How To Find External Hard Drive On Windows 7

USB drives should automatically appear in Windows Explorer when y'all connect them to your computer. Follow these troubleshooting steps if Windows doesn't bear witness a connected drive.

Diagnosing the Problem

RELATED: Agreement Difficult Drive Partitioning with Disk Management

If y'all continued a USB drive and Windows doesn't bear witness up in the file manager, you should showtime cheque the Disk Direction window.

To open Deejay Direction on Windows 8 or 10, correct-click the Start push button and select "Deejay Management". On Windows 7, press Windows+R to open the Run dialog, type diskmgmt.msc into it, and press Enter.

Examine the list of disks in the disk direction window and expect for your external bulldoze. Even if it doesn't show up in Windows Explorer, it should appear here. Look for a disk that matches the size of your wink drive. Sometimes, it'll also be marked equally "Removable", but not always.

In the screenshot beneath, we've spotted our removable drive at "Disk 3". If you see yours, move onto the next section.

If you don't see the drive in the Deejay Direction window at all, attempt these troubleshooting steps:

• Power On the Drive, if Necessary: Some external hard drives accept their ain ability switches or dissever power cables. If you're using a larger bulldoze, ensure it doesn't take its own ability switch or power cable yous need to connect.
• Plug It Into a Unlike USB Port: Try unplugging the external drive and plugging it into a unlike USB port on your computer. It's possible that i item USB port on the computer is dead.
• Avert USB Hubs: If yous're plugging the USB bulldoze into a USB hub, try plugging it directly into one of your calculator'due south USB ports instead. It's possible the USB hub doesn't supply plenty power.
• Try a Different Calculator: Try plugging the USB drive into a different calculator and run into if the other calculator detects information technology. If no computers see the bulldoze when you connect information technology–even in the Disk Direction window–the USB drive itself is likely expressionless.

Hopefully, 1 of these will solve your trouble. If not, move onto the fixes outlined below.

Fixing the Problem

Once you've performed the above steps, you're in a better identify to ready the problem. Here are a few possible solutions based on what you found when searching for the drive in Disk Direction.

If Windows Asks You to Format the Partition When You Insert It

If Windows can encounter the drive but can't read it, it'southward possible the drive was formatted with a file system Windows doesn't normally support. For instance, this can occur if you format a bulldoze with the HFS+ file organisation on a Mac or with the ext4 file arrangement on a Linux PC.

If yous connect a drive with a foreign file arrangement, Windows will tell yous it needs format the drive before it can utilize it. Don't format the disk yet!This will erase any files on the disk. If you lot don't need the files on the disk, you lot can concord to format information technology–but be sure the drive doesn't have any of import files on it before you do.

To read a bulldoze similar this one, you can either connect it to the Mac or Linux PC information technology was made on, and re-create your files off of it onto another drive. Alternatively, you tin can utilise software that lets you lot read Mac or Linux file systems in Windows. Afterward you lot copy the files off the drive, you can agree to let Windows format (erase) the disk. It volition appear equally an empty drive that is now compatible with Windows.

RELATED: How to Read a Mac-Formatted Drive on a Windows PC

If Other Windows PCs Can Meet the Drive, But Your Current I Can't

If other computers detect the drive when you plug it in, but your current computer doesn't, it's possible there's a driver problem in Windows.

To check for this, open the Device Managing director. On Windows viii or 10, right-click the Start button and select "Device Manager". On Windows seven, press Windows+R, type devmgmt.msc into the Run dialog, and press Enter.

RELATED: How to Utilise the Windows Device Director for Troubleshooting

Expand the "Deejay Drives" and "USB Serial Bus controllers" sections and look for any devices with a yellow exclamation marker on their icon. If you see a device with an fault icon, correct-click information technology and select "Properties". You'll see an error message with more data. Search the web for this error message to find more information.

To fix driver problems, y'all may want to correct-click the device, choose Properties, and head to the Driver tab. Utilize the "Update Driver" push to endeavour to install an updated driver, click "Roll Back Commuter" to roll dorsum the driver to a previous one if it just stopped working, or use the "Uninstall" push to uninstall the commuter and hope Windows automatically reinstalls one that will work.

If You lot See the Bulldoze in Disk Management, and It Has Partitions

If the bulldoze appears in Deejay Management and you run into i or more partitions on the bulldoze–with a blue bar forth the top–it may not be appearing in Windows Explorer because information technology needs to exist assigned drive letters.

To practice this, right-click the partition on the bulldoze in Disk Direction and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths". If yous tin't click "Change Drive Letter and Paths", that's because Windows doesn't support the file system on the partition–see beneath for more data.

You lot may see that the partitioning has no bulldoze letter assigned to it. Assign a driver alphabetic character and information technology should just work.

To assign a drive letter, click the "Add" button and assign a bulldoze letter of your pick to the bulldoze. Click "OK' and it volition appear in File Explorer or Windows Explorer with that drive letter.

If You Encounter the Drive in Deejay Management, Simply It'due south Empty

If you see the bulldoze in Disk Management, but information technology'south "Unallocated", with a black bar forth the meridian, this ways that the drive is completely empty and unformatted. To format it, so Windows can use it, just right-click the unallocated space in Disk Management and select "New Simple Volume".

RELATED: What's the Divergence Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS?

Choose the maximum possible size for the partitioning and assign a bulldoze alphabetic character–you tin can allow Windows automatically cull a drive alphabetic character. If yous want the drive to exist uniform with equally many other operating system and devices equally possible, format it with the exFAT file system when Windows asks. Otherwise, if you're merely using it on Windows machines, NTFS is fine. After it'southward washed, the bulldoze should exist usable.

If Y'all See the Drive in Disk Management, But Yous Tin can't Format It

In some cases, the drive may have a very messy partitioning scheme. You may even see "protected" partitions that you lot tin't delete from within Disk Direction. Or, the partition on the drive may be too small because the drive has protected partitions wasting space on it.

You can "clean" the drive to clean up that mess, wiping all the files and segmentation information from the drive and making it usable in one case more. Outset, dorsum up any important data on the driveif the drive has important data on it. The cleaning process will wipe the drive.

RELATED: How to "Clean" a Flash Drive, SD Carte, or Internal Drive to Fix Partition and Capacity Problems

To clean the bulldoze, you lot'll need to open a Command Prompt window as Administrator and utilise the diskpart command to "clean" the advisable drive. Follow our step-by-step instructions to cleaning a drive in Windows for more information. Yous tin can then create partitions on the empty drive.

With any luck, after post-obit these steps, your drive will be in expert working condition again.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/22251/find-your-missing-usb-drive-in-windows-7-vista/#:~:text=On%20Windows%207%2C%20press%20Windows,Explorer%2C%20it%20should%20appear%20here.

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