Summary : An external hard drive is a mechanical device that is prone to damage and corruption like other storage drives. If you are facing any situation in which your drive isn't detected, stay calm and use the DIY methods described here to safely recover your data using Stellar Data Recovery software.
We often come across questions on technical forums where people describe that their external hard drive isn't detected on their machines. For example-
Hard Drive Related Issues: A glitch in your machine's hard drive will not allow anything on it to work in a good and perfect way. This hardware issue should be addressed because it will affect more than your computer's ability to recognize a flash drive. If your drive isn't working because of an improper formatting or corrupted data, you can reformat your drive—but keep in mind that reformatting your USB flash drive will erase all files on it. Check USB Flash Drive in Disk Management. There are some cases in which the USB flash drive is. I originally gave this drive a poor review, because it did not write Dual Layer discs. It turns out that it was the brand of discs that was the problem. I purchased Kodak DL media, and it did not work with this drive-or the external LG drive I bought last year. (The Kodak discs do, however, work with my internal drive.). . Do not use the Verbatim Hard Drive in a dusty environment. Dust inside the enclosure may damage the internal electronics and result in drive malfunction. Opening the Verbatim Hard Drive will void the warranty. Since USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0, the Verbatim Hard Drive can be connected to all USB ports.
My computer isn't detecting my external hard drive. This is surprising since everything was working fine until an hour ago. My machine shut down unexpectedly while transferring some data from the drive and now, it isn't showing up on my PC. There's a lot of important data on the drive. Can anyone give me a hint as to what the problem is and how I can get a hold of my files?
Such situations though alarming, aren't uncommon. An external hard drive is just another mechanical device that is prone to damage and corruption like other storage drives. Thus, you must be aware of the ways to deal with unexpected problems like the one described above.
Most of us use an external hard drive for storing data backups; however, hard drives can often be unreliable. That's why experts suggest we should maintain multiple copies of our crucial data, that too, at different locations and on different storage devices. Nevertheless, knowing why a hard drive isn't detected on a computer plays an important role in rectifying the problem.
Why Hard Drives May Become Undetectable?
- After sudden power surge while the hard drive is in use.
- If the drive suffers any physical damage resulting from mishandling or dropping.
- Due to abrupt system shutdown while the external hard drive is connected.
- Due to a virus/malware infection.
- Owing to wear and tear of the hard drive due to excessive or prolonged use.
- Deletion of hard drive system files, drivers, or OS corruption.
When a hard drive isn't detected on a system, you might not see anything happening on the system after connecting it. No sound, no Auto-Play pop-up, and the drive might not even appear in Disk Management tool.
Alternatively, you may see a message, 'You need to Format disk Drive E: before you can use it. Do you want to format it now?' flash on the screen on connecting the external hard drive (see screenshot).
[Caution]:Don't click ‘Format disk'. This will erase all the data on the drive. Formatting the hard drive appears an ideal and may be the only option available. However, it is common knowledge that formatting erases all data on the drive.
So what can one do to make the drive usable again without losing the data that is already present on the drive, but isn't recognized by the system?
Common Fixes You Can Try Out
Before you decide on giving up or running to a service center, here's what you should try out:
1) Try plugging in the hard drive into another USB port. If it works, that means the problem is with your system's USB port.
2) Try connecting the hard drive to another computer.
3)Reassign drive letter to the hard drive. For this:
- Press Windows+R, type diskmgmt.msc in the box and click ‘OK'.
- In the window that opens, take note of all the letters already assigned to drives.
- Now right click on the external drive, select ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths…,' and in the window that opens, click on the ‘Add' button.
- Choose a drive letter from the drop down and click ‘OK'
- Restart the PC or reconnect the drive to the computer and see if you can access it via File Explorer.
The last fix should make the drive recognizable and accessible to an extent. However, you might get a prompt message to format the drive to use it again. In such a case, hit ‘Cancel.'
However, if you have already clicked ‘Format' after such prompt, stay calm. You can get back your data even after formatting.
Recovering Data from Unrecognized or Formatted External Hard Drive.
Important Note:Immediately stop using the external hard drive if it is formatted to avoid overwriting. Do not store any data or attempt to access the hard drive. All your previous files are recoverable unless overwritten by new data.
You can recover the lost data from a formatted and unrecognized (RAW) drive or volume by using a professional data recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows. Below are the steps that you must follow to get back your crucial data:
- Install and launch Stellar Data Recovery Professional software on the system.
- From ‘Select What to Recover' screen, choose the file types you want to recover and click on ‘Next'.
- Then choose the external formatted or RAW (Unrecognized) drive from the options under ‘Connected Drives'.
- Turn on the ‘Deep Scan' toggle at the bottom and click ‘Scan.'
- During the scan, you can turn ON/OFF the file preview.
Tip: Turning file preview OFF boosts the scanning speed.
- After the scan, you'll see that the files/folders get listed under ‘File Type', ‘Tree View' and ‘Deleted List.'
- Select the desired files that you want to recover from the scan result, and click on the ‘Recover' button.
- Click ‘Browse' and choose a save location.
- Click ‘Start Saving' to save the recovered files at your desired location.
Try out its demo version to test the software's data recovery capabilities. You can scan and preview recoverable files with the demo version. Adobe acrobat 9 2 standard. Once satisfied, you can buy the full license to save the recovered data at your desired location.
Final Words
Always remember to maintain at least two backup copies of your crucial data. Moreover, avoid meddling with the hard drive while it is being used.
Do not disconnect it while in use, and alwayssafely remove the drive after use. However, if you still find yourself in a difficult situation, like the one described in this article, stay calm and use the methods described in this post to safely recover your data.
