Computer Won T Recognize External Hard Drive Anymore

1. In this video, we're going to show you what to Fix Windows 10 doesn't recognize second Hard Drive. We can solve the problem by running the troubleshooter for.
2. Windows run with multiple background processes at a time with drive letters helping identify the path for each particular action. Every physical disk in a computer must be allotted by a letter ranging from A to Z; however, if your hard drive doesn't have a drive letter, Windows 10 won't recognize it.

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An external hard drive is a device that used to back up your most important files and data, but if it suddenly stops working or responding, don't worry. On this page, we'll focus on the external hard drive not working issue and you'll learn：

I have plenty of actual hard drives that I can use for that (I like one OS per drive). Anyway, I'm trying to burn an ISO to my external harddrive (Seagate) but I can't because Windows 7 USB Tool and UNetBootin never detect external hard drives OR external hard drive enclosures either. Why doesn't it detect them? It only shows my main hard drive. Attach the external flash drive to the computer, wait for Windows to recognize it and assign a new drive letter to it. Open the Computer folder and locate the drive letter assigned to the flash drive you want to format with NTFS (in the example below, it's drive F:) 3.

Applies to: Fix external hard drive, USB drive, SD card, internal HDD/SSD, etc., not working or responding error on Windows PC.

Quick Guide - Fix External Hard Drive Not Working/Responding Error in 3 Parts:

No matter what brands of devices you are using such as WD Elements external hard drive, Seagate external hard drive, SanDisk or Toshiba hard disks, etc, just follow this article to get your problem solved with the provided methods here now.

Causes of External Hard Drive Not Working/Responding

Is your external hard drive suddenly not working for no reason? Is your external hard drive suddenly cannot be detected or recognized by your PC or laptop? Relax!

You don't have to buy a new external hard drive and give up all the precious data. First, check the causes that make your external hard drive not working:

• Problematic connection
• RAW, invalid or unsupported file system
• Drive letter conflict or no drive letter
• No partition
• Not initialized
• Outdated disk driver
• USB Root Hub is outdated
• Disk is physically damaged
• ..

Don't worry if you don't know what exactly causes your external hard drive not working. Continue reading, we've collected 100% working fixes here to help you fix the external hard drive to work normally again without losing any data.

You May Also Interest In:

If you are having a similar issue on your hard drive, you may directly try the fixes below.

Are your hard drives, be it new or old, internal or external, not showing up in File Explorer or Disk Management? Follow to learn how to make your hard drive showing up again in Windows 10/8/7 without losing data.

Part 1. Make Not Working External Hard Drive Detectable

Applies to: Fix external hard drive not showing, not detected error due to connection problem.

Mostly, when your external hard drive suddenly doesn't work or fails to show up on your computer, you should first check the device connection between your external disk and your computer.

Now, follow to make the not working external hard drive detectable and show up on your PC again:

#1. Check and Change External Hard Drive Connection Cable

The first thing that you should do is to check the external hard drive USB connection cable:

• If the connection cable is loosened, reconnect external disk to PC and tight it.
• Is the external USB connection cable broken or damaged, switch a new cable, and reconnect the disk to PC.

#2. Change a USB Port or Connect to a New Computer

If the USB connection cable is not broken, try to reconnect the external drive to your PC via a new USB port and check if the computer detects your disk.

If still nothing shows up, change a computer and reconnect the external drive.

• Problematic connection
• RAW, invalid or unsupported file system
• Drive letter conflict or no drive letter
• No partition
• Not initialized
• Outdated disk driver
• USB Root Hub is outdated
• Disk is physically damaged
• ..

Don't worry if you don't know what exactly causes your external hard drive not working. Continue reading, we've collected 100% working fixes here to help you fix the external hard drive to work normally again without losing any data.

You May Also Interest In:

If you are having a similar issue on your hard drive, you may directly try the fixes below.

Are your hard drives, be it new or old, internal or external, not showing up in File Explorer or Disk Management? Follow to learn how to make your hard drive showing up again in Windows 10/8/7 without losing data.

Part 1. Make Not Working External Hard Drive Detectable

Applies to: Fix external hard drive not showing, not detected error due to connection problem.

Mostly, when your external hard drive suddenly doesn't work or fails to show up on your computer, you should first check the device connection between your external disk and your computer.

Now, follow to make the not working external hard drive detectable and show up on your PC again:

#1. Check and Change External Hard Drive Connection Cable

The first thing that you should do is to check the external hard drive USB connection cable:

• If the connection cable is loosened, reconnect external disk to PC and tight it.
• Is the external USB connection cable broken or damaged, switch a new cable, and reconnect the disk to PC.

#2. Change a USB Port or Connect to a New Computer

If the USB connection cable is not broken, try to reconnect the external drive to your PC via a new USB port and check if the computer detects your disk.

