Seagate external hard drive doesn't have a drive letter and cannot be used

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Samuel_gaming

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Feb 12, 2017
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A friend of mine recently bought an external HDD and when he plugged it into the computer, it doesn't work, and when I checked it, it is detected by the computer but it has no drive letter and I cannot assign a drive letter because the option to do so is grayed out.
 
Solution
The Paladin
in windows your new drive need to a) be partitioned b) formatted and in this last step you can assign, or let windows assign the drive letter automatically (suggest you do unless you have a reason for it.)

UNPLUG the external drive in system, then in your windows search box type " compmgmt.msc " and open the Computer Management windows, bottom left of the left column you will see Disk management click on that

BE CAREFULL WHAT YOU DO HERE!!! IF YOU SELECT TEH WRONG DRIVE YOU CAN MESS THINGS UP BAD.
I am showing using a thumb drive, but the principal is the same...Below you will see drives numerated

Before I plug drive in: (only have 4 drives)
d6Cv8PH.png


After I plug my drive in (now a 5th shows.)...
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The Paladin

The Paladin

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Oct 5, 2016
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www.texastandyrestorations.org
in windows your new drive need to a) be partitioned b) formatted and in this last step you can assign, or let windows assign the drive letter automatically (suggest you do unless you have a reason for it.)

UNPLUG the external drive in system, then in your windows search box type " compmgmt.msc " and open the Computer Management windows, bottom left of the left column you will see Disk management click on that

BE CAREFULL WHAT YOU DO HERE!!! IF YOU SELECT TEH WRONG DRIVE YOU CAN MESS THINGS UP BAD.
I am showing using a thumb drive, but the principal is the same...Below you will see drives numerated

Before I plug drive in: (only have 4 drives)
d6Cv8PH.png


After I plug my drive in (now a 5th shows.)
BtfkPu5.png



if your drive shows up, right click on it, and format it. if it doesn't let us know.

 
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Solution
M

mbarnes86

Splendid
Sep 16, 2010
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Hi

It would help to know exact make & model & interface (USB2, USB 3, eSATA ...)

does Disk Management show any information about partition & format (assuming you have a Windows PC)

If formatted for MAC OS or UNIX/LINUX Windows PC would have problems using it until re partitioned & re formatted

Western Digital & Seagate have Windows Diagnostics programs for hard disks which can test most brands of hard drives not just WD & Seagate and not just internal drives


regards
Mike Barnes
 
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R

RolandJS

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Mar 10, 2017
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"... IF YOU SELECT THE WRONG DRIVE..." One way to help prevent picking the wrong drive is to give each HDD (or SSD) a unique name that immediately "tells you, reminds you" -- that unique name is for X drive regardless of the drive letter assignment at the time.
 
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