Seagate Ext HDD not showing in my comp

[Vaio]

Had this problem for a while and I just left it as it was, but now I want to use my external HDD and it's not showing up in my computer. I've gone into device management and tried changing the path to a different letter but it doesn't let me, it just says delete volume and help.
Any suggestions will be appreciated thanks.

 

[ubuysa]

Do you know that the external HDD is working properly. Can you see (and read and write) to the drive on another computer?

 

[Boozad]

Does it show in Disk Management? Click Start > Right click on Computer > Left click on Manage > Left click on Disk Management

 

[Vaio]

No, my HDD doesn't show up on my laptop either..
However, when I open up disk management it's showing in there as disk 1 and then however much space is available, in this case 930GB
When I click disk drivers it shows up in there.

 

[ubuysa]

No, my HDD doesn't show up on my laptop either..
However, when I open up disk management it's showing in there as disk 1 and then however much space is available, in this case 930GB
When I click disk drivers it shows up in there.

It's most probably a problem with the HDD itself or the USB cable. Can you try it with a different cable? Is it self-powered or mains-powered? Does it have a light on the disk case, does that come on at all? If it's mains-powered are you sure the power supply works and is properly plugged in?

 

[Vaio]

Yeah the light on the device itself comes on.. the device itself is self powered. I changed the wire from a usb 3.0 to a 2.0 and it's still not coming up.

 

[ubuysa]

So this is a self-powered USB3 external HDD? It shows up in Disk Management but not in File Manager and you can't access the disk. Is that about right? Changing the cable didn't help (I'm assuming USB2 and USB3 cables are interchangeable, but I don't know that for sure, I have no USB3 devices myself) and it doesn't show up on your laptop either. So it kinda sounds like it's the HDD but all is not lost, not yet anyway.

Have you ever formatted this disk on a Linux system? The Linux filesystem is not compatible with Windows.

When it shows up in Disk Management as Disk 1 (in Windows) how does it show up? What text is displayed in the entry for the disk? Does it show as Healthy for example? If you right-click on the disk can you select Format from the drop-down list (it may be greyed-out)? If not can you select Properties? If you can format it (and there's nothing on it you need) then format it and try again. If you can't format it then from Properties click on the Tools tab and click the Check button to check the filesystem for errors. It may just be that the filesystem is corrupt and one of these should fix that (a format would be better).

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Vaio]

So this is a self-powered USB3 external HDD? It shows up in Disk Management but not in File Manager and you can't access the disk. Is that about right? Changing the cable didn't help (I'm assuming USB2 and USB3 cables are interchangeable, but I don't know that for sure, I have no USB3 devices myself) and it doesn't show up on your laptop either. So it kinda sounds like it's the HDD but all is not lost, not yet anyway.

Have you ever formatted this disk on a Linux system? The Linux filesystem is not compatible with Windows.

When it shows up in Disk Management as Disk 1 (in Windows) how does it show up? What text is displayed in the entry for the disk? Does it show as Healthy for example? If you right-click on the disk can you select Format from the drop-down list (it may be greyed-out)? If not can you select Properties? If you can format it (and there's nothing on it you need) then format it and try again. If you can't format it then from Properties click on the Tools tab and click the Check button to check the filesystem for errors. It may just be that the filesystem is corrupt and one of these should fix that (a format would be better).

Let us know how you get on.

In disk management it is showing up as healthy, when I right click it everything is greyed out, even properties. The only options I have when I right click is 'Delete volume' and 'Help'

 

[ubuysa]

In disk management it is showing up as healthy, when I right click it everything is greyed out, even properties. The only options I have when I right click is 'Delete volume' and 'Help'

Assuming there is nothing on the disk you want to keep select Delete Volume. The space will then show as unallocated. Right click on the disk and select Create Simple Volume, accept the defaults on all dialog boxes that follow to create an NTFS volume which is the size of the disk. You should then have an empty disk that you can use....

 

[Vaio]

Assuming there is nothing on the disk you want to keep select Delete Volume. The space will then show as unallocated. Right click on the disk and select Create Simple Volume, accept the defaults on all dialog boxes that follow to create an NTFS volume which is the size of the disk. You should then have an empty disk that you can use....

I did exactly what you said and it's working now Thanks.

 

[ubuysa]

Good news. It must have either had a non-NTFS filesystem on there or a serious filesystem corruption. Anyway it should be fine now.

Thanks for the rep.