I bought a Seagate 1TB external HDD for my laptop, and it worked fine until one day I turned on the laptop and it wasn’t recognized. I tried every possible solution I could find on YouTube, Google, tech forums… basically everywhere, but nothing worked. The disk doesn’t show up anywhere: file manager, disk management… nowhere. I went to a tech shop to see if they could figure it out, and they told me it worked fine on their PCs. Anyone have any idea how to fix this? I’ve never seen anyone post about this exact problem so I guess I’m the one to ask here.
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What operating system are you using?
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What’s the model of the external drive?
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How are you connecting it?
- What operating system are you using?
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What’s the model of the external drive?
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How are you connecting it?
I’m using Windows 11, it’s a Seagate STKN1000400. I connect it via USB. Also, I forgot to mention, it makes the USB connect sound when I plug it in, the light on the HDD turns on, and I can hear it spinning. The only thing I can see when I plug it in is Libusb-32 showing up for a moment, but it disappears when I unplug it.
@Asa
Okay, now try this: Connect the drive, then press start and type CMD. Right-click on Command Prompt and choose ‘Run as Administrator.’ After that, type ‘diskpart’ and press enter. Then type ‘list disk’ and hit enter. Does it see your drive? If so, what does it say about it?
Maybe the port you’re trying to use for the external disk isn’t working properly.
Daphne said:
Maybe the port you’re trying to use for the external disk isn’t working properly.
I’ve tried every port and even a USB hub, still nothing.
Daphne said:
Maybe the port you’re trying to use for the external disk isn’t working properly.
I’ve tried every port and even a USB hub, still nothing.
Have you checked if it’s a driver issue? Or maybe the connector in the HDD itself? If you can, try using a new external case for the HDD instead of the stock case.
@Daphne
It doesn’t have a specific driver, so I don’t think that’s the issue. Plus, it works on other PCs, so I don’t think it’s the case either.
Windows can sometimes reserve a letter for an external drive but won’t release it when you unplug it, so it can’t show up again. Usually, you can fix that in disk management, but there might be another place to check too.
@esleystanley
The problem is that it doesn’t show up in disk management at all, so I can’t assign a new letter.
Asa said:
@esleystanley
The problem is that it doesn’t show up in disk management at all, so I can’t assign a new letter.
I’ve had that happen too. Can’t remember exactly what I did to fix it though.