Didn't think I'd ever understand what exactly the problem was let alone be able to diagnose where it lay and never in my wildest dreams think I'd be able to fix it. But , with your clear and simple instructions, the extreme panic lifted - and I can now access my external hard drives. Still can't believe it!!!! I am so happy!!! May I add my heartfelt thanks to the huge number already posted.
@jayla72935 ай бұрын
IF IT DOESNT WORK TRY THIS! once you’re on disk management click on the capacity part that says how many gbs the disk has and click on delete volume. for me the option of changing the disk letter wasn’t even there. then click new simple volume and it should give u a little pop up. click next until it’s fully installed. then when u open file explorer you should see it labeled new volume! hope that helps
@Aradkashef3 ай бұрын
Thanks
@vsemkarmy6384Ай бұрын
worked for me with new simple volume
@nikomarcelino82713 күн бұрын
This one was the solution for me. Thank you very much
@FXpopat2 жыл бұрын
Whilst others are showing "Format HDD" solution, you're doing a hero's job! Worked like a charm 🤗
@TheRenderQ2 жыл бұрын
Excellent! I’m really glad you got your hard drive working again! Yeah formatting the drive shouldn’t be the first step! Who wants to lose their data from the get go? Thanks for watching!
@killerlunalove34597 ай бұрын
2 years later and you’re still helping people. Thanks man, you’re a life saver! 😂😁
@davehoweth53682 жыл бұрын
assigning a letter worked a treat! nice one. Although I couldn't just right click and select a letter, it only gave me a few options and opened a setup wizard when i had to press next to get to the part where I could assign a letter. Nice one mate.
@Soil_Bound Жыл бұрын
Thaank you so much!!!!
@onlyaspoonful8961 Жыл бұрын
THANK YOU!!!
@nsomniak6 Жыл бұрын
Thank you so much. I saved a lot of time and frustration checking the cord with another drive and vice-versa which was much easier than trying all of the other solutions first.
@prestigepropertymedia2 жыл бұрын
I had tried a couple other fixes but your suggestion and directions to assign a drive letter did the trick. Thank you so much! I need the external USB drives to work so I can back up photos.
@PorterCrow4 ай бұрын
The video is a little out dated at this point in time, but you nudged me in the right direction and I was able to figure it out. Thank you so much!!
@John-gj1jr2 жыл бұрын
I got to the point where you right click on the drive. The "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." is greyed out. The only options available are the "Delete Volume" and "Help". I thought sure this would work when I saw it. I have 4 partitions on the drive, all of which say "Healthy; (Primary Partition)" and are respectively as 1.00 GB, 500 GB, 500 GB and 862.02 GB. I should say this drive was originally used to store DVR recordings on Dish satellite. A little help, if you please. Thanks,
@John-gj1jr2 жыл бұрын
I just watched your other video on this subject where you clicked on "Delete Volume" . Should I delete all the partitions in the above mentioned post?
@philreus11482 жыл бұрын
Hi John, I've got exactly the same problem...all the options are greyed out except those two. Have you found any solution to this? None of the videos/websites I've found so far address this issue. Any ideas? Thanks.
@John-gj1jr2 жыл бұрын
@@philreus1148 I chose the option "Delete Volume and went from there. To be honest, I don't remember all the steps, but it's fairly straight-forward after that. I was able to copy files to the external drive as you would normally. Mine had only been used for Dish dvr recordings, and had four volumes. I deleted them all, since I had no idea I'd ever use them again. I think they were proprietary to Dish anyway. Does your drive in Files say "Healthy; (Primary Partition)" and then list sizes? I hope this helps and wish I could remember more of what I did, but I think this will work. If not, hit me back and I'll try to go through the steps again without actually deleting anything.
@amptron1776 Жыл бұрын
@@John-gj1jr Thanks for posting this even though it doesn't help me as I need the files on the external hard drive so can't just delete and start over.
@darrelmorgan62662 жыл бұрын
This doesn't work. Mine doesn't even register in disk mgmt. It is however listed in device mgr but doesn't show up in dsk mgmt. It opens just fine on another laptop. I find it astonishing that there seems to really be no computer people anywhere I have seen on the net who seem to really understand this issue very well. No offense to the uploader. From what I am seeing this is in fact more often a problem with the host computer and not the hard drive itself. The cable being the issue is even more rare. If an ext HD has opened on your computer for a long time with no issues and then one day it doesn't, it is likely something to do with the computer, not the HD.