Dec 21, 2020 • Filed to: USB Recovery • Proven solutions
How Can I Fix my Flash Drive Not Recognized?
Question: 'My USB flash drive is not recognized when I plug it to the computer. What causes such a problem to happen? Is my USB drive got broken? How to fix the flash drive not recognized issue? Also, can I recover data from the USB flash drive not recognized?'
Solved: USB not recognized is the common problem reported many users, it could be broken or other reason caused the drive error. But don't worry, you can follow the next guide to fix the flash drive not recognized error on Windows and Mac, then recover files from flash drive with Recoverit Data Recovery program.
What Caused the Flash Drive Not Recognized on Computer?
Several root causes would result in the not recognized flash drive issue. They should be addressed so that you will not need to deal with the issue(s) for a long period.
Port Related Issues:: To determine if this is a port problem, test every USB port that you have with different flash drives. This could be either hardware or software issues or both. In this case, you would need a professional to help you correct this.
USB Formatting Issue: This is the most probable reason your computer could not detect your flash drive. The inability to format flash drive properly before the first use could cause problems later on.
Driver Issue: The drivers may not be available, corrupted, or outdated which would make the flash drive not Recognized.
Hard Drive Related Issues: A glitch in your machine's hard drive will not allow anything on it to work in a good and perfect way. This hardware issue should be addressed because it will affect more than your computer's ability to recognize a flash drive.
Operating System Related Issues: Sometimes, if your OS is not updated with the necessary updates as often as possible, it would cause the system to not recognize the flash drive. This could be simply rectified by updating the necessary components.
4 Ways to Fix the USB Flash Drive Not Recognized Problems on Windows
Depending on what is the root cause of the problem, you may only need to do one of these four steps or all of them. Follow these solutions step-by-step to resolve your problem.
Way 1: Scan Flash Drive to Find the Issue
- Plug the flash drive into your USB port.
- Go to My Computer and right-click on the flash drive. Open the Properties
- Open the Tools tab and click Check now'¦
- It may take some time to complete the scan. Once finished, it will tell you what the flash drive's problem is.
Way 2: Reformat the Flash Drive
- Right-click on the flash drive and click on Format'¦, the Format window will pop up.
- Under the File system toggle it between NTFS and FAT32. Click Start.
Way 3: Perform driver updates
- Open the Run command and type in msc in the field. Click OK.
- This will open the Device Manager. Find the Universal Serial Bus controllers.
- Expand the menu and right-click on the Generic USB Hub. Click on Update Driver Software'¦
Way 4: Operating System Updates
- Go to Control Panel, then System and security.
- Under the Windows Update section, click on Check for Updates.
- If it is not updated (the notification is not green in color), update it accordingly as indicated by the system.
- Follow the updating wizard and restart your computer accordingly.
Video Tutorial on How to Fix USB Device Not Recognized
3 Ways to Fix the Flash Drive Not Recognized Problem on Mac
Like in Windows, your resolution method will be determined by the root cause of the problem. These are the three ways that you can do to fix flash drive not Recognized issue.
Verbatim External Hard Drive Troubleshooting
Way 1: Manually Connect the Flash Drive
- Go to Application and click on Utilities.
- A pop-up window will appear and click on the highlighted commands as marked in the image below:
- Under Devices, click External Devices to manually connect the unrecognizable flash drive.
Way 2: Retune PRAM
- Shut down your Mac.
- Press the Power button and subsequently hold down the Command-Option-P-R This should be done before the grey screen appears.
- Your Mac should reboot itself. Let it go after the start-up chime.
Way 3: Format Mac's Drive
- Press the Command-Spacebar buttons simultaneously, plug in the flash drive and go to the Application Click on the Disk Utility option.
- You will be able to find the flash drives that need to be fixed in the left panel.
Verbatim External Drive Not Recognized
- Click on the Erase button to complete the process.
What's Next?
Now that the flash drive not Recognized problem is solved on your Windows or Mac computer, make sure you had back-up all important documents in the flash drive. This is to ensure that you will be able to access the files stored in the flash drive should it happens again.
You should also check if there is any accidental data loss from the drive. Should you find things missing, use a flash drive data recovery tool to help you recover loss documents do this immediately before it is overwritten by new data.
How to Recover Data from Flash Drive Not Recognized on Windows
When you fix the USB flash drive not recognized with format solution, all your data on the drive will be got formatted and lost. On this guide, we will show you how to recover data from flash drive not recognized on Windows. Recoverit Data Recovery software can easily help you recover lost files from flash drive, even the drive got damaged/corrupted, formatted, virus attack and the file system crashed.
Recoverit - The Best USB Flash Drive Recovery Software
- Undeleted files from flash drive which not recognized on Windows and Mac.
- Recover files from USB flash drive due to accidentally deleted, formatted and damaged/corrupted.
Steps to Recover Lost Data from Flash Drive
Download and install Recoverit Flash Drive Recovery on your computer, follow the next simple steps to perform flash drive data recovery on Windows computer.
Step 1. Launch Recoverit Data Recovery program, select the 'External Device Recovery' mode to get started.
Step 2. Make sure your flash drive detected on the computer, select it, and click 'Start' to proceed.
Step 3. The flash drive recovery software will start to scan the device to search and restore your data files.
Step 4. Finally, you can check all the recovered files. Select your data and recover back by clicking the 'Recover' button.
If you are a MAC user, you should download Recoverit Data Recovery for Mac or follow the guide to perform flash drive recovery on Mac.
USB Solution
- Recover USB Drive
- Format USB Drive
- Fix/Repair USB Drive
- Know USB Drive
