External Hard drive not recognised


  1. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Home premium x64
       #1

    External Hard drive not recognised


    Hello everyone,
    Once again i need your help. I have an external hard drive, and a lot of data saved on it. My laptop recognises it, but i can't access it. When i go to device manager and try intialize, it says it is not ready.

    Thanks for ur help
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 6,668
    Windows 7 x64
       #2

    Is this a small portable drive or one of the larger ones?
    Does it have external power for the external enclosure?
    I would also verify the wire you are using.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 5,941
    Linux CENTOS 7 / various Windows OS'es and servers
       #3

    Hi there
    this problem is more common than I suspect you think -- it fortunately is easy to solve

    1) Control Panel ====> administrative tools==> computer management ===>disk management

    wait for the disk snap in to appear and you should see a list of your drives and DVD's.

    You'll see one probably without a partition letter

    right mouse click on it and choose ADD -- it will show a dropdown where you can choose a drive letter.

    wait a little while and you'll see windows scanning the disk -- then you can acess it again normally.

    I often have to do this when switching USB drives frequently between seeveral computers -- I've heard that a more permanent solution exists where you have to assign an id or something -- but my method is easy and always works.

    Cheers
    jimbo
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #4

    Sounds very odd, all I have to do is connect the USB cable and voila! Go to Computer and see if you can access from there. I had no initializing to do?
      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 17:18.
Find Us