External hard disk not recognised windows 7

Up until this week it worked fine. Once a week I'd plug it in and back everything up. Now it isn't being seen as a drive by Windows, it just turns up as a USB device, has no assigned drive letter and cannot be accessed via Windows Explorer. I suppose the drive itself might be kaput, but it seems odd that the system recognises it being plugged in and unplugged if this is the case. Any thoughts?

Wendy Okay, so I got a message from my computer that I have a hard disk failure and need to back up. Bought a USB toshiba terabyte external hard drive. Although the computer recognizes it, it basically ignores it and keeps telling me to connect a device for backup when the device is already connected. Tried all the regular stuff to correct. I have tried everything.

Read all above. It is assigned drive "G" and has no errors on it. It has the latest updated driver on it. It is empty. Computer has all latest updates, though it is not capable of shutting down and pulling itself back up. Have to do force end and restart.

Even the toshiba itself is lacking the proper wording for back up when plugged into this computer. In my other computer there is a toshiba prompt for automatic backup but in this computer I have to attempt it though control panel.

Tina Sieber Wendy,. Does the external hard drive appear in your device list and can you access it manually? If not, is it being recognized by other computers? Wendy It's recognized but only partially Yes, it does fine on another computer.

I can drag things over to it with this computer but it will not give me a prompt for a complete backup no matter how I try to access it. Tina Sieber What operating system are you trying to connect the hard drive to?

I assumed it was Windows 7, but you didn't say. If it's not Windows, it might be a formatting issue. I think it's best if you ask a new question.

Have you made any changes on the computer prior to the issue? Method 1: Let us start with running the hardware troubleshooter and check. Follow the article mentioned below for more information:. Method 2: If the above step does not help us to diagnose the issue, uninstall the drivers for USB [Universal Serial bus] host controller and restart the computer. Let Windows install the generic drivers and then see if it helps you to fix the issue.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. Reboot the computer. On reboot, Windows 7 should re-install the drivers automatically. Hope it helps. For any further Windows related assistance, feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help. Was this reply helpful? Yes No. To recover data from virus infected external hard drive, you can try using MiniTool Power Data Recovery because of its excellent performance, high security, and simple operations.

How to recover files after virus attack:. I feel glad to share solutions with users to help them recover files deleted by virus attack quickly and safely. What they should do? There are also some people saying that their external hard drive could be detected by Windows, but can't be opened.

The most direct reason is the file system problem. There are two useful methods for fixing the external hard drive detected but not opening error: run CHKDSK and format the drive. Click to see Format Partition Tutorial. There are many factors that could lead to this problem. When you find that your external hard drive is not showing up in your computer, please use the methods mentioned above to help your computer recognize the hard drive. You can also refer to this post to learn how to recover data from your external hard drive in different ways.

Download Power Data Recovery. Summary : Sometimes, when you connect an external hard drive to your computer, you may find it fails to show up. What to Do When You Can't See External Hard Drive Many people have the same experience — they suddenly find an external hard drive is not recognized by the computer; it won't show up in File Explorer PC not recognizing external hard drive. Type disk management. Select Create and format hard disk partitions.

Browse the drives list to look for your external disk. Tip: If Seagate external hard drive not showing up on Windows 10, can you access data in it? Tip: The WD external hard drive is used widely by people throughout the world. And I advise you to recover data from WD external hard disk which is not detecting. Right click on the disk partition which has no drive letter.

Choose Change Drive Letter and Paths from the context menu. Click on the Add button in the pop-up window. Assign a drive letter to the partition and click OK to confirm.

Wait a second. The drive will show up and work again. If your external or internal hard drive not showing up Mac and you want to fix it, please read this page. Read More. Method 4: Fix Device Driver Problems If you find your Toshiba external hard drive not showing up on PC showing as unrecognized , you can open Device Manager to uninstall or delete the driver.

Note: the process will be a little bit different on different computer motherboards. Remove and reconnect the storage drive to the console. Connect to another USB port on the console.