System Not Seeing My External Drives ?

I am having problems with windows not seeing my external drives. This is a problem that seems to come and go for no reason that I can work out. Sometimes the drive will not show in MyComputer, but will show in the disc manager. If I play around with the drive letters then it will show in MyComputer again. If I shut down and restart the problem is back once more. But like I say, this problem seems to come and go.

Try this:

Download v 0.8.1 of the drivecleanup.zip from Drive Tools for Windows.

Unzip it to a folder, say drivecleanup.

You will have two folders Win32 and x64 each containing DriveCleanup.exe for 32 bit and 64 bit respectively.

Remove all USB storage devices from your system (except your Keyboard and mouse) and reboot.

Right click on the DriveCleanup.exe and run as administrator. (Use the *.exe file appropriate for your bit version of Windows.).

After the clean up act, reboot and check whether your drives are recognised now.

( When you plug in your USB storage devices after this cleanup, these will be installed afresh. What you have done is to remove all non-present devices and drive letters associated with them and start with a clean slate. Hopefully that should resolve the problem.)

Thanks for the info, but i was unable to find DriveCleanup.exe but I did find DeviceCleanup and ran that.
The problem remains in MyComputer but the drives are all visible in Computer Management. I suppose that perhaps I should have pointed out that my external storage is via eSATA. Two X normal ports and I X port multiplier for my dual dock/cloner. In Computer Management I sometimes have to assign a drive letter to the drive so that it can be found. Something has happened to stop this happening automatically.

It is there on the page linked by Jumanji, scroll down some.

If you still can't here is a direct download http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/drivecleanup.zip

FredM8 said:

......but i was unable to find DriveCleanup.exe but I did find DeviceCleanup .

Device cleanup??????? I don't find any by that name . You will find Drive Cleanup somewhere in the middle as you scroll down that page.



Since your system is 64 bit as I see it in your posts, you will use the DriveCleanup.exe inside the x64 folder.



Safely remove all USB devices (except mouse/keyboard) from your system.

Right click on the 64bit DriveCleanup.exe and run as administrator.

You will see a DOS Window showing all the non-present devices removed. Post a screenshot to confirm that you have done everything right.

Press any key to close the Window when finished and reboot your PC.

Now connect one external drive. Does it show that Windows is installing the necessary drivers and then ready to use?

Now tell us whether you see the drive with a drive letter.

Continuing, If all your drives are seen in Windows Disk Management and if you need to assign a drive letter everytime to access the drive then try this:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Right click on Command Prompt and Run as administrator.
Then
diskpart [ENTER]
Against the DISKPART prompt
automount [ENTER]
Does it say "automatic mounting of new volumes disabled" ? Then
automount enable [ENTER]
"automatic mounting of new volumes enabled"

Close Command Window.

Problem resolved?

I haven't done anything :) Kudos to Jumanji

Glad your problem is resolved.

GokAy is always superactive kicking in with useful suggestions all around. He is already a Seven Guru with only time standing in the way to that badge. Sooner than later I am gonna retire from SevenForums (I am just counting days) leaving it to GokAy. He is going to be an able successor. :)