External Hard Drive Wont Show Up

Conn Hall

Honorable
Jan 20, 2014
5
0
10,510
My external hard drive is not showing up on my explorer or in my devices. I left it plugged in while i updated on accident. So i need to figure out how i can get it back up and running and if i lost all my data that was on that external hard drive. I dont have any boot disks available or anything to try and reload any drivers... PLEASE HELP!!!!
 
Solution
Updating your PC shouldn't affect an attached USB drive.

I agree that the first step is trying that external drive in a different PC.

I'm not sure what you mean by "updated" but if you installed a new version of Windows you may not have the proper DRIVERS installed. For that, you don't need boot disks etc you need the internet.

So if you reinstalled Windows, go to the MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT SITE (or laptop site), download and install the latest versions of:

1) Main Chipset driver
2) USB3 driver

You may also need other drivers/software for optimal performance like VIDEO drivers etc.
Updating your PC shouldn't affect an attached USB drive.

I agree that the first step is trying that external drive in a different PC.

I'm not sure what you mean by "updated" but if you installed a new version of Windows you may not have the proper DRIVERS installed. For that, you don't need boot disks etc you need the internet.

So if you reinstalled Windows, go to the MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT SITE (or laptop site), download and install the latest versions of:

1) Main Chipset driver
2) USB3 driver

You may also need other drivers/software for optimal performance like VIDEO drivers etc.
 
Solution

Conn Hall

Honorable
Jan 20, 2014
5
0
10,510
i tried it in my old laptop and it shows it but i cant access it. Im running windows 8.1 and ive read a lot of similar issues. I also dont have a disc drive on my laptop so when i updated it was via internet.
 

Conn Hall

Honorable
Jan 20, 2014
5
0
10,510

what do you mean "cloning" i cant access the hard drive at all to get anything off of it or change anything and it says the driver is up to date. Ive uninstalled the device and plugged it back in and still nothing.