How To Recover External Hard Drive that is Not Detected on Windows 11/10?

When your external hard drive doesn't show up on Windows despite being connected, and it contains important data you can't afford to lose, that's an unpleasant shock.

However, try doing these basic checks before we get into “how to recover data from external hard disk not detected”:

• Check for physical damages near the port and the external drive cable.
• Try connecting it to a different port or a different device.
• Check if the file system of the external hard drive is corrupt.

If the above didn’t solve your problem, then you will have to recover data from the external HDD that is not detected.

How To Recover Data From HDD Which Is Not Detecting?

Open Disk Management and check if your external hard drive is listed there. If it is, you can use professional data recovery software to recover the data from the external hard drive that is not showing up.

We recommend using Remo Recover to retrieve data from undetected hard disks. This is a user-friendly tool that offers features like a free preview before recovery and an advanced filter to sort recovered files.

It supports nearly all external hard drive brands, such as SanDisk, Samsung, and WD. The software works offline as well.

Steps to use Remo Recover to recover data from the external hard drive

Step 1: Download and install Remo Recover on your computer.

Step 2: Launch the software, and click on the Can’t find the drive option to locate the undetected hard drive.

Step 3: Click on the Scan option to initiate the scanning process.

Step 4: Once the Quick Scan is completed, it directly transitions to Deep Scan without any human intervention. click on Dynamic Recovery View to start locating the files you want to recover from the listed files.

Step 5: Once you locate the files, double-click to preview them and click on Save to store the files in your preferred location.

You can wait for the scan to complete to recover more files. Sort them and save them to your device. Once you have saved all your recovered files in a safe location, you can try the solutions listed below to fix the external hard drive not showing up on your PC.

How to Fix External Hard Drive Not Showing Up?

Power up your device and verify the cables and drive for any physical damage. If no physical damage is observed, follow the DIY solutions listed below to fix the issue:

Solution 1: Update the Drivers

• Open Device Manager, expand Disk drives, and right-click on your external hard drive.
• Choose Update driver.

• Choose Search automatically for drivers.

Once new drivers are installed, restart your device and check if your external hard drive is showing up on File Explorer. If not, try updating the storage control drivers. Otherwise, proceed with the next solution.

Solution 2: Run Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter

• Go to Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot.
• Choose Hardware and devices and run the troubleshooter.

Solution 3: Disk Management

• Check whether the external hard drive is online:
• Assign a Drive Letter:
• Right-click on the external disk and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.

• Click Add to assign a drive letter or click Change to change the letter of the external hard drive and click OK.

• Initialize the Drive:
• If the external hard drive is "Unknown" or "Not Initialized," right-click on it and choose Initialize Disk.
• Choose either the MBR or GPT partition and click OK. (Note: Initializing will erase all data on the disk)

Solution 4: Run Chkdsk

• Open Command Prompt as administrator.
• Type chkdsk /f /r X: (replace X with the drive letter of your external hard drive) and press Enter.

Solution 5: Format the Hard Drive

If none of the solutions above helped you fix the “PC not recognizing external hard drive” issue, then formatting the external hard drive on your device is the last resort.

• Open Disk Management > Right-click on the drive > Format

Conclusion

We hope the solutions listed in this article helped you recover and fix the issue of the external hard disk not showing. To avoid similar problems in the future, ensure you maintain your external hard drive well and protect it and the connecting cable from physical damage.