How to Fix External Hard Disk Detected but Not Opening Issue?

Why can't access an external hard drive on Windows 10? In general, different reasons can restrict you from accessing the hard drive. These reasons include:
● Your PC has potential virus or malware
● There are bad sectors on the hard drive
● Your PC has outdated hard drive drivers
● The system has run into a technical glitch
After knowing why Windows may fail to access a hard drive, let’s start with the solutions on how to fix external hard disk detected but not opening issue.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:10 Solution 1: Change the permissions of the drive that not accessible
2:01 Solution 2: Update the external hard drive driver
2:39 Solution 3: Fix external hard drive won't open by Disk Management
3:32 Solution 4: Run CHKDSK to Repair Disk
4:19 Solution 5: Run Windows Troubleshooter

#Wondershare #WondershareRecoveritDataRecovery

[martinb]

Solution 4 fixed my issue. It took almost 18 hours for Windows to correct my external hard drive. No lost data. Thank you and Happy New Year!

[jasonstuff]

None of the solutions fixed my issue but wanted to say thanks for all the possible fixes and walkthroughs!
Was very much appreciated and gave me at least a little bit of hope lol

[piumiesaranga]

I cant even click on the icon of it, it freezes my computer. Please help all my files are in it. It is connected as an external ssd

[vixenparadise]

I couldn’t be more grateful!! I had a external hard drive that started making noise today and just died on me! It had 10years worth of files and most importantly pictures and I’m a photographer and I had no back ups for it. Did the Chkdsk took about 4 hours but I recovered everything! I can’t thank you enough for this!!!

[invincible]

My PC was recognizing the external hard disk but it could not access any files. Running CHKDSK (Solution 4) worked for me. Thank you very much for explaining these solutions !!

[akwasikwarteng]

Step 4 fixed my issue. It took about an hour but I can access my hard drive now. Thanks man! That was handy

[dbdarlina]

I watched several videos already until I came to your video. Thank you for showing several causes and troubleshooting options.

[brighterhoopes]

None of these fixes worked for me either. However, I haven't sent the hard drive off for repair. The command prompt chkdsk option took two day to run and then told me there were no errors. I know my files are on the disc because one of the options I tried showed every file that was on the drive as is scanned them. I only use this external drive as a backup for my laptop. The last backup was in January and it worked fine. Now when I click on the Seagate Dashboard to run a backup, I get an error message that says "The Seagate management system has not started. The application will close" There is no other option but to close the app.
The Device manager option you suggested told me the device was working properly. However, all attempts to fix have so far have failed. My next option will be to delete the software and try redownloading it and reinstalling it. If that doesn't work, then I will reformat the hard drive and start over. Hopefully then it will work and I can run a fresh backup.
Thanks for your info to try to help.

[ianruneckles]

Thank you so much! Chkdsk solution worked for me, took 5 hours to scan a half full 1Tb drive. Curiously my Mac could see the drive but Windows unable to read it. All back to normal, very grateful.

[vijayyadhavan]

Thank you tons bro....🙏 You made my day ❤️. I had this problem for many many days and the worse part is, it is my friend's hard disk... It had his personal and important data... Now it is all up and available. 😀. 🤝🎉👍. Hence, subscribed your channel and liked your video as a token of appreciation ... Kudos!

[Nephertiti]

Thanks although I have to come back to finish, your video is fairly easy to follow. Sometimes solutions show things I don't have on my Windows 11, but you are up to date.

[distantflava]

Thanks for the tips. It fixed the problem. Good old Chkdsk to the rescue!
😀

[eugenepohjola]

Howdy. Nice.
I would like to mention two more possibilities.
1. I ran chkdsk in win11. It reported that there is not enough space to replace bad clusters. It did nothing.
Then I ran chkdsk in winXP. That began to work. I ran it several times until it reported no more fixes. Disk usage info became visible in properties.
2. I booted into Ubuntu Linux from a flash stick. Hooray. In Ubuntu I was able to copy almost everything to another drive.
Regards.

[Behzat_Rasuli]

04:02 Thank you soooo much. You saved me a lot. I had the 3TB WD Elements and I executed the command at 4:02 and the comp ran for mor than half a day and when i was back home from work I had all the data in front of me. Thnaks sooo much.

[vanessaweemsss]

very useful. I try using different cords, because some cords aren't made for your device. Well, I hope I don't have to do another recovery because it was so expensive last time. It cost me about $1 per photo and I had about 1K.

[narashennaidoo]

Thank you for the videos, I have an EXT HDD which is an WD Elements 2TB, I am unable to pick up the drive, and when I go to Disk Management all I see is unallocated. I have data on the drive but unable to retrieve it. What will be the next steps going forward ?

[FelipeFigueira]

The prompt step was the solution for my case. Thanks, man!!! Appreciated

[diegocisne]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
Solution 4: Run CHKDSK to Repair Disk is what worked for me, it was running for over 12 hours but now I have access to all my files again

[iammeobviously]

How much storage do you want?
Him: yes

[MrAutistik]

Thanks for the assistance. Had to do the CHKDSK solution. Sadly I wasn't able to get anything done, though I don't think I would've gotten anything done in the first place.