If you didn't back up important data, you may wonder how to get lost data back. There are different brands of external hard drives, such as Seagate, WD, Toshiba and Lacie. A disk with too many bad sectors won't be recognized by system. After attaching the external hard drive to a computer is detected but does not show up in the folder, Windows 10, 8, 7 file explorer and disk management. There is a variety of reasons why Windows or BIOS cannot detect the presence of your hard drive. This method is able to quickly partition / repartition a hard drive into multiple partitions at one time, and the process is simple and quick. If the file system of your hard disk is not supported by the operating system, your hard disk will be considered as a RAW disk or RAW drive. Step 2  Find the uninitialized hard drive. The reason being, there are equal chances of USB Port damage. Your computer failed to recognized disk, and you connect the disk to another PC, and end up with same result. Try before you buy. If you check a disk in Disk Management and it is marked as "Unknown, Not initialized", and it won't show in system. Support backing up Windows on both MBR & GPT disks. Professional backup tool for PCs and Servers to perform file backup, disk / partition backup, and system backup & recovery. Connection issues can be from a faulty USB port a cable; The might be outdated. A partition without a drive letter does not show in File Explorer. It is highly recommended to use Eassos DiskGenius Pro to do the job for you. Remove the power cable when the hard disk is not detected, or the hard disk you are trying to fix. If you are new to these operations, please read manual carefully in advance or ask a computer expert to help you. That's because the hard drive might be turned OFF in System Setup, for some motherboard manufactures disable unused ports in BIOS by default. If cables are set correctly to devices and the hard disk still cannot be recognized, there might be something wrong with the SATA port. Plug your external hard drive if it isn't already. Summary: Internal hard disk or external hard disk detected/recognized but not accessible/opening on Windows computer? It is able to recover lost data from external hard drives in various situations, such as it says 'X:\ is not accessible' on computer". If it is the case, we can fix the disk not showing issue by assigning a … In this way, you can fix the external hard disk detected but not accessible/opening issue and access the files on the disk as normal. If partition recovery is not needed, you can move to Way 1 and Way 2 to partition the hard drive. You can update drivers in Device Manager. The following is a query from a forum: I have an 80GB Seagate external hard drive that I connect to my Windows computer to store files but for some reason, just recently, it has stopped showing up in the 'My Computer' folder. If the connection is loose, you can try a new cable. There are two clues helping you locate the hard drive in question. A 15-day free trial version is available to anyone who wants to backup Windows. The three steps will help you. However, you may get into troubles in opening external hard drives on your Widnows computer. Internal hard disk drive not found error is a very common error that affects windows laptops. Then you can follow the onscreen instruction to create new partition and format the disk. If the drive works as normal in a different USB port, you may have a dead USB port. How to use external hard drives on Windows computers? This will open Disk Management window. All-inclusive partition manager program to safely resize partitions, recover lost files, edit hex data and back up data for PCs, laptops and workstations. This partition recovery software is able to restore deleted partition back to the status before they got lost, which means files and folders in the partition will be recovered at the same time. If the external hard dive is a brand-new hard drive, and there is no partition on the drive, the system cannot recognized the drive size, which would cause the hard drive detected but not accessible. The last attempt is to reformat the drive. It shows up as a device in device manager but I don't know how to open it. How to fix external hard drive that is not accessible/opening on PC. The value next to the option can be the default setting, which satisfies the 4K alignment requirement. Reconnecting the hard disk should help you catch some noise. Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Hard disk does not have a drive letter.   Conclusion. The best free partition software to simply resize partition, convert MBR to GPT, check bad sectors and backup data under Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP. DiskGenius allows to preview files in the partition it finds out, and you can view and open these files to make sure if the partition is correct. As long as you have a hard drive running on your computer, it's only a matter of time before you get the problem. Then type "diskmgmt.msc" in Run box and click OK button. Hard drive not showing up is a common issue you may encounter during using computer. If your hard drive does not show in Disk Management, you should check if it can be detected in BIOS (Basic Input / Output System). Additionally, if the external hard disk is physically dead, you need to 4 Recover Data from the Hard Drive That Shows up in Disk Management But Not My Computer. Follow our guide to use the windows troubleshoot utility, which may fix the hard drive inaccessibility issue. The computer system stored entire files into attached hard disk i.e. If you have one and it has an exclamation-type icon, right-click on it and click on Import Foreign Disks. internal hard drive or external hard drive. Connection issue. Perhaps you are trying to looking for solutions to this problem. First of all, you have to understand the reasons for such a problem of an external hard drive is not opened up: File system error; Access denied; The request failed due to a fatal device hardware error; A storage device driver is outdated; Unsupported file system; Unknown … A local hard drive is connected to computer's motherboard via two cables: the data cable and power cable. unallocated, RAW, etc. The following part will present some methods which are mostly recommended by experts step by step and you can try these methods one by one. Hard drives are usually connected to onboard a SATA or IDE port. If it is the case, we can fix the disk not showing issue by assigning a drive letter. However, if the hard drive is suffering from partition loss issue, you should not create new partitions before lost data is recovered. While you're having a problem with your hardware, you should associate with outdated drivers. Disk is not enabled in bios or device manager. Here is a list of possible causes of the problem, and you can refer to these factors: Since causes to the issue vary from people, solutions, there are various solutions to fix it. Other physical damage. The next thing is to check whether Windows detects the hard disk. Read the following tutorial. Step 3  If you cannot see your hard disk, you can try enabling the controller for the disk. If you see any devices with yellow exclamation point next to them, that device has a driver problem. Note: the option "Align Partition to Integral Multiple of Sectors" option should be selected if you want your partition to be 4K aligned. Then click OK and the drive letter will be added to the partition. If it does, the power supply is not an issue at hand. To make the hard drive shown in Windows Explorer you should create partition on the disk. The hard drive may be attacked by the virus or physical damage due to power failure or unsafe ejection and so on. There is possibility that a hard drive does not show up due to improper cable connection, which should be checked in the first place when you encounter the issue. Press Win and R at once to open a run dialogue and type; cmd to open the ‘command’ prompt by pressing the enter button. The problem may lie in the USB port you're using to connect the external hard drive to your computer. The trial version can scan hard drive and preview recoverable files, which helps to make sure whether your files can be recovered correctly.   Method 7: Enable drive in BIOS It is necessary to click the left mouse button on the + icon. Step 2  Select the hard drive which loses partitions and click "Partition Recovery" button from the toolbar. Safely remove the external hard drive from your computer. For example, Ext4 or ReiserFS cannot be opened on Windows without a third-party application. Easy-to-use software backs up entire system's current state, data, settings and applications to protect PC from system crash. Click "Run the troubleshooter" button. 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