6 Ways to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing up in Windows 10

If your Windows 10 PC isn’t detecting your external hard drive, don’t worry. We’ll guide you through some simple and effective troubleshooting steps.

This usually happens because of a problem with your USB connection, power supply, drivers, file system compatibility, or a hard drive malfunction.

Since it can be hard to tell exactly what’s causing the problem, we’ll show you every possible fix. Just go through them one by one until something works.

What can I do if the external hard drive is not showing on Windows 10?

Before you try our recommended solutions, check the cable and test the hard drive on a different PC. If the same problem appears on another PC, the problem is most likely related to your portable hard drive.

1. Manually update your drivers

1. Press Windows key + X and choose Device Manager from the list.
   

   

2. Locate the Disk drives section and expand it.
3. Check if any of the listed devices have a yellow exclamation mark next to them. If there is an exclamation mark next to your device, there might be a driver issue. Right-click the device and choose Update Driver.
   

   

4. Select Search automatically for driver software.
   

   

2. Change the portable hard drive letter and format it

2.1 Change the drive letter

1. Press Windows key + X and choose Disk Management from the menu.
   

   

2. Locate your portable hard drive in Disk Management and right-click it. Choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
   

   

3. A new window will appear, showing you the current letter of your portable hard drive. Click Change and choose a new letter for it. Make sure you select the letter you won’t assign to another drive.
   

   

4. You’ll be presented with a dialog confirming that you wish to change the drive’s letter. Select Yes to change the drive letter.

If Disk Management shows that your portable hard drive is filled with unallocated space, you might want to format your portable hard drive.

2.2 Format the portable drive

NOTE

Formatting a drive will delete all files from it, so make sure that you back up important files first.

1. Press Windows key + X and choose Disk Management from the menu.

   

2. Right-click your portable hard drive and choose Format from the menu.
   

   

3. Enter the label for your hard drive, and choose File system type.
   

   

4. Press OK and wait until your portable hard drive is formatted.

If you want to automate the task a little bit and make this job easier, you can change your portable drive letter with a disk management tool.

4. Run the Hardware troubleshooter

1. Press Windows key + R to open the Run console.
2. Type the following command and press Enter to open the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter: msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic
   

   

3. Hit Next to start the troubleshooting.

   

4. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the troubleshooting.

Once the troubleshooting process is finished, check if the problem is still there.

5. Uninstall problematic drivers

1. Right-click the Start button and open Device Manager.
   

   

2. Expand Disk drives, locate your portable hard drive, right-click it, and choose Uninstall device from the menu.
   

   

3. Click Uninstall to remove the driver.
4. Now click the Scan for hardware changes icon. Windows will install the default drivers for your portable hard drive.
   

   

Windows will search for and install the right driver automatically. Once it’s done, check if the issue is resolved.

Also, try updating the Universal Serial Bus Controller driver from the same menu, and check the manufacturer’s website for the latest drivers.

If you prefer an easier method, use a tool like PC HelpSoft Driver Updater to update all drivers automatically. It scans your system and installs safe updates from a database of over a million drivers.

Read more about this topic

• WD My Passport Ultra not detected in Windows 10/11 [Fixed]
• Windows 11 not recognizing SSD? Here’s what you should do
• Fix: Second hard drive not detected in Windows 10/11
• What to do if you can’t initialize disk in Windows 10/11
• Recovery drive is full on Windows 10/11 [Quick Fix]

6. Install Mass Store Device driver

1. Right-click the Start button and select Device Manager.
   

   

2. Locate your portable hard drive, right-click it, and choose Update driver.
   

   

3. Select Browse my computer for driver software.
   

   

4. Select Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer.
   

   

5. Now select the Mass Storage Device driver and install it.

After this driver is installed, check and see if the problem is resolved.

We also have to mention that if your hard drive is formatted using Linux or Mac with ext4 or HFS Plus File system type, you won’t be able to access it on Windows 10 until you format it on Windows.

If you have read through it, you should find success using one of the solutions we have provided.

Use the comments section below if you have any information to share or questions.

It’s also possible that a new hard drive won’t appear for other reasons, but luckily, this guide will help you with this issue. You can check out our guide to find even more factors causing Toshiba external hard drives not showing up.