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Why Won't My External Hard Drive Show Up

My external HDD is detected but doesn't show up on my computer. More specifically, this drive cannot show up in the File Explorer but is showing in Disk Management. What can I do about this?

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Roxanne· Answered on Mar 15, 2024

There are a few possible reasons why won't your external hard drive showing up:

Connection issue: Ensure the external hard drive is properly connected to your computer. Check the USB cable and connectors to ensure they are working properly.
Drive letter conflict: Sometimes, the drive letter assigned to the external hard drive may conflict with other drives connected to your computer. Change the drive letter in Disk Management on Windows or Disk Utility on Mac.
File system Incompatibility: If the file system on the external hard drive is incompatible with your system.

To assist you in resolving this external hard drive not showing up or being recognized as an issue, I recommend an all-in-one disk manager - EaseUS Partition Master Professional. This software enables Windows users to change driver letter and format this external hard drive to the right file system:

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Way 1. Check and change the Port/USB Cable/PC

If it's a connection issue, unplug this external hard drive and try a different USB port. Try USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, and ensure this external hard drive is directly connected to your PC. You can also plug it into another PC to see if it can appear.

Way 2. Format the External Hard Drive That Is Invisible

Step 1. Open EaseUS Partition Master and right-click on the partition of your external storage device you wish to format. Select the "Format" option from the menu.

Step 2. Choose a new label for the partition, select the file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and set the cluster size for the partition. Click "OK" to confirm. A warning window will appear. Click "Yes" to proceed with the formatting process.

Step 3. Click the "Execute 1 Task(s)" > "Apply" to initiate the formatting process for your external storage device.

Way 3. Change Drive Letter

Step 1. Open EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the target partition, and hit "Change Drive Letter."

Step 2. Select a drive letter for the partition from the drop-down menu in the new window by clicking its down arrow, then click "OK."

Step 3. Click the "Execute 1 Task(s)" and "Apply" to change the drive letter of the selected partition.

If the methods above don't solve your problem, try visiting your drivers' official websites and updating them to the latest versions.

Why Won't My External Hard Drive Show Up

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