External Hard-Drive Not Showing Up

I am having the exact same problem as matc01...

JimLewandowski I followed your guide, but now I have no idea what to do with it - can you please help me ??

Hey,I'm having the same issue and whenever i try to change the disk's letter i get an error saying Disk Management isn't up-to-date and that i need to refresh or restart my PC, doing both of these leave me with the same error when i get back though. Screenshot by Lightshot

i know this is like 9 months later...but external HDD's dont work using the front usb ports, try using the usb ports on the back of your pc...this is if its a desktop

cosyistheman said:

1) Control panel===>administrative tools===>computer management===>Disk management

2) You'll see a list of Disks (and partititions) and DVD's (if you have any) and you'll probably see something like Disk 1 with no partition letter assigned

3) Right mouse click and choose Change drive letter and paths ===> add chose a letter from the drop down and the drive will be available.


what if the devise in question dosnt show here?

I had to format my external hard drive. Just right click the black area and select add volume or something like that, go through the menus and wait for it to format.

1) Control panel===>administrative tools===>computer management===>Disk management

2) You'll see a list of Disks (and partititions) and DVD's (if you have any) and you'll probably see something like Disk 1 with no partition letter assigned

3) Right mouse click and choose Change drive letter and paths ===> add chose a letter from the drop down and the drive will be available.

Thanks, this was very helpful.

I am having a similar problem. However when I am disk management I do not get the option to rename the drive when I right click on the black bar. All I get is 'new simple volume'.

If I right click on disk 1 I get the option to 'convert to dynamic disk' or convert to GPT disk.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

The answer is... Disable "Fast Boot" in your Bios... Guaranteed.

It only enables Keyboard and Mouse when turned on.

This will also affect trying to recover drives with usb connections and recovery software.

Thank me later.

I have an older SimpleTech external hard drive and the original cord broke and I bought a new cord. But when I plug it in it does not show up show in My Computer even though the red light is on and I hear the hard drive.
I tried to follow the instructions above but when I right click the drive without the letter all I get is the option to click Help. I don't get the option to Change Drive Letter. Any suggestions?

I had this and computer management would not give option of assigning a letter. I assigned a letter with Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14 and i can see in my computer use it etc. As far as i know Paragon Back Up and Recovery free will assign a letter too. No connection to Paragon