Laptop cannot see my External Hard Drive, but other devices can?

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Jetrise

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Nov 5, 2016
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Hello All,

As the title says, I cannot see my external hard drive, which you can view here, on my Laptop. When I connect it to my main PC, or even my Windows Bootcamped Mac, it can view the device.

I've already Googled and tried the following solutions:

    In Disk Management, uninstall driver. (I cannot do this as I cannot see the hard drive in there)
    In Device Manager, view hidden devices and uninstall all greyed out devices. (This does not work when I plug the device back in.


Anyone have ideas on how to fix this?

 
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Paperdoc

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My bet is the problem is insufficient power.

The USB2 specs allow a mobo USB2 header to supply to a connected device power at 5 VDC up to 0.5 amps. The newer USB3 spec increased that to 0.9 amps, and requires a different cable to make it all work. However, the new system designed the cables and connections so that you CAN plug any USB2 or USB3 cable into any USB2 or USB3 port, and it will work for some combinations. AFAIK, there are NO "Portable Hard Drives" that can work when provided only with the 0.5 A power available from a USB2 port, even though you can plug it into such a port. My guess is that your laptop's USB ports are all of the USB2 variety. The drive you are trying to use is specified as a USB3 device, and that's why I focused on the power issue.

If that really is your situation and you need to get that drive working with that laptop, post back here. I made such a combo work by buying an additional item that can solve the power supply problem.
 
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Paperdoc

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Now, that's a different story, so let me get it straight. This drive WAS working OK until a week ago. When it was working, did it work also with your laptop, or only with the other two computers?

Now it does not work. Do you mean it fails ONLY on the laptop, or does it fail on ALL three computers?
 
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J

Jetrise

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Firstly, sorry if my initial post wasn't clear enough, and thanks for helping me.

So, as of a week ago, the drive was working fine with my Laptop (What I'm currently having issues with) as well as a range of other devices such as my main PC, a bootcamped mac and another work laptop.

Now, my drive works on all devices above other than my personal laptop.

Hope that's made it more clear.
 
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Paperdoc

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If this change is only when the unit is connected to the laptop's USB port, then the problem likely is in the laptop. Are you confident there is no problem with the cable you use to connect? Try reviewing the laptop's USB system in Device Manager to make sure it is OK. IF it has more than one USB port, try another one.
 
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