15 Fixes for External Hard Drive Not Showing up on Windows 10 or 11

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Zoey Wen
May 11, 2023 Preview 171 Preview 0
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We use external hard drive in different brands to store and transfer files. Sometimes when we connect it to a Windows PC to read and write data, it fails to show up for seemingly no particular reason.

If this is happening to you, here are 15 fixes for external hard drive not showing up on Windows 10 or 11, from basic first aids to specific solutions if your Seagate hard drive not showing up in Windows disk management or file explorer.  

 

Why is Windows PC Not Showing Eternal Hard Drive?

First, let’s get a look into why your Windows PC is not showing up the external hard drive. Though it is hard to figure out the specific reason for this issue case by case, it generally results from 2 types of reasons: hardware issues and software issues.

Hardware issues

  • Bad connection
  • Drive damage or corruption
  • Faulty ports

Software issues

  • Outdated drivers
  • Incorrect Windows configuration setting
  • Incompatible drive format
  • Conflicting drive letter
  • Improper drive initializing

 

First Aid to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing up on Windows

Some Windows users have reported the “External hard drive not showing up” in Windows community, trying to get the answer from an expert. But before making things complex, there are some first aids we should try.

#1. Check Connection

Make sure the connection is not loose, also check if there is any stain, spot on the surface of the area where you need to connect with the PC. Or just remove it from your PC and connect it again. If your external hard drive has a power button or switch, you should turn it ON.

 

#2. Change Port/Cable/Computer

This issue may be caused by faulty ports or hardware. First, connect your hard drive to another port and check, if fails, use another USB cable to connect, if still fails, plug your hard drive to another Windows PC to see if this insists.

 

#3. Reboot PC

Rebooting a PC can set everything back to normal, this applies to fixing the issue of hard drive not showing up. Just go to Start button, select Power icon and select Restart. Before rebooting, you are recommended to remove all the unnecessary external devices from your Windows PC.

restart windows 

 

#4. Update Driver

Drivers are vital, if it goes problematic, you will get unresponsive hardware, for example, hard drive not showing up. By default, Windows will automatically download and install the driver updates for external hard drive, monitors, printers and so on, to keep your software components working properly. When you are not sure if yours is updated, you can update the driver manually.

  1. Enter Device Manager in Windows search box.update driver 01
  2. Choose Device Manager, right click the external hard drive that you want to update its driver.
  3. Select Update Driver.update driver 02

If you cannot update the driver to the latest versions, visit the website of your hard drive supplier, download and install manually according to the official instructions.

 

#5. Reinstall Driver

Same as rebooting a PC, reinstalling driver can set your driver software to its previous settings, killing the errors like a magic. 

  1. Enter Device Manager in Windows search box.
  2. Choose Device Manager, right click the name of your hard drive and click Uninstall.reinstall driver
  3. Restart your Windows PC. Windows will reinstall the driver when rebooting.

 

#6. Use Troubleshooter Tool

Windows also builds in Hardware and Devices troubleshooter tool but in a hidden way due to its low daily usage by users. Nevertheless, it helps users to solve certain hardware issues, including external hard drive.

  1. Press Windows+R to open the Run console.troubleshooter 01
  2. Enter msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic and click OK.troubleshooter 02
  3. Click Next to start shooting troubles on your Windows PC.troubleshooter03
  4. Follow the instructions to trouble shoot problems and check if the issue persists.

 

Fixes for External Hard Drive Not Showing up in Disk Management on Windows

If above first aids didn’t help in your case and your external hard drive keeps not showing up in Windows Disk Management, there are 5 ways to get the problem solved.

#7. Disable USB Suspend

Windows Selective Suspend feature is designed to save the power by putting a or multiple USB ports into suspend mode, if your Windows has enabled this feature, it may cause external hard drive not showing up when connecting to the suspended port, we have to disable the suspend.

  1. Enter Control Panel in Windows search box.disable usb suspend01
  2. Go to Control Panel>Hardware and Sound.disable usb suspend 02
  3. Select Power Options.disable usb suspend 03
  4. Go to Selected plan>Change plan settings.disable usb suspend 04
  5. Click Change advanced power settings.
  6. Expand the USB Settings, disable the suspend settings and click OK.disable usb suspend 05

 

#8. Import Foreign Drive in Disk Management

Your hard drive won’t show up just because it is marked as Foreign by the controller, basing on the raid signature of your disk from a previous configuration. Then the external hard drive will keep not showing up unless you clear out its foreign state. But luckily, there is a way to import foreign drive on Windows 10 or 11.

  1. Enter CMD in Windows search box.import foreign disk 01
  2. Type diskpart and press Enter.import foreign disk 02
  3. Type list disk and press Enter.import foreign disk 03
  4. Type select disk number and press Enter.
  5. Type import [noerr] and press Enter.

 

#9. Delete All ATA Channel Drivers

By deleting ATA channels, your Windows will be forced to search for all connected ATA devices, install drives and set the configurations back to default when system reboots.

  1. Enter Device Manager in Windows search box.
  2. Go to Device Manager>IDE ATA/ATAPI.delete channel 01
  3. Right click each ATA Channel and Uninstall by order.delete channel 02
  4. Restart your Windows PC.

 

#10. Update Windows System

Upgrading Windows system might also solve your problems when you still don’t figure out why this is happening to you. Before updating, you are recommended to back up important files on your Windows to an external hard drive that works properly.

