Two weeks ago, my friend gave me a 2TB hard disk, but my computer seems to have issues recognizing the drive. I've tried several means, but still no difference. How do I get the hard drive to work please? The hard drive shows up in Disk Management but not My Computer.
- External Hard Drive Not Showing Up In My Computer Windows 10
- External Hard Drive Not Showing Up On My Computer
- External Hard Drive Not Showing Up On My Computer Wirelessly
How to Fix 'Hard Drive Shows in Disk Management But Not My Computer' Error
External Hard Drive Not Showing Up In My Computer Windows 10
My WD external drive, designated as /F drive, stopped showing up on My Computer. I ran the WD diagnostics and it ran ok. The Ghost backup program backs up to the F drive, but now it doesn't recognize that there is an F drive, so now there is no backup. Here, you will be able to format it correctly or create a partition. This will ensure you will be able to get into the hard-drive using your Windows PC. If your computer won't s recognize external hard drive still, you need to move to the next step. You will have to find out the reason why your hard-drive is not showing up. Go to my last reply to see my solution, may not suit for others though I'm using a WD Passport Ultra 1TB external hard drive as the back-up device for my computer, and it worked perfectly for the last few months. Today, when I was trying to do a back-up, I connected this device to my computer, but it was not showing up.
Solution 1: Update or Reinstall Hard Drive Drivers
Solution 2: Assign Hard Drive with a New Drive Letter
Solution 3: Format or Create a New Volume on the Hard Drive
Solution 4: Recover Data from the Hard Drive That Shows up in Disk Management but Not My Computer
1Update or Reinstall Hard Drive Drivers
Step 1: Connect the hard drive to your PC and launch Device Manager. Next, select 'Universal Serial Bus Controllers'.
Step 2: In that view, right-click the hard drive and hit 'Uninstall'. Disconnect the hard drive after.
Step 3: Now, reconnect the hard drive to your computer, open 'Device Manager' and click 'Universal Serial Bus Controllers' again.
Step 4: Select the specific USB component you want to update.
Step 5: Right-click 'USB' and click 'Update Driver Software'. Thunderbolt 2 portable hard drive.
Step 6: You will find an onscreen guide in the Update Driver Software Wizard. Follow it to update the hard drive drivers.
2Assign Hard Drive with a New Drive Letter
Step 1: Press 'X' while holding down the Windows key. Hit 'Disk Management'.
Step 2: Right-click the hard drive from the sections and click 'Change Drive Letter and Path'.
Step 3: If the drive has no letter assigned to it, hit 'Add' and choose a new drive letter. Click 'OK' when you are done.
3Format or Create a New Volume on the Hard Drive
Note that this method will completely erase all the data stored on the hard drive. If you have valuable information, make sure you back it up in somewhere secure.
Step 1: Right-click on 'Start' and double-click 'Disk Management'.
Step 2: Find your hard drive from the left column, right-click it, and hit 'Format volume'. (You can still recover data after formatting the hard drive with the right tool)
You can make a new volume if the hard drive shows up in Disk Management but not My Computer and appears as unallocated space in Windows 10.
1. Hold down the Windows key and 'X' for a second and click Disk Management.
2. Right-click the space showing as 'unallocated space' and click 'New Simple Volume'.
3. Recreate the hard drive file system and configure it to a different drive letter, and Windows will then be able to detect it.
4Recover Data from the Hard Drive That Shows up in Disk Management But Not My Computer
iMyFone AnyRecover is the best recovery tool to use when your hard drive shows up in Disk Management but not in My Computer. Don't get me wrong; all the other methods listed here are also fine, but AnyRecover is on a league of its own in terms of functionality and user-interface. But don't get scared thinking this software is complicated. AnyRecover is the simplest method or tool to use for fixing this annoying issue.
Features of iMyFone AnyRecover:
No matter how the data gets lost or what happened to the hard disk, AnyRecover has features to help you get your drive back.
Works with all storages, be it external hard drive, memory stick, SD card; or any storage you need to recover data from.
Supports more than a thousand types of files - images, videos, contacts, executable files, zips, etc.
Highly efficient recovery. It works more than 98% of the time.
External Hard Drive Not Showing Up On My Computer
Easy to use and completely secure solution.
How to Recover Data with AnyRecover
Step 1. Run AnyRecover and click 'Lost Partition Recovery'. The program starts to scan the drive or partition.
Step 2. If you don't find your partition or drive, go back to step 1 and use the 'Overall Scan your Partition' mode located at the bottom of the screen.
