Troubleshooting external drive errors

External hard drives come in many shapes and sizes, but all of them will eventually experience some form of error.

Many users reported that their external hard drives are not recognized or detected on their computer.
We’ve listed some effective methods that can be used to solve this issue and we recommend you give them a try.
If you’ve gotten more problems with your hard drives, visit our Hard Drive Hub.
For more troubleshooting guides, visit our Troubleshooting section.

Disconnect and reconnect the device

Disconnect any external flash drives, memory cards, or hard drives connected to your computer.
Reboot your computer.
Connect the external drive to the USB port of your computer.
Check if the drive is recognized by the computer.

Open File Explorer and navigate to the external drive.
Right-click it and choose Format from the menu.
Follow the guide on the screen to complete the process.
Defragment the Drive
Open File Explorer and navigate to the external drive.
Right-click it and choose Properties from the menu.
Go to the Tools tab and check Defragment now.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.
Clean the Drive
Open File Explorer and navigate to the external drive.
Right-click it and choose Properties from the menu.
Go to the Tools tab and check Clean.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.
Fix File System Errors
Open the File Explorer and navigate to the external drive.
Right-click it and choose Properties from the menu.
Go to the Tools tab and check Error-checking.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.

The file system on an external storage disk can also contribute to file deletion errors. Press the Windows key + S hotkey.
Enter diskmgmt.msc in Run and click OK to open the window in the snapshot directly below.
Right-click the external disk and select Delete Volume.
Click Yes to confirm.
Rename the Drive
Rename the external disk to a different name.
Change its name on the Start menu, in the File Explorer navigation pane, or in the Windows Explorer navigation pane.
Press the Windows key + S hotkey.
Enter diskmgmt.msc in Run and click OK to open the window in the snapshot directly below.
Right-click the external disk and select Rename Volume.
Enter a new drive name.
Right-click the new drive and select Format.
Select the File System drop-down menu on the Format window.
Select the NTFS or exFAT file system.

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