Windows 10: Windows 10 does not recognize change of external hard drive

I had something really creepy happen today with Windows 10 Version 1903. Last month I bought a pair of Seagate external USB-connected 8 TB hard drives, model 1XAAY5-570. I unpacked one of them, connected it to my computer, and ran a full system backup. Today I powered down the computer, disconnected that drive, took it to my bank and stored it in my safe deposit box. With the computer still powered down, I unpacked the other one from its factory carton, connected it to my computer, and rebooted. Then I did a "DIR" on the brand-new drive, straight out of the factory box. To my surprise, Windows showed me the directory of the first drive (now three miles away) complete with the same Volume Serial Number, Volume Label which I had personally assigned, and all the files and folders in the root directory. No amount of yelling and screaming “It's not the same drive!” could convince Windows to clear whatever cache it had and refresh itself from the factory-new drive.

Just for grins, I tried running CHKDSK on the new drive, omitting the /F (fix) parameter because I didn't want to change anything on the new drive. CHKDSK proudly announced the label of the original, now-removed drive, and proceeded announce a whole bunch of corruption on the brand-new drive. I aborted it without waiting for it to finish.

Next, I shut down the computer and removed the new external drive, then rebooted, hoping that Windows would notice its absence. Indeed, DIR on its drive letter returned "The system cannot find the path specified." Then I shut down again, reconnected the new drive, and rebooted. It was back, albeit at a different drive letter, but still with the same incorrect Volume Label and root directory.

A little Google searching found a utility called DriveCleanup. According to its web site, “it removes all currently non-present USB Storage Devices, Disks, CDROMs, Floppies, Storage Volumes and WPD devices from the device tree. Furthermore it removes orphaned registry items related to these device types."

So once again I shut down my computer, disconnected the new drive, and rebooted without it. This time, however, I invoked DriveCleanup. It deleted a whole bunch of USB disk devices and registry keys (contact me if you want to see its long log). Full of hope, I shut down the computer, reconnected the new external drive, and rebooted.

But alas, Windows STILL thinks it is the original drive, now in the bank.

Any ideas how I can get Windows to forget what it thinks it knows and recognize that this is a physically different drive?

By the way, I had used a similar backup strategy with a different pair of external hard drives on my older Windows XP machine, and Windows never got them confused.

:)

 

external hard drive not recognized


Hello zbook
#1) I have tested the external drives in three different computers, win10 pro, Win10, and XP. The results are identical. When I plug in the external hard drive windows signals a new device with an audio signal and the light comes on on the external drive. The results on all three pc's is identical in disk manager, file explorer and device manager.
#2) I have tried all solutions presented to me by FreeBooter, from the simplest solution of uninstalling the external drive in device manager and rebooting windows, to using the various third party software that was suggested, obviously with out success.
#3) The attached screen shots will only show one of the drives attached because I don't have enough free USB ports to attach two drives and I didn't think it would have been a good idea to use a hub.
#4) one strange thing about one of the drives is that now device manager lists it as a Toshiba drive although it is a Western Digital.
#5) Sorry but I have no way of getting a photo of BIOS










I look forward to reading your comments

 

unrecognised external hard drive on Windows 10

Since you already reinstalled the drivers of the External Hard Drive, let's run the
Hardware and Devices troubleshooter as it can resolve your concern. You can do that by following these steps:

• 
  Press the Start button.
  
• 
  Type and select Troubleshooting.
  
• 
  Click on View all on the left panel.
  
• 
  Select and run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter.
  

If the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter doesn’t resolve your concern, we suggest that you change the letter of the External Hard Drive. You can do that by following these steps:

• 
  Press the Start button.
  
• 
  Type and select Control panel.
  
• 
  Select System and Security.
  
• 
  Select Administrative Tools, and a new window will appear.
  
• 
  Double-click Computer Management, and a new window will appear.
  
• 
  Select Disk Management that is located under
  Storage in the left pane.
  
• 
  Right click on the External Hard Drive that is not showing on the File Explorer.
  
• 
  Select Change letter and network path, and a new window will appear.
  
• 
  Select Change, and choose the letter that you want for the External Hard Drive.
  

After changing the letter of the External Hard Drive, we suggest that you reboot your laptop for the changes to take effect.



Let us know how it goes.



Regards.

 

External Hard Drive Not Recognized by Windows 10

Hi Thomas,

Sometimes, PCs fail to recognize the External Hard Drive even after confirming a successful connection. This is usually due to a corrupted or outdated device driver. However, for us to isolate the issue, we need additional information. Kindly answer the
questions below:

• Have you tired to plug your external hard drive to another port or to another device to make sure that it is working properly?
• Are you getting any error messages when you plug in your external hard drive?

In the meantime, we suggest that you run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter. This automated tool will check the hardware/USB connected to your PC for any known issue and resolve it automatically. Refer to this link to access the troubleshooter:
Find and fix problems with devices and hardware.

Update us on how it goes.