@PixelPanterIJ2 жыл бұрын
Same thing here… Have you found a fix?
@datsunyellow25702 жыл бұрын
yeah same here unfortunately :(
@fl0rin092 жыл бұрын
Same here just recently...no solution found ...
@sebastiangonzalez61422 жыл бұрын
Same here, still no solution
@romeofranco52042 жыл бұрын
same no solution
@t.alexmoore Жыл бұрын
Wow the disk management step at around 2:20 worked perfectly! Thanks man
@33goldengirl3 ай бұрын
I followed your initial steps and plugged my drive into another port. That didn't work. Next step, I plugged my drive into another laptop, and it worked. I then plugged the drive back into my laptop, and it worked! I have no idea why, but I am so relieved! Thank you!
@mikeburgardt86072 жыл бұрын
Thanks so much. The Disk management worked like a charm. Sadly I have been trying to open this drive for over a year now. Other websites told me to use a different computer. That worked but they didnt tell me how to make it work on my computer. What is even sadder is the information I had came from much more popular websites and youtubes with more views. Glad I found you.
@brindleycupido27392 жыл бұрын
Excellent video. Most sites start of by talking about formatting drive. How stupid is that and they call it advice. It should be the last step. Yours is great. Step by step. Thanks
@TheRenderQ2 жыл бұрын
You’re welcome! I’m glad my hard drive tutorial helped!
@Nat-vp5dx2 жыл бұрын
Tysm my case was the external hard drive didn't show up because i was restoring the capacity after i use it to install window 10. after i use disk management method and it works! thanks again.
@TheRenderQ2 жыл бұрын
You’re welcome! Really glad you’re got your hard drive figured out! Thanks for watching!
@alexanderkukumba55615 ай бұрын
OMG YOU HAVE SAVED MY LIFE THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH. I WISH I COULD PAY YOU, IT FULLY WORKED. FOR YOUR GOOD ADVICE I HAVE FOLLOWED AND SUBSCRIBED YOU. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS VIDEO MEANS TO ME THANK YOU FOR SAVING MY LIFE AND CAREER!!!! PLEASE DONT EVER STOP MAKING THESE VIDEOS!
@TheRenderQ5 ай бұрын
Excellent! Really glad you got your hard drive working again! Thanks for watching!
@ngesub2 жыл бұрын
when I open the disk management, the interface just blank. but when I unplug the hdd, and open the disk management again, the option show up.
@markg97652 жыл бұрын
Thank you, didn't even have to follow the video to the end b4 the problem was solved. Assigned drive letter and works perfectly. I am now a new subscriber.
@PlayGirlShani2 жыл бұрын
Thank you. I couldn't access my external hard drive for over a year. But it's now fixed & I can store games to it again.
@DevilMayAsian15 күн бұрын
Life saver. I had a spare external harddrive with an unused cable. It did the trick!
@TheRenderQ14 күн бұрын
Great! Glad you had an extra USB cable around!
@rephgrave5 ай бұрын
This has took me for over 4 years to get my hard drive working again, thanks you so much with you help I got it working again
@TheRenderQ5 ай бұрын
Wow! That’s a long time! Glad you kept your hard drive around! Now you’ve got it working again! Thanks for watching!
@jonathanlee81852 жыл бұрын
I have assigned the new external drive as J: and the problem has been fixed. Many thanks to you.
@mesinlearning5 ай бұрын
Changing the Drive Letter is Working for me.. Thanks good strangers..
@TheRenderQ5 ай бұрын
Excellent! Changing the drive letter is easy and I’m glad that helped get your drive working again!
@zegercm2 жыл бұрын
you just saved me a hundred bucks man! You rock! Power went out here in Upstate NY near Syracuse in one of our famous snow storms and did something to my new external hard drive. Your video got it working again.
@TheRenderQ2 жыл бұрын
That’s awesome! I’m really glad you were able to get your hard drive working again! I’m sure that’s a big relief! Thanks for watching!
