Windows 10: Portable external drive no longer shows on my desktop

A portable external HDD - a Western Digital 1TB MyPassport - no longer shows in This PC and File Explorer on my desktop. The device does show in Device Manager. It also shows in This PC and File Explorer on a laptop (also running Win 10 1909). The PC maintenance is up to date except for this week's KB4497165. Both the PC and laptop show the same driver for the drive - a generic MS driver 10.0.18362.1 dated 6/21/2006.

I don't remember exactly when the drive last worked on the PC - maybe up to 6 months ago. I use it on my laptops much more than on the desktop. But I'd like to use it on the PC right now and I can't. Any idea what I can do to get this to work?

Oh. Yes, I've rebooted. Yes, I've tried multiple USB ports (although Device Manager sees the drive regardless of the port I use).

:)

 

Portable External Drive Problem

Hi! I have this 1TB portable external drive (Seagate) and my computer dont read it. When I plug it on my Windows 10 laptop, the safely remove icon appears but it doesnt show on my PC. And the the external drive does not blink but when i eject it, I can
safely remove it. What is really the problem, my laptop or the external drive?

 

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.

 

Windows 10 does not recognise external usb dvd drive. NEW METHOD REQUIRED fornfix

So, after a recent update, my father-in-laws laptop has stopped recognising his external dvd drive. It shows up in device drivers as an initio device, and in portable drives, it's listed as e:\ but it doesn't show up as a drive in file manager windows.

This happened previously, and I used a fix listed here

Link to old fix

METHOD 5 and METHOD 6

My problem is, that now he has updated windows to most recent version, this fix no longer seems to work, and if you notice at the bottom of the support methods provides, it specifically states that these methods should NOT BE NECESSARY in the latest updates.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: I originally listed the steps detailed in old fix, but formatting disappeared and it became a wall of text, so just provided link and methods used. Please read original methods to see steps I have already taken.