It is very likely that you have finished buying an external hard drive but your computer does not want to recognize it becoming a problem. It may also be the case that it is a disk with some time already in use, but when connect it to store or search for some type of file on it, the computer does not want to recognize it.
It is important to mention that this type of problem is usually a bit common in storage units such as USB sticks and hard disk drives. Some of the main reasons why this happens can be failures in the USB port, the disk software, is not assigned a letter, a flat disk, among many other reasons that They may be causing this inconvenience.
In this way, here we are going to teach you a little about how to solve this type of problem that can come up with our storage unit and that can leave us unable to see None of our data stored in it. For this it is important that you follow the steps that we will explain below.
Index:
Signals to detect that my external hard drive does not recognize the Windows disk or Mac
It is important that before starting any method to try to solve this type of problem, we can be sure that the computer does not recognize the hard disk for any reason .
In the case that we continue connecting the unit to the Windows 10 system and the problem continues it will be necessary to try the following options to be able to detect the problem of all this.
connect it
When connecting this storage unit we must observe if any light in the box is turned on or if its mechanical components begin to generate some kind of sound. In this way So, if you turn on or ring we can rule out that the problem is in the box or in the connection.
Device Manager
In this case we have to make sure that the device is recognizing this unit, for this it will be necessary to open the “Device Manager” and check that this device is in the list.
- The first thing will be to right click on the “Start” button in Windows 10, there will appear a menu with different options, we must select “Device Manager.”
- Then we will see a list of devices. In the final part “Disk drives” appears, click there to extend this list.
- Now the hard drive should appear in the list, keep in mind that if it appears with some exclamation point it will be necessary to right click on it and select the option “Update driver ”.
Sound in the system
Every time we connect a new drive in Windows 10 a sound is emitted that indicates that new hardware has been detected.
Although it is many times this sound we do not hear it , but, when connecting the disc you must pay attention if it sounds or not, in the case that it does not sound, it can be a problem with the USB port or the USB cable.
Methods to solve the problem when the system does not recognize the external hard disk
In the case that it has been verified that the computer does not recognize the hard disk, either because does not emit any sound at the time of connecting it, the unit is not recognized by the system or the device does not turn on any lights, then it will be necessary to try other methods to solve this type of problem.
This will require the following steps:
Test the disk in another port or PC
If your device does not recognize the storage unit when connect it to one of the USB ports, either does not generate any sound or does not appear in the list of new devices it may be because the port is damaged and therefore has no operation.
The most common thing here is to try by connecting it to the other ports of the computer, in the event that this unit continues without being recognized in Windows 10 it is best to try connect it to another computer.
Please note that if the box does not turn on any light or sound is emitted when it is connected, it is most likely that the hard drive itself is the problem. If so, it will be necessary to seek an expert , either in the same store where you purchased it.
However, if your unit is recognized and appears in the list of devices in the administrator you will need to try the other method.
Check the hard disk software
Another method that we can perform to detect the problem of memory recognition in the computer will be c omprove the hard disk software. For this it is necessary to enter the “Administrator of devices ” and check if it appears with an exclamation point . ⚠
In many cases the problem of recognition of the device is due to a bad software installation of the product, in this case the internal software that brings the disk hard .
In most external disks there is an internal software that can be installed in order to increase the functionality of the unit. However, on many occasions these are not installed correctly and begin to generate a problem so that the Windows system cannot recognize you. In this case it will be necessary for to completely uninstall the driver and try to install it again to see if the problem is corrected.
Unformatted hard disk
Note that this happens when the external hard drive is new . Therefore, it is possible that this comes without formatting. In this case it will be necessary to perform the following instructions:
- The first thing will be connect the hard drive to the computer.
- The next thing will be to right click on the “Start” button and choose the option of “Disk Management”.
- Next, a tool will appear to be able to manage storage units.
- If the hard drive is new, it will not have any format , this way the following window will appear.
- Now we must select “Accept”, in the main window we can see how this unit appears in black its graph.
- In this case we right click on the unit and select “New simple volume”.
- A wizard will appear on the screen where we can format the unit.
- In one of the windows we must assign a letter to the unit , in this case you are free to choose that letter.
- Once this is done, the following will be to give the format to the disk. Note that if it is a large unit is recommended to give an NTFS format but if it is a small unit such as a USB memory you can select
- Finally we put the name of the unit and we click on nextNextly.
- once the external disk is finished it will have to appear in blue and you can start using it immediately .
Format the disk again
This method will be performed if the previous step does not work out. If we start the hard disk task manager and it appears in the portable storage unit in a RAW format , that unit cannot be used.
In this case, it will be necessary to click on the device and choose the “Format” option to choose a file system for the portable memory storage disk. This will begin to appear the unit ready to use.
The unit is not assigned a letter
There is a possibility that when we get a unit in RAW format , what has really happened is that this is not assigned a letter . Therefore, it will not be able to start working, thus being a reason more than enough for the computer not to recognize the storage unit.
In this case to be able to assign a letter to the portable disk you must follow these steps:
- The first thing will be to right click on the portable unit in the “Disk Administrator”.
- Then we select “Change the letter and paths to the unit.”
- In the next window that appears on the screen we must select subsequentlyAddgar.
- Now we assign the letter of preference and we accept the changes made. After this the unit will start appearing again.
Write-protected disk
As a last method to try to solve this type of problem with the portable unit is to see if the disk is write protected . Nowadays it is very difficult to find a device that has this mechanism activated. However, this can be located as a small movable contact at one end of the hard disk.
But if the storage unit does not have any of these movable contacts, what may be causing the error will be the following:
- This problem may be due to a possible failure in the USB port of the computer. This is not always the most successful, but it should be noted that in some cases it works. Therefore, must be tested by connecting it to another of the USB ports.
- The failure may be caused by the same storage device.
- It may be due to a possible system error .
In order to detect that this error is occurring in the storage unit we simply cannot perform actions such as:
- Format the portable disk
- Remove the drive from the computer
- Changes made to the memory are not stored