@MartinOscar-hg7bp7 ай бұрын
@@TheRenderQplease I need your help
@MartinOscar-hg7bp7 ай бұрын
@@TheRenderQwhen click change letter and paths .my hard drive E show up. Should I change the E to H ang letter?
@n1ftynina2 ай бұрын
THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I WAS SCARED I LOST MY FILES I JUST HAD TO ADD A DAMN LETTER. LIFE SAVER FOR REAL
@astralislux3052 жыл бұрын
Right clicking on the problem drive has everything grayed out besides "delete volume" and "help". Any advice?
@ibrahimkhurram88782 жыл бұрын
same
@AhmedAlShammari94 ай бұрын
I changed the cable and successfully working fine, Thanks.
@bignubeats9467 ай бұрын
This actually helped, Geek Squad tried to charge me $400 and I wish I had a found this video two years ago and this video so happened to be two years old thank you so much bro you literally saved me so much money
@LameckOyugi12 күн бұрын
Thanks a lot!! For a minute I was griefing though I had lost my files.
@TheRenderQ9 күн бұрын
Glad I could help!
@FredCDobbs-lq2lf2 ай бұрын
thank you (from the non geek) Been trying to use a external sata drive for back up and it wouldn't show up. You have rendered my sata usable! I'm now a subscriber.
@theothesir2 жыл бұрын
Dude! I finally fixed my hard drive issue thanks to your video. I never met you but I love you sir!
@engrchoucha1811 ай бұрын
Mine didn't work unfortunately. Also the word "format" isn't showing when I right click it.
@vanbilly83874 ай бұрын
5 drives currently connected to my desktop; C: is a 2TB NVME SSD, D: and E: are each internal 1TB HDD SATA for work processing and temp storage (PC came with 1 of these, and the other was an old one that I threw in for the heck of it), F: is a 2TB external HDD for media storage, and G: is an external 2TB SSD for temporary storage while moving files to the F: drive, after cleaning up duplicate and no longer wanted media files. The new C: drive that I just installed was originally a 256g NVME SSD. With all of these drives and all the files being moved around, I went in and named the two internal HDD drives "Upper HDD" and "Lower HDD", because they are physically mounted one above the other in the case. This is so that I can remember which is which more easily. They retain their Drive letter, but the names give me a better mental picture of what's being moved to where. The G: drive will be removed after all the files are transferred to the correct locations. Maybe I should invest in a NAS?
@hubert5004 Жыл бұрын
Thank you very much, this is the best advice I found on the internet, even WD corp does't know what is the problem but you help me a lot, thank you for everything and if someone is reading my comment then at 1:00 is solution of my problem.
@upcomingcloudrapperluca76452 ай бұрын
Changing letter worked for me. Thanks
@TheRenderQ2 ай бұрын
Nice! Glad the simple solution worked!
@StarlightBettas Жыл бұрын
trying to swap data between two different computers somehow resulted in it no longer showing up on the second computer, and then it stopped showing up on the first computer for seemingly no reason, this may have fixed it so thank you! i can at least look at the files now and select one for backup.
@RoderikConnors10 ай бұрын
Thank you! Had a brand new external hard drive that wasn't working. Followed your steps to assign a drive letter. Now it works!!!
@HashPapi Жыл бұрын
I did a very similar thing to work mine, however "Format..." and "Change Drive Letter" didn't show up when I right clicked. The reason was because all the space in the Disk was Unallocated. For some reason, though... I went through the Computer Management app and went to Disk Management from there, and the rest of the video worked. Had to set up to disk was the problem for me I guess. I hope this helps anyone else with a similar problem to me. Video still helped me generate the idea!
@vsemkarmy6384Ай бұрын
It didn't work for me, what worked is to delete a volume and create a new simple volume, as in one of the comment above. but thanks!
@Mika_N_DJTonyTorres6 ай бұрын
Thank you it worked.. God bless ...
@MrKsan05Ай бұрын
Amazing video, it got my new usb external hard drive up and running in about 5 minutes. Thank you. BIG thumbs up
@TheRenderQАй бұрын
You’re welcome! So gal you got your hard drives working again!
