs) would be helpful.

Jack

 

The external drive took 15 hours to format (not quick formatting). Something did not go right. It finally said "formatting 100%." Not sure if that means formatting was finished. Drive "healthy" was displayed. Yet the drive still did not show up on This PC. So I went back into Disk Management, and it asked me to add a drive letter, which I already had done before formatting, but apparently, it hadn't taken. So I gave it again a drive letter. Then it asked me to format yet again.

So before I give this a second go, I'd like to know if I should leave a small partition with unallocated space. I think I read that on computer HDs, there is usually some unallocated memory kept to replace bad sectors. Is this done with external drives?

 

How did you assign the drive letter did you select "Change Drive Letters and Paths" option to assign a drive letter?

Hard drive don't use unallocated storage space to 'mapped out' (replace) bad sectors. Bad sectors can often be corrected by using a spare sectors built into the drive. However, any information written to a bad sector is usually lost.

If needed quick format the external drive and if this fails then if the drive is not out of warranty send it back for replacement.

 

If I am not mistaken, I assigned the drive letter within the Setup Wizard in Disk Management.

I did a quick-formatting, which took about 12 minutes. I noticed that 1MB has automatically be left unallocated.

Well, the drive has been formatted, I can see it in This PC and I can write to it and read off it. I still don't know why the first formatting attempt went wrong, but I'm good at messing things up somehow.

One question remains for now: When I right-click on the external drive icon in This PC, there's no eject option. Is that because Quick Removal is checked in the device properties? I can "remove device" via the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the Taskbar used to work before I had the drive formatted, but now that the drive is formatted it doesn't work any longer. Is that normal?

Thanks again, you all have been very helpful.

 

Remove it from notification area (system tray) at Taskbar via the Safely Remove Hardware icon.

You are very welcome!

 

Restart your computer see if you can disconnect external HDD from Safely Remove Hardware icon.

 

That used to work, but now I get this popup, although all programs are closed. The Task Manager shows there's nothing running.

 

Some program have a open handle on the external HDD that can't be closed make sure antivirus program is not configured to scan the external drive see if this will resolve the issue but you will need to restart after configuring antivirus program.

 

My guess is that Avast is causing the problem. I see no option for excluding an external drive. I turned off Avast Shield Control and the external drive chirped a few times, but I still could not eject it via the Safely Remove Hardware tray icon. Since Quick Removal is activated for the drive, can't I just turn it off without ejecting? Can I trust Quick Removal?

I tried one more thing: I turned off Safe Removal for the external drive, hoping I'd get an eject option when right-clicking in This PC. No joy. Isn't it weird that there is no eject option?

 

Find another computer and connect the external hard drive.
Report into the thread your findings when viewing:
a) disk management
b) device manager > disk drives
c) file explorer > this PC
d) ability to properly disconnect the external hard drive.

 

I plugged the drive into my laptop, which is configured identically to my desktop. I got this right away:

Windows is unable to stop the device 'USB Mass Storage Device.' Don't remove this device while it is still in use. Close any programs using this device and then remove it.

Per the Task Manager, no program was running.

a, b, c, d, all show identical to the desktop.

The drive had a different drive letter when I plugged it into the laptop. It showed as F, while I assigned it Z on the desktop.

 

Until the problem is solved these are some options:
1) use task manager
2) log off
3) shut down the computer
4) use 3rd party software

When Windows refuses to eject mass storage: 5 ways to safely remove a USB drive | PCWorld

How to Fix Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device| Solved

 

1. In the Task Manger, I do not see "." I also tried with Process Explorer.

2. I logged out of both accounts - no go.

3. Did it. No go.

4. I installed USB Disk Ejector. Same popup as with Safely Remove Hardware icon.

 

Turning off the computer has to work as it is safe to remove the drive when the computer is off.
With task manager > click the details tab > look for WUDFHost.exe
It is the WUDFHost.exe that disappears and reappears each time I connect and disconnect a drive.
See if ending this task works.