# External Hard Drive Recognized But Won't open



## skatkovski (May 22, 2017)

Hi,

I am having an issue pulling up info on my hard drive. It opens on my friends computer but not on mine. I opened up Disk Management and read a few options on changing the letter for the Hard Drive but it wont allow me to do that. 
Please let me know any possible solutions 

Best,
Sam


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

We need more information.
Do you see your External HDD in _File Explorer_? Or _This PC_? 
What happens when you click on the drive letter? What is the error message?
In_ Disk Management_, does it say your drives file system is *Unallocated Space*? or does it say the Disk # (ie) Disk1, Disk2 etc, does it say it is *Not Initialized*?
Attach the drive on your friends computer. Press the *Windows* key*+X *choose *Command Prompt (Admin) *
Here type the drive letter of the External Drive (ie) G: and press enter (ie) G:\> At this prompt type *chkdsk /R *and press enter. Now type a *Y* for Yes to _Unmount_ the drive. Check Disk will start and go through 5 stages and take a while.


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## DBCooper (Jun 11, 2010)

Hi there,

Please provide more info when you can. What is the brand and model number of your external hard drive? Do you get any error message when you connect your external hard drive to your computer and if so, please provide us with the error message.

When was the last time this external hard drive worked on your computer? Have you installed any windows updates on your computer recently?


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## skatkovski (May 22, 2017)

Hi,

The model of the hard drive is Lacie Rugged FW USB3. I dont get any error when I connect it. It doesn't show up in my File Explorer. It only shows up when i open Disk Management. It says Disk 2, but doesnt give me a drive letter. I am attaching a picture i took of the disk management.

Thanks!
Sam


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Right click the *931.19 GB *Partition in the lower pane of_ Disk Management _and choose *Change Drive Letter or Paths*, choose a drive letter not being used.


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## skatkovski (May 22, 2017)

Hi,

It does not allow me to do that. I cant select that option. Its grayed out. It only allows me to "Delete Volume"

Please let me know what else I can do.

Thanks!


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## DBCooper (Jun 11, 2010)

Hi there,

Do this, since the external hard drive opens up on your friend's computer fine, back up all of the files from the external drive hard drive while it's connected to your friend's computer. Then connect the external hard drive to your computer, re-format it, and then see if the device let's go assign a drive letter and access it. Hope everything works out well for you.


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, you should not need to format your external drive to be able to use it. The drive is OK you have it working on another computer, it is a problem on your machine.

MS make a util for this, worth a try, let us know how you get on.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/17614/automatically-diagnose-and-fix-windows-usb-problems


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## skatkovski (May 22, 2017)

Hi,
I tried downloading/runnign the program and nothing happened.
In my disk management it also give me an option to convert to dynamik disk. Will that do anything?

Thanks,
Sam


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, no don't do that. USB devices not working have a number of causes, especially if computer caused. This site covers a number of steps you can take to fix this, in addition there is a link to even more issues (down the bottom), we now know it was not caused by not safely removing the device that is what the MS fix it addresses.

How To Fix USB Device Not Working Windows 10 - Troubleshooter


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