Windows 10: Why does my Windows 11 Laptop freeze and crash when I plug in two external hard drives?

So here's the thing, Whenever I plug in one external SSD to my laptop, it works perfectly fine with no problems whatsoever. It opens up File Explorer and I can access my files and whatnot. I know all of my laptop ports work perfectly fine because it doesn't matter which one I plug a hard drive into it will work as intended. Then, I try plugging in a second SSD. File Explorer will open, showing me the contents of the hard drive, then it closes. It opens, then closes, opens, closes, and the cycle repeats. When I try to eject the second drive that is if I can eject it because the icon disappears

:)

 

Computer freezes and Explorer doen't respond when I plug an external Hard drive

Hello jobkakule,

The issue is possibly caused by corrupted data or bad sectors on your external hard drive or could be a sign of a failing hard drive.

To better assist you with your concern, I'd like to know the following:

• Confirm which build is currently installed on your device. To check, follow the steps below:

1. Press Windows key + R, then type in winver.
2. Click OK.

• Have you tried plugging your external hard drive to a different USB port? Also, check if you can access the drive by plugging it to a different computer.
• What is the make and model of your computer?

Meanwhile, I'd suggest to repair the bad sectors on your external hard drive. Kindly refer to the steps below:

(Let's just assume that the drive letter for your external hard drive is E. If not, please do change it to the correct drive letter)

1. Plug in your external hard drive. Click on Start, search for
Command Prompt, right-click on it and select Run as administrator.

2. Type in the following command below and press Enter after each command:

Chkdsk /f E:

Chkdsk /r E:

3. Reboot your computer after the scan is completed.

Looking forward to your response.

Regards.

 

External Hard Drive Crashes Window Explorer

I've been using an external hard drive for a lot of important things for a few years now, but suddenly it started causes problems for my laptop. It initially seemed to cause my computer to temporarily not recognize any USB-plugged devices such as my mouse
and drive itself. Then it made it impossible to open windows explorer without it freezing and crashing. I've been testing it and have so far done the following:

*Tried unplugging and replugging the external hard drive multiple times over the course of 2-3 weeks (no problems when it isn't plugged in, problems return when I plug it in again).

*Tried it while in safe mode (still crashed windows explorer while plugged in and no problems when it wasn't plugged in).

*Tried it while in safe mode with networking (still crashed windows explorer while plugged in and no problems when it wasn't plugged in).

*Tried it with a reboot after disabling any apps automatically opening at start (still the same result).

Interestingly, I used another external hard drive with my computer and it works just fine. Meanwhile, the problematic external hard drive works fine on a Mac computer (even if it can't run all the programs on it), but that same drive doesn't work on a separate
Windows laptop that I tried using it on.

This is really, problematic for me, as while I can (slowly) recover the things on that hard drive that I need (as in, the things I can't just redownload); I still kind of need it to work on my main computer because I need the extra memory to store and run
a lot of different applications that cannot fit on the other external hard drive and won't run on my Mac. To make things worse, even if my external hard drive works on my Mac, the permissions are all set for use of a computer it no longer wants to work with,
so I can't check things or make changes to try and see what changed to create this problem. I don't know what to do, and I'm getting desperate.

 

External hard drive not showing up on Windows 10 Laptop or computer. External hard drive not responding ...??

Hello Kimberly,

This issue might have occurred due to an outdated USB driver. For us to effectively assist you, we would like to ask a few questions:

• Could you tell us if there were any changes made on your laptop prior to the issue?
• Have you tried to update the USB drivers on your laptop? If not, we recommend updating the USB drivers on your laptop and see if it helps. You may refer to the steps provided
  here on how to update drivers in Windows 10.
• Have you tried plugging in the external hard drive using a different computer?

If not, we advise that you try plugging in the external hard drive using a different computer just to isolate the issue.

We're looking forward to your response.