If still nothing shows up, change a computer and reconnect the external drive.

#3. Check Power Management for USB Hub

If it doesn't work after changing the USB port or cannot be read by a new PC, try the quick fix below to repair an unrecognizable external hard drive:

Step 1. In Run (Windows + R), type devmgmt.msc and hit Enter.

Step 2. Open Device Manager > expand 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'.

Step 3. Right-click USB Root Hub > Properties > Power Management > uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power'. Microsoft word 16 24.

After following the above 3 tips, your computer should be able to detect and recognize your external hard drive now. You can try to open the drive and access the data.

If you still cannot access the data, don't worry. Move to Part 2 and we'll offer you the best hard disk data recovery software to help you quickly access and restore all valuable data on immediately.

Part 2. Recover Data Before Fixing External Hard Drive With Not Working Error

After making the external hard drive detectable, we suggest you recover data from the drive first as some measures may bring secondary damage to your data on the disk. After this, we'll offer you some reliable methods to fix the external hard drive in the next part.

3 Steps to Recover Data from External Hard Drive

To recover data from your external disk, you'll need reliable HDD recovery software for help.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard with its powerful capacity allows you to scan and recover data from the external hard drive which is not working properly in only 3 steps.

See how to restore data from the external hard drive on your own:

Step 1. Choose the external hard drive

Since you're going to recover data from the external hard drive, run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and choose the exact drive where you lost data. Click Scan.

Step 2. Scan for lost data

The software will start immediately to scan all over the selected drive for all lost data. During the scan, you could see more and more data showing up in the results.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

After the scan is over, check the scan results for the desired data. You can preview the file by double-clicking on it. Click Recover and choose another location to save the recovered data.

Don't save the recovered data on your external hard drive before fixing and making it work normally again.

Part 3. How to Fix 'External Hard Drive Is Not Working/Responding' Error

Let's see how to repair the not responding external hard drive or undetectable external hard disk drive now.

To help you find the right fix for the 'external hard drive not working' error in Windows 10/8/7, please open Disk Management and check the state of your external hard drive:

1. #1. Check and Fix Disk Errors on External Hard Drive - Disk Contains Corrupted File System Error
2. #2. Format External Hard Drive to NTFS - Disk Shows RAW or Unsupported File System
3. #3. Create A New Partition in External Hard Drive - Disk Displays as Unallocated
4. #4. Assign a New Drive Letter to External Disk - Disk Shows as 'New Volume' with No Drive Letter
5. #5. Initialize External Disk and Create a New Volume - Disk Is Unknown, Not Initialized

Method 1 to Method 7 can fix most external hard disk not working issue, and if none of them work, turn to Method 8 and Method 9 for help. Let's start the external hard disk repair process.

Method 1. Check and Fix Disk Errors on External Hard Drive

Applies to: Fix external hard drive not working due to unknown disk error or corrupted file system.

Mostly, when an internal or external hard drive contains an unknown error or corrupted file system, the Windows computer will not be able to detect or open the drive.

Here you have two options to check up the disk and fix internal errors on a not responding external hard drive:

Option 1. Run Partition Manager Freeware to Fix External Hard Drive Not Responding Error

Download and install EaseUS Partition Master Free on your PC.

Step 1. Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.

Step 2. In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.

Step 3. The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.

Option 2. Run CMD to Manually Fix External Hard Drive Errors

Step 1. Type cmd in the Search box, right-click to open Command Prompt.

Step 2. Type diskpart and hit Enter.

Step 3. Type chkdsk /f /r /x g: and hit Enter to let the checking process to run.

Replace g with the drive letter of your external hard drive.

Step 4. When it's finished, type: exit and hit Enter to finish the process.

After this, your not responding external hard drive should now show up. If it still doesn't work, go on with an easier chkdsk alternative.

Option 3. Run CMD Alternative to Fix External Disk File System Error

The Command line is suitable for computer professionals since wrong commands can cause severe problems. Therefore, we strongly recommend you try EaseUS Tools M.

It is a practical computer fixing tool that is safe and light-weighted. To fix file system error or disk error:

If you don't have any technical know-how and want to minimize data risks, using third-party software could be a better choice. The Command line is suitable for computer professionals since wrong commands can cause severe problems. Therefore, we strongly recommend you try an automatic command line alternative.

EaseUS Tools M is a practical computer fixing tool that is safe and light-weighted. It's a perfect alternative to CHKDSK command. Use this one-click tool to solve your computer issues.

To fix file system error or disk error:

Step 1: DOWNLOAD EaseUS Tools M for Free and install it.

Step 2: Open the software and select the 'File showing' option.

Step 3: Choose the drive and wait for repairing. After the operation completes, click the 'View' button to check the drive.

