External hard drive not showing up in Windows Explorer


  1. Posts : 11,269
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
       #1

    External hard drive not showing up in Windows Explorer


    I am having a strange problem with my external hard drive for my backups. When I plug the drive in, it does not show up in Windows Explorer. I can make it show up by going into disk management and assigning it a drive letter, but the next time I plug it in, I have the same problem again. Any ideas why this might be occurring?


    Edit: Turns out this is not limited to my backup drive. Once I assign a letter, the drives work fine. They will even keep the letter if I eject them and re-insert the USB connection, but any external media I plug in fails to assign a drive letter automatically the first time it is plugged in. While I do not see this as a huge problem, it bothers me that Windows is not working as it used to nor as it should.

    Edit2: After reading some of the related forums, I realize I should be clear about a couple things. I am having this problem with drives that have already had their drivers installed in Windows. I do not get a dialog saying that Windows is installing these devices because the devices have already been installed. For some reason, their volume letter has been forgotten by Windows and I have to re-assign it. I am being careful not to use the same letter more than once. I am plugging the drives in while Windows is already running.


    Any help would be greatly appreciated so that Windows will automatically assign a drive letter to a device instead of me having to manually do it when Windows forgets what letter it had assigned.
    Last edited by writhziden; 06 Feb 2012 at 23:38. Reason: Not limited to my backup drive; More info
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 11,269
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
    Thread Starter
       #2

    Windows 7 x64 Quit Assigning Drive Letters Automatically helped me solve my problem. Ran an Elevated Command Prompt and typed the following commands.
    mountvol.exe /n
    mountvol.exe /e
    Guess it just needed to be reset by disabling auto mounting and re-enabling it.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2
    Windows 7 Pro x64
       #3

    Windows stopped automatically assigning drive letters for some reason. I assigned manually, not a real big deal for now.

    But then Truecrypt stopped being able to mount my encrypted volumes (which don't even have a drive letter assigned till mounted in Truecrypt). A BIG deal! Every attempt gave me a Truecrypt error -- "Device not ready". I went to the first suspect -- Windows -- found this thread, did the above and that fixed BOTH problems. THANK YOU!
      My Computer


 

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:30.
Find Us