My external hard drive isn't showing up anywhere!

[LazzorCatt]

I've already made this topic but i put it in the wrong category and i don't know how to delete it!

So, my external hard drive doesn't show up when i plug it in, it makes a blue light turn on but the actual drive itself doesn't appear in my computer, device manager, disk management or anything like that!

Thanks in advance for all who help!

[William12h]

Are all cables plugged in?

Is it formatted?

Do you need to add a drive letter in disk management?

are the drivers/sofware up to date?

if its usb 3.0 try it in 2.0 socket

 

what hard drive is it?

 

I've already made this topic but i put it in the wrong category and i don't know how to delete it!

So, my external hard drive doesn't show up when i plug it in, it makes a blue light turn on but the actual drive itself doesn't appear in my computer, device manager, disk management or anything like that!

Thanks in advance for all who help!

[LazzorCatt]

It's plugged in, it's usb 2 in usb 2 and i can't do any of the other stuff coz it's not showing up anywhere!

(Also i have no idea how to get drivers)

It's a WD one with 500gb

[William12h]

are ther any unrecognisable devices in device manager? 

look for any external devices that it could be and go into its properties and update/un install then re install the drivers

It's plugged in, it's usb 2 in usb 2 and i can't do any of the other stuff coz it's not showing up anywhere!

(Also i have no idea how to get drivers)

It's a WD one with 500gb

[LazzorCatt]

There's no unrecognisable devices.

[C_Mike]

It might be a broken sata-usb adapter, this happened to me a while ago with a Toshiba external drive, and I just had to rip the drive out of the enclosure and buy a new adapter + enclosure for the drive

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @LazzorCatt! 

Really sorry to hear about your issue with the WD external drive. 

Have you checked if you can see it through the BIOS?

If you cannot see the drive there as well, it seems like the USB controller or the drive inside the enclosure have failed. 

You can RMA the HDD and get a replacement, if it's still under warranty.

Here's a link how to do it: http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8

What is the model of your drive? 

In connection to what @C_Mike said, I wouldn't recommend opening the enclosure of your WD external drive, because there are some external HDD models that have hardware encryption.

Which means that if you open the enclosure, the damage on the drive will be irreversible, there will be no chance to recover the data and it will void the warranty. 

You can also contact WD tech support for further assistance:

http://support.wdc.com/contact/contact.asp?lang=en 

 

Hope this helps. 

Keep us posted! 

 

SuperSoph_WD

[C_Mike]

Hey there, @LazzorCatt!

Really sorry to hear about your issue with the WD external drive.

Have you checked if you can see it through the BIOS?

If you cannot see the drive there as well, it seems like the USB controller or the drive inside the enclosure have failed.

You can RMA the HDD and get a replacement, if it's still under warranty.

Here's a link how to do it: http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8

What is the model of your drive?

In connection to what @C_Mike said, I wouldn't recommend opening the enclosure of your WD external drive, because there are some external HDD models that have hardware encryption.

Which means that if you open the enclosure, the damage on the drive will be irreversible, there will be no chance to recover the data and it will void the warranty.

You can also contact WD tech support for further assistance:

http://support.wdc.com/contact/contact.asp?lang=en

Hope this helps.

Keep us posted!

SuperSoph_WD

I probably should have said my drive was a couple years out of warrranty so I had nothing to lose. So yeah, I would take SuperSoph's advice

[asamin]

I've had a few drives sent to me with that problem and while what I do for the customers is generally remove the drive and buy them an entirely new external setup and clone the data over you could just get a new SATA to USB adapter and that would likely fix it.