@Artahe2 жыл бұрын
Well, that helped, thanks! Which is... interesting, because my problem was that my drive didn't have a letter assigned, which is weird because it actually had, but it somehow lost it? Anyway, it worked for me so cheers!
@kamdarvaibhavАй бұрын
Thank You for taking all the Efforts in Sharing this Video. Renaming Drive Letter through Disk Management in Windows 7 was helpful and it worked properly
@TheRenderQАй бұрын
You’re welcome! So glad the simple fix of assigning the drive letter worked!
@RebeccaMartinez-oo3hq2 күн бұрын
I just got the Seagate external hard drive, the notification said my computer didn't recognize it and didn't show up in disk management. A new cord is coming today so I'll see if that works.
@googlespynetwork3 ай бұрын
Thanks. Helped with my Samsung 999Pro ssd I just bought. Couldn't figure out if it was the Sabrent enclosure or the ssd. But this worked perfect.
@Hardno20217 ай бұрын
Thank You!!
@jamesacuna70443 ай бұрын
thank you.. I've been watching other videos with no avail but your instructions just fix my problem. thank you again
@fortunateson10117 күн бұрын
Unfortunately when I right click on the drive, the drop down menu doesn't allow me to select 'change drive letter and paths'. It is there but is not highlighted, so I can't choose to click on it.
@sdh5682 ай бұрын
I have a 2TB external HDD not being detected by my PC. When I go to Disk Management, I immediately get a prompt saying unreadable disk must be initialized before Disk Management can access it, and an option with MBR pre-selected for partitioning. I run the process and it says "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error."
@TheAmbasador99 Жыл бұрын
This will help me to look like a genius when I'll use it to help someone, thanks.
@rosejose4743 Жыл бұрын
im glad i stayed until the end. im pretty sure my hard drive is formatted for my macbook.
@mikehalpern384 Жыл бұрын
thanks, i've been trying for 2-3 hours to make an external drive show up in windows explorer. with your video I fixed the problem in 5 minutes ... :-)
@LALontocАй бұрын
My problem is that I can hear the chime when I connect the HD. I can see it briefly in Device Manager but not Disk Management. The HD will disappear from the Device Manager. Hoping purchasing a new cable will solve the problem.
@williamramos33504 ай бұрын
It worked...it was unallocated. Had to reformat. Thank you for the valuable info.
@Sryvo3 ай бұрын
when i right click the disc all the options are not highlighted, no option to format or anything, only help is highlighted.
@mrtrilobite42 жыл бұрын
please help, when I try to initialise my disk it comes up with data error cyclic redundancy check and won't initialise.
@MrGoodnplenty1957 Жыл бұрын
My external hard drive doesn't make the noise when it is plugged in and it doesn't appear under disc management. It doesn't appear on any computer i use. sounds like i will have to take it to get fixed.
@madukawhitney29502 жыл бұрын
What if it doesn’t make the sound when you plug it in and it doesn’t show up either
@TheRenderQ2 жыл бұрын
If you don’t hear the chime when you plug in your external drive here try a different USB port and for sure try a different USB cable. I had to change the USB cable on one of my drives to make it work. Also try plugging it it in on another computer if possible to be sure the problem isn’t isolated to your computer. If you can tell the drive is powered up and spinning it’s a good possibility you will get it working with one of those tips. Hope you get your external drive working soon!
@madukawhitney29502 жыл бұрын
@@TheRenderQ hello thank you for the reply. I already tried all of these and it didn’t work. I changed the USB port, changed the wire, tried it on 3 other laptops and also checked the disk management to see if it would appear but none of it worked🥺💔
@madukawhitney29502 жыл бұрын
Maybe it’s damaged beyond repair or something
@plrbere6 ай бұрын
@TheRenderQ when i right click on the disk the change letter option doesnt come up do you know how to fix that?
@richardre288526 күн бұрын
If the hard drive is empty (eg it's new) you can just create a local partition on it called a 'simple' partition and then allocate it as much space a s you want. When you do this your computer will ask to assign a drive letter to it. After this your computer should instantly recognise it. Enjoy.
@stefanosk.nikolaidis6491 Жыл бұрын
And in case that the hard drive is functioning (no damage etc) the light is on, no wierd sounds, the pc recognizes that there's a disc yet it doenst show any other details and any attempt on doing any of the above crushes the pc? what then?
