Ext HDD not recognised by Windows

[swanseadave]

Just uploaded some of my wife`s pictures but on running Synctoy to back them up to my Ext HDD I discovered that Windows doesn`t recognise that it exists even though it`s connected

I`d not used it for a while but do remember that it came unplugged a couple of weeks after my grandson moved it.
I`ve opened Device Manager and looked at Properties for all USBs listed and it doesn`t seem to be there.

Anybody got any ideas please?

[wave]

hi first thing is shut down the computer and hard drive, then plug them in power up hard drive wait till it comes ready, then power on the pc and then check if you can see it. if that fails the i would try a new cable

[Alex1994]

You could try getting Windows to search for new hardware and see if it finds it; though in my experience it does this when you plug something in anyway. As wave says, it could be a cable problem.

[swanseadave]

Tried all that to no avail.Then I tried plugging it into a different USB socket.Bingo!!

All`d well now.

Cheers.

[Alex1994]

That's good - not sure why I didn't think of that! I had a HP PC that had decidedly flaky front panel USB ports.

[wave]

its possible that when it was first installed your drive gets a letter assigned to it now as it was unplugged when you plugged it in again then it thought it was another drive. just a thought remember or mark the port you are using

[swanseadave]

The dodgy port is on a PCI usb expansion card.The only reliable port on it has a multi card reader plugged in.

Maybe I`ll replace the card.

[Benchmark]

I am glad you found the problem.

However, if you have a network drive (to another computer) Windows will sometimes assign external storage devices to the same drive letter. This often happens when connecting cameras!

If you suspect this, right-click on Computer (Windows 7) or My Computer, and select Manage. Next, select Disk Management. You can then see all connected storage devices, both internal and external, and can change their drive letters if you need to.