  1. Click on the Start button and choose Settings.windows settings
  2. Go to Windows Update.windows update
  3. Check for updates and upgrade your Windows to the latest version if available.

 

#11. Format 

The last but not the least helpful resort to show up your hard drive in Windows 10 or 11 Disk Management is to format it using a 3rd party program. We recommend EaseUs Partition Master, which is designed to resize, merge, delete, clone, create and format partition on Windows. However, this solution only works when hard drive shows up in file explorer.

Tips: formatting external hard drive won’t erase all data, you can still use Cisdem Data Recovery to restore files from a formatted hard drive.

  1. Run the program on your Windows.
  2. Right click the external hard drive, choose one or all partitions you want to format, click Format.format drive
  3. Add label, system, size to the formatted drive and click OK.
  4. Click Yes to finish the formatting.

 

Fixes for External Hard Drive Not Showing up in Windows File Explorer 

There is another situation: your external hard drive shows in Windows Disk Management but not shows in File Explorer. This can be caused by incorrect or incompatible drive label or format. Here are 4 fixes for hard drive not showing up in File Explorer.

#12. Refresh

Sometimes you just got a slow Windows PC and it responds & shows up newly added hard drive very slow, with a Refresh, we can ask File Explorer to show the latest version of the lists for files, drives, apps.

  1. Go to File Explorer.
  2. Right click the empty space in File Explorer, select Refresh.refresh

 

#13. Change Drive Letter

A drive letter will be automatically assigned to each storage device, including both internal and external ones, so the drive can be identified by the system and shows in File Explorer. If the system tries to assign a drive letter that already in use to your external hard drive, it may stop the disk from showing up in File Explorer, then we just need to change a drive letter for the hard drive manually.

  1. Right-click the Windows icon, choose Disk Management.change drive letter 01
  2. Right-click the drive you would like to change its drive letter, click Change Drive Letter and Paths.change drive letter 02
  3. Click Change and assign the following drive letter.
  4. Select a letter you want to use and continue with OK.change drive letter 03

 

#14. Create New Partition in the Drive

If you connect a new hard drive to your Windows PC and there is no partition, the disk might not show up in File Explorer, you can create a new partition to make the hard drive visible by your machine.

  1. Press Windows + X and select Disk Management. 
  2. If the external hard drive shows unallocated or not initialized, you can right-click the drive, then select Format Disk.
  3. Right-click the unallocated area and select New Simple Volume. 
  4. Select a file system and create a new partition on your drive.

 

#15. Initialize Drive

If you still fail to make the disk show up in Windows File Explorer by following above solution, you will have to initialize the disk, because a valid disk signature will be applied to the drive again during the initialization and lets your Windows detects it.

  1. Right click Start button and choose Disk Management.
  2. Right click the external hard drive and click Format.format disk
  3. Click OK to accept the default partition style or customize it.
  4. Right click the allocated space on the drive, choose New Simple Volume.
  5. Select Next and specify the size, drive letter and file style, then click Finish.

 

Rescue Your Data before External Hard Drive Files Gone Forever

With fixes listed above, we are quite confident that you will be able to show the hard drive up again on your Windows 10 or 11, and you will be able to regain access to your files and data as well.

As a bonus, here we will share an extra useful tip to rescue your data on external hard drive, if you have formatted the drive to make it appear on your device or just find files deleted or lost after showing up. 

Cisdem Data Recovery will be the ideal option to recover deleted, formatted even lost files from external hard drive, including HDD/SSD hard drive, USB, digital camera, SD Card, Memory Card, media player, pen drive and so on in different file systems(FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, ext2, ext3, HFS+, ReFS).

But Cisdem does more than this, it can also restore files from Windows/Mac internal drive, including videos, photos, audio files, documents, archives, emails and so on. Even it has a powerful repair tool to fix damaged videos, photos and documents in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF format.

Main Features of Cisdem Data Recovery

  • Support PC recovery, SD Card recovery, NAS recovery, Crashed recovery and Linux recovery
  • Restore 1000+ files
  • Recover files from both internal and external storage device on Windows/Mac
  • Repair damaged videos, photos and documents
  • Recover unsaved office documents
  • Search files by name and filter
  • Preview files
  • Recover selected or all files fast

How to Restore Files from External Hard Drive before They are Gone Forever?

  1. Connect the hard drive to your Windows PC.
  2. Download and install Cisdem Data Recovery, run the program.
    Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
  3. Go to PC Recovery, select the external hard drive and click Search for Lost Data. recover hard drive data cisdem01
  4. Go to Type, different formats of files will be put in separate folders, or you can search a file by name, even use the filter to quickly locate a file. recover hard drive data cisdem 02
  5. Double click a file thumbnail to preview. If you cannot preview, use the Repair tool to fix. 
  6. Select the files and click Recover to get them back. recover hard drive data cisdem 04

 

Conclusion

As soon as you realize that your external hard drive is not showing up on Windows 10 or 11, you should try the first aids to rule out some common hardware reasons. If they don’t work, then you should figure out if it is not showing up in Windows Disk Management or File Explorer and take actions accordingly. If you have to format or initialize the drive at the end, don’t worry, Cisdem Data Recovery can rescue your data even the external drive is formatted.

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Zoey Wen

Zoey shows a great interest in what she does. Although not long with Cisdem, she has possessed a professional understanding of data recovery.

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