Do you panic when your WD/Toshiba/Seagate external hard drive becomes unresponsive or unrecognized when connected to your computer? This article will show you how to fix your external hard drive not recognized by your computer.

Everyone knows that the compact size and large capacity of external hard drives allow us to carry data with us anytime and anywhere, making our work and life easier and more convenient. However, it is easy to feel anxious when you need it in an emergency, as the external hard drive becomes unresponsive, unreadable or unrecognizable for unknown reasons while on the go.

This article will provide you with a detailed guide on how to fix your WD/Toshiba/Seagate external hard drive not recognized by your Windows PC.

Reasons why Windows PC does not recognize external HDD (hard disk)

● Drive letter conflict

● System driver is disabled or corrupted

● Incorrect BIOS/CMOS settings

● USB slot or cable failure

● Unexpected power failure

● Bad sectors on the hard disk

How to deal with physical failure of "External HDD (hard disk) not recognized"

● Try another USB slot

● Replace the USB cable

● Try connecting to another PC

● Replace the power cord of the external HDD

If you confirm that there is no physical failure on the external HDD, you should check whether the external HDD is displayed in "Disk Management".

Check logical failure of WD/Toshiba/Seagate external HDD

Step 1: Press the Win logo key + R, enter "diskmgmt.msc" in "Run" to open "Disk Management". If your Windows PC does not recognize the external hard disk, the unrecognized disk drive will be displayed on the left.

Step 2: Check whether the status of the external hard drive shows as unallocated, RAW, not initialized or other disk unknown.

Step 3: If the status of your WD/Toshiba/Seagate external hard drive shows as unallocated, RAW or not formatted, the first thing to do is to rescue the data in this external hard drive.

What to do when Windows computer does not recognize WD/Toshiba/Seagate external hard drive

Solution 1: Use CHKDSK to repair external hard drive

Step 1: Press Win logo key + S, then type cmd in Run to run Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 2: Here, type chkdsk X: /r /f, where X stands for the external drive letter and /r /f are chkdsk parameters.

Step 3: chkdsk will start the scanning, verifying and repairing process immediately. After the process is completed, reconnect the external hard drive to check whether it can be recognized by your computer.

Solution 2: Uninstall the driver for the external hard drive

Step 1: Press Win logo key + R and type devmgmt.msc.

Step 2: In the Device Manager window, find the external hard drive in the list of available devices and expand it.

Step 3: Then right-click the external hard drive and select Uninstall device option. After that, click Uninstall. Wait for the process to complete.

Step 4: Unplug the external hard drive, plug it back in and wait for the driver installation to complete.

Finally, recheck whether you can access the external hard drive.

Click Windows not recognizing external hard drive to learn more.