Windows 10: Password Protected External Drive Stopped being Recognized

I had a password protected drive that worked fine until it didn't anymore. Not an old drive, but yesterday the computer stopped recognizing the drive.


USB Controllers shows Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed). I've tried uninstalling, and searching for changes. Tried restarting. Still not recognized.


The device/files never appear in File Manager, nor does the disk show content in Disk Management. However, the device seems to occasionally appear in different places in Device Managers - usually comes back as an unknown USB, but sometimes shows in Disk drives or in storage controllers.


Looking for suggestions to get back into my drive as I need one of the files asap.


Thanks.

:)

 

External drive

Hi Richard,

There are several factors that can cause your external drive to not read DVDs even though the system is recognizing the device. This could be caused by a driver that needs to updated or corrupted files. For us to resolve your concern, kindly answer the questions
below:

• Just to confirm, the device that is not working properly is a external DVD optical drive?
• Were there any recent changes or updates installed on your computer?
• Have you tried to plug the external drive to a different port on your computer?

As a initial recommendation, we suggest that your run the built in troubleshooter in Windows 10. Kindly refer to the steps below:

• Type “Troubleshooting” in the Search bar and press Enter.
• Click on “View All” in the top left corner.
• This will display the list of troubleshooters which are built-in in the computer. You can click on
  Hardware and Devices from the list and you can run the troubleshooter.

This will check for common errors that affect hardware on your computer and attempts to correct them.

We look forward to your response after completing the steps.

 

Loss of External drives

Hi,

For better assistance, kindly verify the queries below:

• What is the make and model of the external drives?
• Have you checked if both drivers are recognized on the BIOS settings?
• Are you connecting the external hard drives via USB?
• What are the troubleshooting steps have you done so far for this issue?

Looking forward to your response.

Regards.

 

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