Windows 10: Photos and external hard drive problem

Hello,

I have an external hard drive full of photos. I am hoping to link these photos to the Windows 10 Photos app without moving them to the laptop's internal hard drive. I want them to stay on the external drive and, furthermore, want any new photos added (from my phone, for example) to go to this external hard drive as well.


I have already changed the pathways of where Pictures will be saved to this hard drive.


Anyway, plugged in the external hard drive full of photos and overnight the Photos app pulled found them, organized them by date, etc. All seemed well. Later that day, however, I closed Photos and then removed the hard drive. Later reconnected the hard drive and started Photos but there was nothing on Photos! The program apparently needs to re-find the photos and rebuild the library every time I plug in the hard drive...this takes hours. Am I missing a process that would allow the Photos app to remember the library whenever I plug in the hard drive?

Thanks!

:)

 

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.

 

Help with external hard drive

Hi Debbra,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I appreciate your interest in windows 10 and also for trying the troubleshooting steps to fix the issue. I understand the inconvenience you faced. I will certainly help you with this.

I would suggest you to plug in hard drive then check in disk management you can see the drive or not.

Follow the steps to check Drive in Disk Management.

• 
  Go to the Control Panel then click on the
  Administrative Tools. .
  
• 
  Under the Administrative Tool Click on Computer Management.
  
• 
  Click on Disk Management and check the External Hard Drive.
  

Also check in BIOS whether External Hard Drive is listed or not.

For help with the BIOS settings, refer to the computer manual or contact the manufacturer.

If it doesn’t work then, I would suggest you to update BIOS for updating BIOS contact Lenovo Support.

Follow the link:

Home - Global Support - FR

Disclaimer :

Modifying BIOS/complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the configuring of BIOS/CMOS settings
can be solved. Modifications of the settings are at your own risk.

Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

Thanks.

 

External hard drive not recognised

Thanks for this. I've done what you suggested and been through all the steps mentioned in the article. The hard drive works fine on a Mac computer, and I've managed to copy the information on it. It must be a Surface issue so I'll try to get a chat line tomorrow.