Method 2. Format External Hard Drive to NTFS to Repair Not Working External Disk

Applies to: Fix external hard drive not working, detecting or responding error due to RAW or unsupported file system.

If your external or internal hard disk shows as a RAW or unsupported file system in Disk Management, the best way is to format the disk to a recognized format.

In order to make sure that the external hard drive is secure for storing new data again, you can format it to repair the not working drive to be usable again with Windows disk management:

Step 1. In Run (Windows + R), type diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter.

Step 2. Go to Disk Management, right-click the external hard drive, and select 'Format'.

Step 3. Choose a file system like NTFS or exFAT and tick 'Quick format'. Click 'OK' to start the formatting.

After this, your external hard drive is viable for saving data again.

Method 3. Create A New Partition in External Hard Drive

Applies to: Fix disk displays as unallocated in Disk Management that make external hard drive not working.

Mostly, when your external hard disk shows as unallocated, it means that there is no partition in the disk. As a result, the computer cannot recognize it. To fix this issue, you need to first recover data from the disk first (as shown in Part 2).

Then, you can follow the steps below to create a new partition, making the external hard drive working again:

Step 1. Connect the unallocated external hard drive to your PC and open Disk Management.

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Step 2. Xbox one facetime. Right-click on the unallocated space of the external hard drive, select 'New Simple Volume'.

Step 3. Set partition size, drive letter and file system (NTFS), etc.

Step 4. Click 'Finish' to complete the process.

Method 4. Assign a New Drive Letter to External Disk

Applies to: Fix disk shows as 'New Volume' with no drive letter that causes external hard drive not responding.

Step 1. Go to Disk Management and right-click on your external hard drive.

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Step 2. Go and select a new drive letter by clicking 'Change', and click 'OK' to confirm.

Then not responding external hard drive can be read and detected now.

Method 5. Initialize External Disk and Create a New Volume

Applies to: Fix 'Disk Is Unknown, Not Initialized' that cause external hard disk not working nor showing up.

Step 1. Right-click 'My Computer' > 'Manage' to run Disk Management.

Step 2. Here, right-click the Unknow external hard drive and click 'Initialize Disk'.

Step 3. Select the disk(s) to initialize and choose MBR or GPT partition style, and click 'OK' to confirm.

Now the drive is recognized as unallocated and if you have vital data saved there, revert to Part 1 and apply EaseUS data recovery software for help.

Step 4. Compare 1tb external hard drive. Then right-click on the unallocated space on your external hard drive and create a new volume on it.

Method 6. Update Disk Driver

Applies to: Force not responding external hard drive to show up and work by updating disk drivers.

Step 1. Right-click 'This PC' and choose 'Manage'.

Step 2. Click 'Device Manager' then expand 'Disk drives'.

Step 3. Find and right-click the problematic external drive and select 'Update driver'.

Step 4. Click 'automatically search for driver software online'.

Method 7. Uninstall Universal Bus Controllers

Applies to: Fix external hard drive not working issue by updating Universal Serial Bus controllers drivers.

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Step 1. Open 'Device Manager', find and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers

Step 2. Right-click on the USB controllers of your external drive and select 'Uninstall device'.

Step 3. Repeat to uninstall each USB controller one by one. Then restart the computer.

While rebooting PC, Microsoft will automatically reinstall the USB controllers software for your not working external hard drive.

Method 8. Run Antivirus Software

Applies to: Fix virus or malware that causes your external hard drive not working.

Sometimes, viruses or malware infections may also cause your device to malfunctioning. So it is to your external hard drive. When you tried all the above fixes, but the drive is still not working, you can try to run antivirus software to unlock the drive:

Step 1. Install and run antivirus software on your computer.

Step 2. Scan and unlock the external hard drive.

Step 3. Wait for the cleaning process to complete and restart PC.

After this, reconnect your external hard drive to the computer and check if you can use it again.

Method 9. Turn to External Hard Drive Manufacturer or Repair Center for Help

The last option that you can try is to contact your external hard drive producer or a local disk repair center for help. It could be the outdated firmware or disk driver that is outdated. For this issue, your disk support team can resolve and make your disk work again.

As for external hard disk data recovery, a local disk repair center or manual data recovery service can do. Here you may also try EaseUS Data Recovery Service.

To Sum Up

On this page, we explained the causes of external hard drive not working, not responding, and not detectable error. To make things easy for you, we divided the whole process into 3 parts:

Part 1. Make external hard drive detectable; Part 2. Recover data from the external hard drive; Part 3. Fix not working external hard drive with respective solutions.

The methods offered in this article can also be applied to repair and fix SD cards, memory cards, USB drives, flash drives, or hard drive partitions, etc devices with not responding/working or undetectable issues.

It's recommended that you should create an extra backup of your files to another secure location, like Cloud drive. When you lost data on your disk, always remember to let EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard help.