Windows 10: "Repair" external drive

I was downloading a file attached to an email and Windows 10 told me it could not access my external drive. It suggested I "repair" the drive. How do I do that?


Any helpful suggestions are appreciated.


Thanks,

Terrance Church

:)

 

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.

 

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.

 

Repair an external hard drive connected to Windows 10

Hello Jeff,

You may try running Disk Error Checking and the CHKDISK tool to help you repair your external hard disk. Both tools are designed to fix errors on your disk. Make sure that you're signed in as administrator before performing
these steps:

Run Disk Error Checking

• Plug in your external hard disk.
• Open File Explorer by pressing the
  Windows keys button + E.
  
• Go to This PC.
• Right-click your external hard disk under Devices and drives.
• Select Properties
• Go to Tools tab.
• Under Error checking, click Check.
• If prompted, click Yes or enter the administrator password.
• Click Scan drive > Repair drive.
• Wait for the process to finish.
• The scanning process may take a while depending on the size of your external hard disk and the specifications of your PC.

Run the CHKDSK tool

• Plug in your external hard disk.
• Click the Start button.
• Type Command Prompt.
• Right-click Command Prompt and then select Run as administrator.
• On the Command Prompt screen, type the command below:
  • chkdsk <drive letter>: /f
• <driver letter> would be the letter assigned to your external hard disk.
  • For example: chkdsk E: /f
• Do take note of the spaces between the command.
• Again, the scanning process duration depends on the size of the external hard disk and your PC's specifications.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

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