Windows 10: Why are all of my USB ports recognizing all of my external hard drives as internal and...

Hello. I have a very frustrating issue that I can't seem to find an answer for anywhere else online that actually works. Last night, I opened "Explorer" and noticed something a little weird. All of these Removable Disk drives were showing and they've never been there before. Upon trying to open one of these disks to see what it was, I got the following error message:Then, I unplugged my Multiple Card Reader see picture and they all went away so I learned that the card reader was the culprit. The funny thing, however, is that I've used this card reader probably a hundred ti

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USB port only recognizes external hard drive.

One of my usb ports only recognizes 1 external hard drive. The hard drive is powered by the usb port and works in every other port. The usb port fails to recognize any other device I plug in (The last USB device you connect malfunctioned). The port does
however still charge devices. I have attempted every fix: reloading drivers, formatting and reinstalling windows, re flashing my bios, etc. This problem originally started upon trying to update windows with the external drive.

 

Toshiba external hard drive not recognized

Hi Philip,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that the external hard drive is not recognized by the PC. I appreciate your efforts in trying to resolve the issue.
It would be great if you can answer these questions to assist you in a better way.

• Did you try connecting the Hardrive to different USB Port?
  
• Does the Hardrive get detected if you try connecting it to a different PC?
  
• Are you aware of any changes made to the computer recently?
  

I suggest you refer and follow the steps mentioned in the KB article and check if that resolves the issueError:
“USB Device not recognized” when you try to access a USB external hard drive

Note: Ignore method 2 & 5 from the above article.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Zaki

 

External hard drive connected by USB port

I have this external hard drive that has been designated as F and also a removable flash drive as E. Both use USB ports and have been working. Now the computer sees neither after rebooting twice. Tried to switch the ports and drives also. Any suggestions?