Ok this is a little background the Hard Drive (Main Storage no OS) in discussion has been taken out of and old Dell system that I was using as a computer. I took it out cause my Uncle was giving me new computer parts to build a new PC but unfortunately I didn't have a adequate enough PSU, So I try and return the old PSU with my storage drive to the old system I power up the computer but it doesn't do anything it just powers up I cant turn it of though the power button and the button LED is Orange when its normally Blue. Well I decide ok I'll just use an external drive bay Enclosure (Sabrent) and access my files from my Laptop that way in the mean time. So now here is were the Problem starts, I connect the Hard Drive through the bay connect it to the Laptop and the drive doesn't show up in the file explorer so I figure ok I need to change the disk letter but when I go to disk management the option to assign a letter is Greyed out. So I try and do it manually through cmd using diskpart when I search for list disk it shows up, but when I go for list volume nothing shows up. I'm Hoping Someone can help me with this problem is I really have important documents and family photos on here DELETING DATA IS NOT AN OPTION . any other possible routes I should take I feel like ive tried everthing
External Hard Drive not showing up in Windows 10 File Explorer ? PLEASE HELP !?!?!?
- Thread starter Alain_2
- Start date
Solution
Boogieman_WD
Judicious
- Jul 31, 2014
- 6,050
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- 35,960
Hey there, Alain_2.
Would you please post a screenshot of what you see about the drive in Disk Management?
I'd recommend that you try the HDD with a different computer as well, it would be even better if you could connect it internally via a SATA connection, or at least give it a try with the enclosure and a different computer. If that doesn't help you could try accessing it via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if that OS is capable of recognizing the HDD properly so that you can recover your files. Another option would be data recovery software: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm
Let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD
Would you please post a screenshot of what you see about the drive in Disk Management?
I'd recommend that you try the HDD with a different computer as well, it would be even better if you could connect it internally via a SATA connection, or at least give it a try with the enclosure and a different computer. If that doesn't help you could try accessing it via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if that OS is capable of recognizing the HDD properly so that you can recover your files. Another option would be data recovery software: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm
Let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD
how would I go about sending screen shots cause I have them its just not letting post all it ask is for url do I post on imgur or something ?
I have the screenshots posted in another forum http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/external-hard-drive-not-showing-up-in-windows-10/c321d654-f44a-4d63-8fe8-073de1b0e32f?tab=question&status=allreplies#tabs maybe you can take a look at it from there ive already tried the few options that were given there and still no success I did try a different laptop but still no success the only difference is that in the disk management the HDD in question (WD 5TB Black) Is showing triple the amount of what the drive actually is 16384 GB in the the first laptop I tried and in the second laptop I tried it read 4657 GB in disk management which is about 4 TB and I have about 1 TB of data in there.
Boogieman_WD
Judicious
- Jul 31, 2014
- 6,050
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I saw the screens and read the whole thread. And yes, you upload somewhere the files and then post the URL as shown in this tutorial: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-2176231/guide-posting-screenshot-forum.html.
4657GB is the actual amount of GB in a 5TB drive so this is the correct capacity. Have you ever experienced any issues with the HDD while you were using it with your old system? Anything unusual whatsoever? I'm really concerned because at some point DM prompted you to initialize the drive which you should not do if you value your data. Right now I'd strongly suggest that you try it with a PC so that you can connect it via a SATA connection and hopefully everything shows up as it should. I'm not familiar with the drive enclosure you're referring to, but some enclosures can't support high capacity drives such as 5TB, so this could be causing the issue. If you have a different drive which you could try with the enclosure, just to see if it's working properly, that could help narrow things down. Other than that, you still have the Ubuntu Live option available for data recovery, of course if it can recognize the drive properly and access it.
Please keep me posted.
4657GB is the actual amount of GB in a 5TB drive so this is the correct capacity. Have you ever experienced any issues with the HDD while you were using it with your old system? Anything unusual whatsoever? I'm really concerned because at some point DM prompted you to initialize the drive which you should not do if you value your data. Right now I'd strongly suggest that you try it with a PC so that you can connect it via a SATA connection and hopefully everything shows up as it should. I'm not familiar with the drive enclosure you're referring to, but some enclosures can't support high capacity drives such as 5TB, so this could be causing the issue. If you have a different drive which you could try with the enclosure, just to see if it's working properly, that could help narrow things down. Other than that, you still have the Ubuntu Live option available for data recovery, of course if it can recognize the drive properly and access it.
Please keep me posted.
xkasenobaso
Commendable
- Nov 3, 2016
- 1
- 0
- 1,510
Hi. Try this solution only if your external hard drive bay uses an USB connection type.
If you still have the issue and your drive has passed the warranty period, you may try this method. First, try to plug in your USB only half way in for maybe 5 seconds (in my case, just to wait for that little LED light stop blinking on the hard drive). Then, push the USB all the way in. You will probably see the drive shows up again in explorer.
Note: I have similar issue on my 2tb external WD. Only the above method saves my day. Just let you know, my WD shows up on Windows 7, Mac OSX and Ubuntu but Win 10. Weird. I am not sure if the hard drive is broken or just Win 10 has that particular driver issue for that particular hard drive model. However, another of my 1TB external WD has no problem at all. In my case, I have to follow that solution every time I try to connect that 2tb WD to Win 10. And I did not check from DISKPART. My problem is that the drive does not show up on explorer or disk manager. Let me know how yours goes. Thanks. Hope that helps. Good luck.
If you still have the issue and your drive has passed the warranty period, you may try this method. First, try to plug in your USB only half way in for maybe 5 seconds (in my case, just to wait for that little LED light stop blinking on the hard drive). Then, push the USB all the way in. You will probably see the drive shows up again in explorer.
Note: I have similar issue on my 2tb external WD. Only the above method saves my day. Just let you know, my WD shows up on Windows 7, Mac OSX and Ubuntu but Win 10. Weird. I am not sure if the hard drive is broken or just Win 10 has that particular driver issue for that particular hard drive model. However, another of my 1TB external WD has no problem at all. In my case, I have to follow that solution every time I try to connect that 2tb WD to Win 10. And I did not check from DISKPART. My problem is that the drive does not show up on explorer or disk manager. Let me know how yours goes. Thanks. Hope that helps. Good luck.
Boogieman_WD
Judicious
- Jul 31, 2014
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Hey there, xkasenobaso.
Sorry to hear about the issues you're experiencing with your HDD.
I'd say that this is a weird "fix". In my opinion you should try that drive with a different USB cable and a different computer, just to see if the same thing happens. You should also backup your important data, just as a safety measure. After that I'd strongly suggest that you test the drive with DLG (Data Lifeguard) by running both tests (Quick and Extended), just to see what's the situation with it: How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.
Please let me know how it goes.
Sorry to hear about the issues you're experiencing with your HDD.
I'd say that this is a weird "fix". In my opinion you should try that drive with a different USB cable and a different computer, just to see if the same thing happens. You should also backup your important data, just as a safety measure. After that I'd strongly suggest that you test the drive with DLG (Data Lifeguard) by running both tests (Quick and Extended), just to see what's the situation with it: How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.
Please let me know how it goes.
I had the same problem. If you're running windows 10, probably because of the anniversary update. For some unknown reason Windows 10 AU sees some external HDDs as RAW rather than NTFS, seems that there's nothing to be done until they decide to update it.
Boogieman_WD
Judicious
- Jul 31, 2014
- 6,050
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If this is the case, perhaps the new update might improve things: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3197954 . However, as usual, I'd recommend that you make a system restore point before you install it, just to be on the safe side.
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