My Computer Doesn't "See" External Hard Drives

[mr__ed]

Toshiba laptop, W10 Home, Ver 1803

I have 2 external hard drives. When I plug either of them into a USB port I hear the normal beep sound, indicating they've been recognized but they don't automatically play, even though auto play is enabled . They don't even show up in "this PC", as if they don't exist. Funny thing is, when plugged into my HP machine, running same OS, they show up OK. Both laptops are fairly new, so I don't know why the HP acts differently than the Toshiba. BTW, I'm pretty sure at one time the Toshiba was able to read the external drives OK. Maybe an update messed something up?

[mr__ed]

Thanks, everyone. Due to your assistance, I've got it working. I opened Disk Management and found the external drive there, but it had no letter assigned. I labelled it F, which was the original letter when it was working. I suspect a recent W10 update may have caused the glitch.

Does that ever happen? LOL

[mileshuff]

Type Computer Management in the search box next to Start Button. Click on Computer Management in the results. On the window that opens click on Disk Management. It will list all drives. Find your external drive in the lower section. I'm assuming no drive letter is assigned or it has assigned a letter thats already in use by something else (happens often). Right click on the drive and select change drive letter. Enter a new unused letter. Hopefully that will fix things.

[mr__ed]

Upon further examination, I came up with this:

When I open up device management/other devices, the external drive shows up as "Elements 25A2", so the computer is recognizing it, but that's as far a it goes. I'm tempted to reset this computer, but that's a little radical and I'd like to avoid it, if possible.

[mr__ed]

MrWizard wrote:
try going to control panel / devices / usb ports

disable, then enable, then update drivers

sometimes my Win 8.1 is a little slow, on this
it will beep, but the drive window might not pop up for a couple of minutes

too many background processes going on ?

Mr Wizard, I've tried what you said. When I go to devices/usb ports it gives me no option to disable or enable. The only option is "pin to taskbar". There is also a box that is checked that reads, "Notify me if there are issues connecting to USB devices" I get no such notifications. I've also noticed that when I plug in an external drive (in this case a WD Elements 1TB drive) it spins for quite a while, as if downloading data.I think there's a lot of data on it, including a system image. Still no sign of the drive any where. I think at one time it was assigned the letter F.

[mr__ed]

Helmsey wrote:
It's possible that the computer sees them but hasn't assigned them a letter to show up under "This PC". You can use disk management to see if they are there and just need to be initialized and\or a drive letter assigned to them.
To get to disk management you can right click the windows option in the bottom right of the screen and it will be an option in the menu that pops up.

Thanks, Helmsey. I'll give it a try next chance I get.

[mr__ed]

Fizz wrote:
My HP laptop is very slow in showing external hard drives. Whatever it has to do depends on how large and full the drive is. I usualy walk away for a minute or two.

My situation is not with my HP laptop. It's with my Toshiba, which otherwise work well and recognizes other USB items, like thumb drives. It just has to do with external disks. I'll try Mr. Wizards suggestion next. Thanks for your input. I also wonder why the external disk doesn't show up in my PC

[Star_Gazer]

Helmsey wrote:
It's possible that the computer sees them but hasn't assigned them a letter to show up under "This PC". You can use disk management to see if they are there and just need to be initialized and\or a drive letter assigned to them.
To get to disk management you can right click the windows option in the bottom right of the screen and it will be an option in the menu that pops up.

I have to do this every time I plug in my samsung external SSD to my desktop. Easy but a pain.

[Helmsey]

It's possible that the computer sees them but hasn't assigned them a letter to show up under "This PC". You can use disk management to see if they are there and just need to be initialized and\or a drive letter assigned to them.
To get to disk management you can right click the windows option in the bottom right of the screen and it will be an option in the menu that pops up.

[bighatnohorse]

Be sure to power down (off) the laptop. Then reboot and see if it works.
It could be a temporary problem.

[RoyB]

Thanks for the info here - I was just going to WALMART to pick up a couple of the external HARD DRIVES for file backup use for a couple of my WIN 10 LAPTOPs... These external Hard drives use the 3.0 USB ports of the laptop...

Google Image

I see the 1TB SEAGATE Brand External Hard Drives are pretty affordable
WALMART - AMAZON

Have never messed with these before...

Roy Ken

[Fizz]

My HP laptop is very slow in showing external hard drives. Whatever it has to do depends on how large and full the drive is. I usualy walk away for a minute or two.

[MrWizard]

try going to control panel / devices / usb ports

disable, then enable, then update drivers

sometimes my Win 8.1 is a little slow, on this
it will beep, but the drive window might not pop up for a couple of minutes

too many background processes going on ?