External Hard drive not recognised

T

tahnead

New Member
Hi,

I lent my external hard drive to a friend who is not very computer savvy.... and since its return it is not being recognised by my computer.

i dont believe that it is not because it dosent have a letter allocated to it.

in disk management it shows WD Ext HDD 1021 USB Device properties.... it said that this device is working properly, but then it also says that Disk 1 is unallocated?

i have plugged external hd into two other computers, they do not recognise it and i have also plugged in another hd into my computer, which picks it up automatically.

my friend who borrowed the hd is not very computer savvy, but from what he told me, i think he has formatted it?

i have checked the device manager and there dosent seem to be anything out of the ordinary.

ANY HELP will be muchly appreciated! :cry:

if it helps, it is a WD brand.... oh, and yes it was working fine when i first got it a week ago.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

Hello Tahnead, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Your friend deleted your hard drive leaving it as unallicated space (unformatted). :(

If you did not need the data that was on it, then you can just use Disk Management to format and create a new "simple volume" with it. The STEP TWO section in the tutorial below can help show you how to if needed.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/95398-disk-management-shrink-partition.html


If you needed to try and recover the data on the drive, then you see if using Paragon Partition Manager Personal edition may be able to undelete the drive's partition for you. Unfortunately, the edition of this program that allows you to undelete a partition is not free and costs $9.95.

Hope this helps,
Shawn
 

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  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
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    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
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    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
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    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
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    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
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    17.3" UHD IPS touch
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    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Thanks heaps for your reply, have tried the steps.... however, the formatting just seems to take forever! yesturday it went for around 6 hours before i gave up. This morning i restarted my computer and tried to do it again, its been one hour now and still nothing.
it tells me its formatting, but nothing else is happening.

i did tick the box that said do a quick format.

any other suggestions?
 

My Computer

System One

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
I would do the diagnostics and pay attention to retries. Perhaps your friend accidentally dropped it and doesn't want to say anything. 6 hours should format it even without quick format. If you drop a drive you can get head slap that creates a dead zone. That's why I avoid "free shipping" when I buy a bare drive.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion m9515y
    CPU
    Phenom X4 9850
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Some Radeon Cheapie with 512 MB Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    CRT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    750 GB SATA 3G 2 SIIG Superspeed docks w/WD Caviar Black Sata II or III
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