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External hard drives are convenient storage devices that allow you to store data and carry it with you anywhere. However, during usage, issues may arise, especially when Windows fails to recognize external hard drives, causing concern and uncertainty about how to resolve it. Below, Mytour will guide you on how to address the error of Windows not recognizing external hard drives for your reference.
Guide to Resolving Windows Failure to Recognize External Hard Drives
Method 1: For various devices, it's possible that when plugging in an external hard drive to Windows, it hasn't been assigned a name, hence it doesn't show up. You can proceed to change and assign a name to the external drive by following these steps.
Press the Windows + R key combination, then type in the phrase compmgmt.msc and press Ok. A dialog box will appear, here, select Disk Management.
Next, to handle external hard drive errors, you need to right-click on the external drive icon and select Change Drive Letters and Paths.
A new dialog box will appear, press Change to modify the drive name.
Select the name and press OK to confirm.
Now, check your computer to see if the external hard drive has appeared.
Method 2: If the above methods don't work, proceed to Format the drive to see if it can be rescued. You can also go to Disk Management, select the drive, right-click, and choose Format.
Select the NTFS format under File System and press OK to confirm.
Method 3: If the issue persists, your drive may not have a partition created by Windows. Go to Disk Management, select the drive, then click New Simple Volume to begin the partition creation process.
Method 4: Firstly, check if the connection port between your computer and the external hard drive is corroded, loose, or damaged.
Next, inspect the connector of the hard drive for any faults. If there are any, rectify them and plug it into the connection port once again.
Method 5: Update to the latest, compatible driver for your external hard drive. Check the information of your external hard drive and search for and update the compatible driver. You can search on Google to find the compatible driver.
Here are the methods to help you resolve Windows failure to recognize external drives. Apply the simplest methods to connect your external hard drive without worrying about external drive errors.
Not only external hard drives, but sometimes computers also encounter errors in recognizing regular HDD drives. Although rare, HDD drive recognition errors can be very annoying and time-consuming for users.