My WD external drive, designated as /F drive, stopped showing up on My Computer. I ran the WD diagnostics and it ran ok. The Ghost backup program backs up to the F drive, but now it doesn't recognize that there is an F drive, so now there is no backup. Here, you will be able to format it correctly or create a partition. This will ensure you will be able to get into the hard-drive using your Windows PC. If your computer won't s recognize external hard drive still, you need to move to the next step. You will have to find out the reason why your hard-drive is not showing up. Go to my last reply to see my solution, may not suit for others though I'm using a WD Passport Ultra 1TB external hard drive as the back-up device for my computer, and it worked perfectly for the last few months. Today, when I was trying to do a back-up, I connected this device to my computer, but it was not showing up.
Solution 1: Update or Reinstall Hard Drive Drivers
Solution 2: Assign Hard Drive with a New Drive Letter
Solution 3: Format or Create a New Volume on the Hard Drive
Solution 4: Recover Data from the Hard Drive That Shows up in Disk Management but Not My Computer
1Update or Reinstall Hard Drive Drivers
Step 1: Connect the hard drive to your PC and launch Device Manager. Next, select 'Universal Serial Bus Controllers'.
Step 2: In that view, right-click the hard drive and hit 'Uninstall'. Disconnect the hard drive after.
Step 3: Now, reconnect the hard drive to your computer, open 'Device Manager' and click 'Universal Serial Bus Controllers' again.
Step 4: Select the specific USB component you want to update.
Step 5: Right-click 'USB' and click 'Update Driver Software'. Thunderbolt 2 portable hard drive.
Step 6: You will find an onscreen guide in the Update Driver Software Wizard. Follow it to update the hard drive drivers.
2Assign Hard Drive with a New Drive Letter
Step 1: Press 'X' while holding down the Windows key. Hit 'Disk Management'.
Step 2: Right-click the hard drive from the sections and click 'Change Drive Letter and Path'.
Step 3: If the drive has no letter assigned to it, hit 'Add' and choose a new drive letter. Click 'OK' when you are done.
3Format or Create a New Volume on the Hard Drive
Note that this method will completely erase all the data stored on the hard drive. If you have valuable information, make sure you back it up in somewhere secure.
Step 1: Right-click on 'Start' and double-click 'Disk Management'.
Step 2: Find your hard drive from the left column, right-click it, and hit 'Format volume'. (You can still recover data after formatting the hard drive with the right tool)
You can make a new volume if the hard drive shows up in Disk Management but not My Computer and appears as unallocated space in Windows 10.
1. Hold down the Windows key and 'X' for a second and click Disk Management.
2. Right-click the space showing as 'unallocated space' and click 'New Simple Volume'.
3. Recreate the hard drive file system and configure it to a different drive letter, and Windows will then be able to detect it.
4Recover Data from the Hard Drive That Shows up in Disk Management But Not My Computer
iMyFone AnyRecover is the best recovery tool to use when your hard drive shows up in Disk Management but not in My Computer. Don't get me wrong; all the other methods listed here are also fine, but AnyRecover is on a league of its own in terms of functionality and user-interface. But don't get scared thinking this software is complicated. AnyRecover is the simplest method or tool to use for fixing this annoying issue.
Features of iMyFone AnyRecover:
No matter how the data gets lost or what happened to the hard disk, AnyRecover has features to help you get your drive back.
Works with all storages, be it external hard drive, memory stick, SD card; or any storage you need to recover data from.
Supports more than a thousand types of files - images, videos, contacts, executable files, zips, etc.
Highly efficient recovery. It works more than 98% of the time.
External Hard Drive Not Showing Up On My Computer
Easy to use and completely secure solution.
How to Recover Data with AnyRecover
Step 1. Run AnyRecover and click 'Lost Partition Recovery'. The program starts to scan the drive or partition.
Step 2. If you don't find your partition or drive, go back to step 1 and use the 'Overall Scan your Partition' mode located at the bottom of the screen.
Step 3. Choose your file type and click the 'Scan' tab.
External Hard Drive Not Showing Up On My Computer Wirelessly
Step 4. The scanning takes a few minutes. After that, you will see a list of discovered files. You can preview them here before recovering.
Step 5. If, at this point, you do not find the files you are looking for, you can try another mode. Start again from step 1, but this time, select the 'All-Round Recovery'.
Conclusion
If you've been in the situation where you connect your HDD but the hard drive shows up in Disk Management but not My Computer (or My PC in Windows 10). You need not get freaked out; if possible, bookmark this page, so you can have these steps at your fingertips. If you need a smooth way to fix this challenge, iMyFone AnyRecover should be your go-to solution.