External drive not recognized: how to identify and fix the problem

External drives, including USB flash drives and SD cards, should be easy to use on your computer.

If your external drive is still not recognized, the fault may be physical and every new attempt counts. Before trying again, see how external hard drive recovery works, starting with a free diagnosis.

But sometimes you connect your external drive and it simply doesn’t show up in Disk Management.

There are several possible causes: partition problems on the drive, an incompatible file system, a faulty USB port or driver problems. In the worst case, the drive itself may be damaged.

In this article, we look at what to do when your external drive doesn’t appear in Disk Management.

What to do when your external drive is not recognized

When your drive doesn’t show up, these are the main things you can try:

1. Check Disk Management;
2. Try another USB port or computer;
3. Look for problems in Device Manager;
4. Create a new partition and format the drive (this erases the data);
5. Clean the drive with Diskpart and format it (this erases the data).

Here’s how to go about each of them:

1. Check Disk Management

If your external drive doesn’t show up in File Explorer, the first place to look is Disk Management.

Open the Start menu, type “Disk Management” and press Enter when the “Create and format hard disk partitions” option appears.

Once Disk Management has loaded, scroll down to see whether your drive appears in the list.

If it does, check that it is online and has a partition. If it shows as offline, right-click the disk name (e.g. “Disk 2”) and select “Online”.

If the drive has no partition, its space will appear as “Unallocated” under a black bar. If the drive held data, this usually means the partition table has been damaged.

In that case, you can right-click and choose “New Simple Volume”. The same applies if the drive is formatted for another operating system, but you’ll only regain access to the drive, not to the data that was on it.

Keep in mind that creating a new volume and formatting it erases the data on the drive. Only go ahead if you are sure you don’t need anything on it; otherwise, recover the files first with data recovery software or a professional service.

Finally, if your drive is online and has a partition but no drive letter next to its name, right-click the partition and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths” to add one.

Choose a letter that is not already used by another drive.

2. Try another USB port or computer

Another way to get your drive to show up is to plug it into a different USB port or connect it to another computer.

The port you’re using may be faulty, or the cable may not be making good contact.

If it’s connected to a USB 3.0 port, try a USB 2.0 port; if it’s connected to a USB hub, plug it directly into the computer (some hubs don’t supply enough power for an external drive to work).

You can also try another computer, ideally one running a different operating system.

For example, if the drive won’t show up on a Windows PC, try connecting it to a Mac.

The drive may be formatted with a file system the computer you’re using can’t read.

In that case, copy the data from the computer that can read the drive to another drive formatted for the operating system you want to use.

3. Look for problems in Device Manager

If your drive shows up on other computers, your system probably has a driver problem with the device.

You can check this in Device Manager.

To open it, press Win + X (or right-click the Start button) to open the Power User menu and select “Device Manager”.

You can also type devmgmt.msc in the Run dialog box (Win + R).

In Device Manager, expand “Disk drives” and look for devices with a yellow exclamation mark next to them.

Also check the “Universal Serial Bus controllers” section.

If any entry shows the warning symbol, it may well be your external drive.

To find out more, right-click the device, select “Properties” and read the error message under “Device status”.

You can also go to “Settings” > “Update & Security” > “Windows Update” to check for updates, which is always a good idea when Windows is misbehaving.

This check also finds driver updates. They may appear under “View optional updates” > “Driver updates”, so it’s worth looking there too.

To update a specific driver, right-click the device in Device Manager and choose “Update driver” > “Search automatically for drivers”.

Windows will then check whether a newer driver is available.

If that doesn’t work, search online for your device’s model to see if the manufacturer offers a newer driver.

4. Create a new partition and format the drive

If your drive shows up in Disk Management as “Unallocated” and you don’t need the data on it, you can format it by creating a new volume. If there are files you need, recover them first.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the Start menu and select “Create and format hard disk partitions”;
2. Right-click the “Unallocated” space on your external drive and select “New Simple Volume”;
3. The New Simple Volume Wizard will open. On the size screen, enter the size of the partition in megabytes and click “Next”;
4. Assign a drive letter that is not already used by another drive or partition;
5. Choose a file system (NTFS for Windows only, or exFAT if you also want to use the drive on a Mac) and a volume label. Click “Next” and then “Finish”.

5. Clean the drive with Diskpart and format it

In some cases, the drive does appear in Disk Management, but formatting it simply doesn’t work.

In that situation, to get back the drive’s full capacity, you can run the clean command in Windows Diskpart, which deletes the partition table and leaves the drive with no partitions at all.

This makes every file on the drive inaccessible. Only do it as a last resort, when you don’t need the data, and make absolutely sure you select the right disk, or you could wipe the wrong one.

To clean the drive and format it with Diskpart:

1. Open the Start menu, type “diskpart” and press Enter to open the Diskpart prompt;
2. Type list disk and press Enter to see the disks connected to your computer;
3. Find your external drive, paying close attention to its size, and note its number. We’ll use “Disk 2” in this example, but use the number of your own drive;
4. Type select disk 2 and press Enter to select the external drive;
5. Finally, type clean and press Enter. This deletes the partition table, and from then on the data can only be retrieved with recovery software or a professional service. Then go back to Disk Management, initialize the disk and create a new simple volume, as described in step 4.

Conclusion

An external drive that doesn’t appear in Disk Management is a common problem.

To fix it, you can check Disk Management, try another USB port, look for problems in Device Manager, create a new partition and format the drive, or clean the drive with Diskpart and format it.

But remember that some of these steps erase all the files on your external drive, so if you have any doubts, stop there and contact a professional data recovery company.

If you’ve lost data with any of these options and the files are important, we can help you get them back.

At Bot, we specialize in data recovery, using specific, proven methods that preserve the integrity of your device.

What’s more, we collect your device free of charge (islands not included), and you’ll receive a free diagnosis and quote within 48 hours.

To start your recovery with us and join our more than 200,000 cases, fill in this form.