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Updated on Oct 29, 2024
For computer users, buying an external hard drive is a crucial investment. Using an external hard drive, users can back up important files and data to it or store important files in it and take it with them. However, there can be problems with the external hard drive. For example, your external hard drive is suddenly not showing up on your computer, or the access denied error message appears.
Recently, a user said that when he clicked Properties on his external hard drive, it shows 0 bytes and then he clicked "check now" in the tool tab under error checking. But he received an error message saying that "The disk check could not be performed because Windows cannot access the disk."
If you have encountered the same problem, you can find solutions in this article. Keep reading and check more details.
Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
---|---|
Fix 1. Check External Hard Drive Connection | Check the connection cable and USB port...Full steps |
Fix 2. Two Ways to Change the Drive Letter of Your External Hard Drive |
1. Change Drive Letter in Disk Management...Full steps 2. Use Free Software to Change Drive Letter...Full steps |
Method 1. Check External Hard Drive Connection
One reason you would see this error message is that the external hard drive has a bad connection with your computer. So it's highly recommended for you to check the connection cables and USB port.
First of all, change another cable to see if Windows still cannot access the disk. Then, try to plug your external hard drive into other USB ports to see if the problem still exists. If you can confirm that both the cable and the USB port are working properly, try Method 2 to solve the problem.
Method 2. Two Ways - Change the Drive Letter of Your External Hard Drive
Another reason Windows can't access your disk is the drive letter. Every time you plug in a new drive to your computer, the system will assign a new drive letter for it. If there's any mismatch or inconsistency with the default drive letter, you might receive the error message "The disk check could not be performed because Windows cannot access the disk."
You can solve this issue by changing the drive letter. There are two methods for Windows users to change, one is to use the Disk Management, and the other is to use the partition manage software - EaseUS Partition Master.
#1. Change Drive Letter in Disk Management
Step 1. Right-click the Windows icon, and select Disk Management to enter.
Step 2. In the Disk Management console, you can see all the connected drives. Right-click on your external hard drive.
Step 3. Choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Step 4. Then click Change, choose a new letter from the drop-down menu and click OK to confirm the change.
After changing the drive letter, restart your computer and check in the Properties again. Or running CHKDSK again to see if Windows can access your disk.
#2. Change Drive Letter with EaseUS Partition Master
We'd like to introduce a handy and free tool for you to change drive letters and perform a disk check, this tool is EaseUS Partition Master. It is designed for users to manage partitions more easily. It simplified the interface and operation for novice users. Even if you only have basic partition knowledge, you can resize partition, format partitions, check partition, and wipe partition date with this tool.
Now you can download the EaseUS Partition Master for free, and follow the guide to see how to change the drive letter with it.
Step 1. Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the target partition, and choose "Change Drive Letter".
Step 2. In the new window, click the down arrow and choose a drive letter for the partition from the drop-down menu, then click "OK".
Step 3. Click the "Execute 1 Task(s)" button in the top-left corner, check the changes, and click "Apply" to change the drive letter of the selected partition.
Bonus Tip: Run Check Disk with EaseUS Partition Master
Besides helping you change the drive letter of the external hard drive, EaseUS Partition Master can also help you to perform disk checks. Usually, users need to open Windows Command Prompt and enter several command lines. But with this tool, a simple click would help you check and fix partition errors. Here are the detailed steps.
Step 1. Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then, locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose "Advanced" > "Check File System".
Step 2. In the Check File System window, keep the "Try to fix errors if found" option selected and click "Start".
Step 3. The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it completes, click "Finish".
The Bottom Line
Hope you could solve the "The disk check could not be performed because Windows cannot access the disk" problem after reading this article. When you have the same problem, first checking the connection of your external hard drive and your computer; then change the drive letter.
It's worth mention that if you need to check the disk and fix errors with the chkdsk command, you should recover the data of the target drive to another safe location. It's because the chkdsk command would reconstruct the data structure, which will cause the device data to be completely lost and cannot be recovered.
How Can We Help You
About the Author
Updated by Tracy King
Tracy became a member of the EaseUS content team in 2013. Being a technical writer for over 10 years, she is enthusiastic about sharing tips to assist readers in resolving complex issues in disk management, file transfer, PC & Mac performance optimization, etc., like an expert.
Product Reviews
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I love that the changes you make with EaseUS Partition Master Free aren't immediately applied to the disks. It makes it way easier to play out what will happen after you've made all the changes. I also think the overall look and feel of EaseUS Partition Master Free makes whatever you're doing with your computer's partitions easy.
Read More -
Partition Master Free can Resize, Move, Merge, Migrate, and Copy disks or partitions; convert to local, change label, defragment, check and explore partition; and much more. A premium upgrade adds free tech support and the ability to resize dynamic volumes.
Read More -
It won't hot image your drives or align them, but since it's coupled with a partition manager, it allows you do perform many tasks at once, instead of just cloning drives. You can move partitions around, resize them, defragment, and more, along with the other tools you'd expect from a cloning tool.
Read More
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