Windows External Hard Drive Not Showing Up – USB Drive Not Recognized on Windows PC

Windows External Hard Drive Not Showing Up – USB Drive Not Recognized on Windows PC

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***WARNING! FOLLOWING THE STEPS IN THIS VIDEO WILL DELETE ALL DATA FROM YOUR EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!***

Try the following 3 steps first before reformatting your external drive:
1. Use another USB cable. Your original cable could be faulty.
2. Plug USB cable into another USB port.
3. Try the external drive on another computer.

If any of the steps above work... IMMEDIATELY copy your data from the faulty external drive to another location. You won't know if the faulty drive will ever mount on your computer again. This is your ONE CHANCE to save/backup your data!

Sometimes hard drives aren’t recognized on Windows computers. And in this video I have a brand new Western Digital drive that isn’t working on my computer but I’m going to go over the steps needed to get this working again. If your drive has data on it, you’ll have to find a way to back it up first because what we’ll do here will most-likely erase everything off the drive. So definitely back up your files if you can!

I hope this video helps you with your external drive problem. If you want to see more videos like please hit the subscribe button so you won’t miss any of my weekly videos!

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***WARNING! FOLLOWING THE STEPS IN THIS VIDEO WILL DELETE ALL DATA FROM YOUR EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE! PLEASE WATCH THE ENTIRE VIDEO BEFORE YOU CONTINUE!***

Try these steps first before reformatting your external drive:
1. Use another USB cable. Your original cable could be faulty.
2. Plug USB cable into another USB port.
3. Try the external drive on another computer.

If any of the steps above work... IMMEDIATELY copy your data from the faulty external drive to another location. You won't know if the faulty drive will ever mount on your computer again. This is your ONE CHANCE to save/backup your data!

[xianeli]

The problem is that it wont show up AT ALL ANYWHERE

[MattsNotes]

This is one of those extremely practical, and dense videos with no fluff making it longer for ad revenue. Thank you for the video. I really wish Youtube would re-asses their algorithm so that short videos that are right to the point would come up more often.

[studznstuff]

Dude you're a life saver. I have a WD 3200 (300 GB) that I misplaced for nearly a decade. Spent countless hours searching the web trying to fix it, but your tutorial was the only thing that helped. Much appreciated!

[gabriellericchetti]

Hello - I tried doing this and it didn't work... I can't see it in my devices and drives... I also names my external hard drive L. Any other pointers?

[ItsMrDie]

DUDE YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER I BOUGHT IT TO SAVE MY YOUTUBE VIDEO'S AND IT DIDN'T SHOW UP THANKS MAN!!! I WAS ABOUT TO SELL IT!!

[Z]

If I could hug you I would. I just took out my HDD from my ps4 and wanted to use it for my laptop and it wasn’t reading it. Now it works perfect. Thanks!

[CRUSTYDUSTY]

Finally, after looking at other ridiculous videos such as installing something from some random website and b.s. like that, I finally find a video that is straight to the point and informative. Thank you so much.

[tonygreen]

I have had this drive for several years. It has never worked. I found it in a drawer yesterday while I was looking for something else. So, I did a search and found your site. I am blown away! I now have a NEW drive. Thanks

[garyharyett]

You saved me some serious frustrations, clear concise and to the point thanks!

[rosslovett]

Thumbs up for the vid. I already got my HDD to be unallocated. Simple easy way to correct it. Thanks

[AlexMartinez-sjzs]

Watched about 10 videos on this that were terrible and had not narration. Your solution actually worked and you are a great narrator. Thank you!!!!

[TheSpoonyluvin]

I waded through all kinds of BS to find this video. Thank you for making it. This is the clear and concise how to video we all hope to find within 20 clicks of starting our search.

[sonypsp]

Ok I discovered the problem. Solved it myself. Your Drive appears and not show. in Disk Management, "Right click" on the Disk, Select ("Change Drive Letter Paths") Finally Assign a new "Letter" and your done. All your Data is safe, no partition, no format. That's it, enjoy.

[reavch]

Thank you! You saved me some money; I was about to head to a computer shop to get this figured out. All the info on the web DID NOT HELP.

[masterc]

Thank you so much you were a big help I searched high and low and could not find anyone that could help me with my new portable drive until I came across your video thank you once again

[Mede]

4 Years Later and your video is still helping people! Thank you so much !!

[deehuncho]

When I open disk management it tells me “you must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it.” But I don’t want to wipe everything off of it, I used it as a external hard drive for my ps4.

[Jesse-kvgi]

Just needed the external hard drive to show up, and I didn't mind wiping what was already on it.. Worked perfectly, thank you for the short helpful video!

[WBCSHELPLINETOPPERTALKS]

Thank you.I got back my external HDD just because of u.Thanks once again buddy