@snehaldoshi9848 Жыл бұрын
Have u got resolution sir?
@thesilentgeneration2 ай бұрын
I have the same problem only my disk is disk 4 no letter But when I follow the directions and right-click on the drive the change drive letter is greyed out? WHAT TO DO, Win 11? It is a healthy primary partition
@matthewbell2150 Жыл бұрын
thank you so much. had picturs of my grandfather whoo died 2 years ago on it. was able to save them. now backed up onto computer and another hard drive for safty.
@awgtaufiq769519 күн бұрын
Same issue with my external hard drive.The led is light up, but I don't see any folder show up. My drive is also the same brand.
@austindale31297 күн бұрын
And what if nothing is showing up in disk manager? I have an external Drive that I was trying to use to clone my computers C drive with macrium reflect and it stalled out and now the drive is non-existent no matter what computer I plug it into.
@mrcrispy64802 күн бұрын
For me its showing up as unknown and not initialized tried updating the drives computer said that they were up to the best one and i can't initialize it either it's say can't do this due to fatal hardware error
@Alaa.M9452 жыл бұрын
Excellent informative video, really I so appreciated for being this video solved my problem with my usb external hdd…thanks so much 👍👍👍
@JMVD48 Жыл бұрын
Thank you very much, the explanation about Disk Management and assigning a new Drive Letter is VERY important to me. 👍
@kylesimpson67292 жыл бұрын
For me I plugged mine into my xbox, downloaded some games and then after about a week I plugged it back into my pc because it had one of the games I wanted to play on it but when I plug it in I hear it and it lights up but nothing appears even when I go to that thing where it says allocated and stuff there isn't one for my hard drive
@marcodeluca40682 ай бұрын
Toshiba mini external drive 2TB just started blinking sounds like its running but does not should up on my PC even when I search for it. I bought this couple months ago because I heard that moving external is salvageable over soldi state in case I get a problem.
@hourglassescapes4544 Жыл бұрын
Thank you so much for this. I was able to fix 2 drives today.
@TheRenderQ Жыл бұрын
You’re welcome! So glad you got your hard drives working again! Thanks for watching!
@mediaaccess29 ай бұрын
Thank you so much! I forgot this stuff. So scary. I made my new external WD 5TB into a bootable and then it disappeared. Whew.
@tcheraya2 күн бұрын
My laptop doesn't make any notification sound when I'm trying plug it in 😢 Is my HDD broken or what? But the HDD has lights on and create sound inside 😢
@WeeAddy7 ай бұрын
My drive isn't even appearing in the Disk Management section, so I can't assign a new letter or format it. It was fine when I purchased it, worked for a few weeks, would occasionally drop connection at random, and then one day it just stopped working altogether. When plugged in the USB connection noise plays, the light on the drive is on, and you can hear it spinning, but after 2mins or so the disconnect noise plays - but the light stays on. I've no idea what's wrong with it, or how to fix it, or if it's fixable at all.
@go43842 жыл бұрын
When you connect a device via USB, it should make a chime in Windows. My external hard drive is not making that chime, like its autoplay software internally is corrupted. Have not heard back from Seagate about how to resolve this but it's the most important evidence to me that the hard drive itself is the problem.
@shori2002 жыл бұрын
TYSM I tried to figure out the issue with a few different videos, but struggled to understand. I got mine working from watching your vid tysm
@7xtussy28 күн бұрын
finally a video that actually helps fix
@TRYCKSTERRBLX3 ай бұрын
what if the problem drive doesnt appear on the disk management at all? I'm using a seagate 750gb sshd and it won't appear in disk management.
@bradsoy8374Ай бұрын
no "Chnage Drive Letter" selection, but only "New Simple Volume" when right click on unlocated drive, any advice?
@suliemanmohammed20112 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the last part of the video especially. I think my drive has been formatted to an apple mac. I'll see how I can reformat it. Thanks again.
@abhijeetsrivastava7724 күн бұрын
Heyy👋 I have a new SanDisk SSD 1tb which has a lot of important data stored in it, a lot of it, and suddenly it stopped showing on my PC I tried everything you told me and also tried a lot of other methods but still nothing is working. Please help. There is a lot of important data stored in my SSD, please help me🙏🙏
@taqkeАй бұрын
whenever i plug my hard drive in my laptop it ends up making my computer super slow & nothing will load unless i unplug it. any tips on fixing this issue?
