Using 7 effective ways, you can solve external drive not recognizedin Windows 10, 11, etc. easily. Also, way to recover drive data and drive protection tips are included.
External hard drive can be used to store important data and it is easy to access. But sometimes when you connect the hard drive to a Windows PC, you may encounter the issue of the external drive not recognized in Windows 10, 11.
Don't worry. This article will tell you 7 methods to fix external hard drive detected but not showing up and recover data from the unrecognized external hard drive if you have any important data on it. Also, external hard drive protection tips are included.
If your Seagate external hard drive not recognized in Windows 10 when connected to your computer, it could be due to several factors. Some common causes include:
The reason for the issue of the external drive not recognized in Windows 10, 11 has been explained above. Now, let's solve the problem.
If the external hard drive not recognized in Windows, the first thing you should do is connect it to another computer. You can check if it is an external drive problem or a computer problem. If you suspect that the problem is with your drive, you should always try another external drive cable or a different USB port, as this could also be the reason why the external drive is not recognized in Windows.
Usually, Windows automatically assigns a drive letter to all connected storage drives. Sometimes your Windows not recognize an external hard drive because the drive letter is missing. You can assign a new drive letter to solve this problem.
Step 1. Right-click on "This PC" > "Manage" > “Disk Management”.
Step 2. Click on the secondary hard drive and press “Change Drive Letter and Paths”.
Step 3. Choose the “Add” option to add a drive letter for the external hard drive.
Step 4. Click “Assign the following drive letter” to name the drive letter for the external hard drive.
You can use the Windows command line tool CHKDSK to fix your unrecognized external drive. But sometimes you may find CHKDSK deleted files, causing some files to become inaccessible and unrecoverable. Please see the next part to recover data. Here is the fixed external hard drive.
1. Type "cmd" in the search box, and click "Run as administrator".
2. Type the command “chkdsk *: /f /r” (replace * with the letter of your external hard drive that’s not getting recognized), and press Enter.
Sometimes Seagate external drive not recognized in Windows can be caused by a corrupted disk driver, you can download the latest hard drive driver from the drive manufacturer's official website. Follow the steps below to fix driver issues
1. Type “Device Manager” in the search bar and open it
2. Locate and right-click your external hard drive, and choose "Update Driver".
3. Click "Search automatically for updated driver software".
4. Once this procedure is finished, disconnect and reconnect it to your computer.
Running the hardware and device troubleshooter is an efficient way for you to identify and fix errors on your external hard drive.
1. Connect your external drive, press “Win + I” to open Windows Settings;
2. Click Update & Security > Troubleshoot > Hardware and Devices > Run the troubleshooter to locate errors.
If your removable drive shows only Unallocated space, you’re supposed to create a simple volume on the drive to fix this issue. Refer to the following steps.
1. Press “Windows + R”, then enter “diskmgmt. msc” in the window and click “OK” to open it.
2. Right-click on the external hard drive and choose the “New Simple Volume” option.
3. Click “Next” on the Welcome to New Simple Volume Wizard window.
4. Enter a smaller simple volume size in the box on the Specify Volume Size window, then click “Next”.
If the above methods do not resolve the issue, the file system may be corrupted or unsupported, in which case you will need to format the external drive. But all data will be deleted after formatting. If you have important data that needs to be saved, please move to the next part to recover data before formatting the external drive.
1. Right-click Start> Disk Management and click Create and format hard disk partitions.
2. Right-click your secondary hard drive and click Format.
3. Choose the desired file system and format options, then, click OK.
After going through the above solutions, you might have solved the issue of an external hard drive not recognized in Windows 10. Regardless of your situation, you may find that you lost some data and want to recover files from your external hard drive. Fortunately, you still can use data recovery software- MyRecover to get your external hard drive data back.
Here are the main features of MyRecover:
Steps to recover data from not detected external drive
Step 1. Download MyRecover on Windows, install, and run it. Hover the mouse over the drive not recognized in Windows, and click Scan.
Step 2. MyRecover will scan your not detected external drive automatically and thoroughly to locate all the found data on an external drive.
Step 3. You will see a list of data that MyRecover found on not detected external drive. Select the files you want to recover and press Recover x files.
Step 4. Select a new location to save the recovered files and click Select Folder to confirm it. Your files will be recovered in a few minutes or longer, depending on the amount of data you want to recover.
Congratulations. Your data from the not detected external drive have been recovered!
With the above efficient 7 ways, you can easily solve the issue of external drive not recognized in Windows 10, 11. If you are worried about data loss during this process, you can also recover lost data simply by using reliable data recovery software like MyRecover.