@romanmeshko2550Ай бұрын
Thanks a lot for the video. Solution with disk management and adding a letter helped :)
@carston1013 ай бұрын
Turns out my dirve needed to be initialized. Thanks!! Now i can get on with jailbreaking my ps3.
@user-wg5ue2fe2e11 ай бұрын
what should i do when in disk management the external drive doesn't show up?
@ayoubmorjane77222 жыл бұрын
thank you that fixed my issues I noticed that this happened when I plug-in for the first time
@kylepercoski59169 ай бұрын
I can't seem to even get the "change drive letter" option to be clickable. When I plug in my WD hard drive, it show up in my disk manager screen as "disk1" but i can't get any option to change the drive letter after that. Help please!
@xskat56712 жыл бұрын
I have a problem, For method 2 when I right-click on the new disk, the option to "Assign the following drive letter" or "Mount in the following NTFS folder" it doesn't give me the option to Assign the following drive letter" (the option you chose in the tutorial). Did I miss something? Which option should I pick? What will happen if I choose, "Mount in the following NTFS folder?"
@jek77262 жыл бұрын
me as well. the option to assign drive letter doesnt show up, only properties is showing.
@bigballofpaint44072 жыл бұрын
@Slaven Harkin Ty so much, was struggling on this part.
@BYHOLMS. Жыл бұрын
@Slaven Harkin Will this method delete my hard drives files?
@BYHOLMS. Жыл бұрын
@Slaven Harkin @TheRenderQ are you able to confirm if this will delete the files on the hard drive?
@hopenavajo13915 ай бұрын
Thanks 👍 for the expert advice,it took frustration after frustration, you're awesome.
@adrineabad29876 ай бұрын
I watched over 6 videos and couldn't figure it out, thankyou soooooo much W video.
@the.real.ciaomich7 ай бұрын
My WD passport ultra is having this problem. I was able to find it in disk management on an old windows 10 machine, but I am not given the option to assign a letter. Any other ideas? I do not want to reformat it.
@abrahammichael3632 Жыл бұрын
changing ports worked for me. but it only works on usb 2.0 port but not usb 3.0. i tried different cables and even different PCs
@jesper4512Ай бұрын
The driver doesn't have a letter assigned, but can't choose the command to change letter. Can you help?
@Bioluv1932 жыл бұрын
Thank you for your video. I found out that the cable that goes from the external hard drive to the computer is not working and I need to get another one.
@user-zs8hz1us5s5 ай бұрын
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE THIS OUT ALL DAY!!!!!!!
@nikkidix-stork5077 Жыл бұрын
This did not work for me. My device is not showing up in disk management so I can not assign a letter to it. It worked fine last week, and the drive also works perfectly fine on another PC. What can I do?
@waimeaguyz90743 ай бұрын
Genius personified, worth subscribing to. Thanks for sharing your expertise. Have a good day.
@jasonflores37378 ай бұрын
my drive isn't showing up in this PC section. I went to the command prompt I tried to clean it and that worked but making partition it fails. and in the create and format hard disk partitions it says unknown not initialized. I tired everything in this video and right-clicking it doesn't do anything.
@StonedNoob Жыл бұрын
I cant see my harddrive even in the disk management window. It was my older laptops HDD, which I am now using as a Hard drive or at least trying to. Any advise as to how one can solve this problem.
@azkamuhammad4176 Жыл бұрын
mine is registered in disk management but not initialized, intried to initialize it, it shows error: data error (cyclic redundancy check) why it is happening?
@T_t4182 жыл бұрын
the disk management function does work for me. it works fine before with orico 2.5 hdd enclosure with mx500 2tb inside but after trying to plug this thing with my phone and then back to the pc, it won't work. after i open the disk management, it suddenly connect, make a chime and show the folder right away. i don't even reconfigure the letter for the drive. Thx for the tip. :)
@miguelalexandresimoesneves866010 ай бұрын
Mine doesn't let me change path, just has the option to convert to a dynamic disl, which I don't know what is