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.

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.

Whilst others are showing "Format HDD" solution, you're doing a hero's job! Worked like a charm 🤗

@TheRenderQ

2 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!

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

Thank you! Had a brand new external hard drive that wasn't working. Followed your steps to assign a drive letter. Now it works!!!

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.

@PixelPanterIJ

2 жыл бұрын

Same thing here… Have you found a fix?

@datsunyellow2570

2 жыл бұрын

yeah same here unfortunately :(

@fl0rin09

2 жыл бұрын

Same here just recently...no solution found ...

@sebastiangonzalez6142

Жыл бұрын

Same here, still no solution

@romeofranco5204

Жыл бұрын

same no solution

2 years later and you’re still helping people. Thanks man, you’re a life saver! 😂😁

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!!

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.

@TheRenderQ

2 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-hg7bp

6 ай бұрын

​@@TheRenderQplease I need your help

@MartinOscar-hg7bp

6 ай бұрын

​@@TheRenderQwhen click change letter and paths .my hard drive E show up. Should I change the E to H ang letter?

Wow the disk management step at around 2:20 worked perfectly! Thanks man

Thank you very much, the explanation about Disk Management and assigning a new Drive Letter is VERY important to me. 👍

thank you.. I've been watching other videos with no avail but your instructions just fix my problem. thank you again

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.

Excellent informative video, really I so appreciated for being this video solved my problem with my usb external hdd…thanks so much 👍👍👍

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-gj1jr

2 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?

@philreus1148

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-gj1jr

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.

extremely helpful, thanks a lot.

Oh my goodness, THANK YOU!! THIS HELPED MY ISSUE SO MUCH!

Dude! I finally fixed my hard drive issue thanks to your video. I never met you but I love you sir!

I have assigned the new external drive as J: and the problem has been fixed. Many thanks to you.

Ty. the Disk Management drive letter reassignment trick worked for me.

Thank you so much, worked like a charm!

thank you that fixed my issues I noticed that this happened when I plug-in for the first time

Very nice! Thank you very very much!!😀

Right clicking on the problem drive has everything grayed out besides "delete volume" and "help". Any advice?

@ibrahimkhurram8878

2 жыл бұрын

same

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.

Thanks 👍 for the expert advice,it took frustration after frustration, you're awesome.

@TheRenderQ when i right click on the disk the change letter option doesnt come up do you know how to fix that?

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

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

@TheRenderQ

9 күн бұрын

You’re welcome! So glad the simple fix of assigning the drive letter worked!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE THIS OUT ALL DAY!!!!!!!

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

@TheRenderQ

4 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!

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!

Thanks I never thought to check the cable it work! thanks so much

Worked great! Thank you so much!

Thank you! I am very grateful :)

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

@TheRenderQ

2 жыл бұрын

You’re welcome! I’m glad my hard drive tutorial helped!

Genius personified, worth subscribing to. Thanks for sharing your expertise. Have a good day.

Amazing video, it got my new usb external hard drive up and running in about 5 minutes. Thank you. BIG thumbs up

@TheRenderQ

9 күн бұрын

You’re welcome! So gal you got your hard drives working again!

Thanks a lot for the video. Solution with disk management and adding a letter helped :)

Perfectly worked ! Great job dude

Thanks a lot! Your video just solved my problem 👍

Thanks for the video the first fix worked for me . Thanks

Alright this helped me with my problem, thanks!

Great Video! Thank you so much! You help me..... Thank you

Good job, thanks, subscribed.

thank you for the help friend!

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.

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 ... :-)

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.

thank you so much. great and simple video overall

worked Great! Thanks for the info😁 subscribed

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.

Very helpful sir. Thank you very much

thank you, the method of naming the disk worked for me

This just fixed my issue! Thank you very much!

thank you so much, the first step worked for me

Thank you so much. After assigning disk letter it is working fine.

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!

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!

@TheRenderQ

4 ай бұрын

Excellent! Really glad you got your hard drive working again! Thanks for watching!

Awesome video, REALLY useful!

thank you this helped tons

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!

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.

@TheRenderQ

2 жыл бұрын

You’re welcome! Really glad you’re got your hard drive figured out! Thanks for watching!

This will help me to look like a genius when I'll use it to help someone, thanks.

I'm having the problem of an internal drive that disappears... Some times it's there, some times it isn't. It's a laptop and my power source is not stable: 255w solar and a single 12v 100Ah battery. I used to have 510w, but one of the panels flew off of my rv roof on the road. Also, how can I get my external drives to keep their letters? I have 3 external drives, plus several thumb drives and memory cards, but they always default to the lowest letter passed C, which means when the internal drive disappears, externals end up becoming the D drive, pushing the internal D drive to an E or F. Constantly having to tell Lightroom, Premier, and iTunes which drive letter files are now on, and/or changing the letter in Manager again.

@TheRenderQ

2 жыл бұрын

I’m not sure what’s going on with your internal drives. Possibly a loose data or power cable/connection? And I know what’s happening with your drive letters changing can really mess up applications that depend on data on a certain drive letter. You could try to set 2 of your drives to specific letters and then connect and disconnect them in different orders to see if they keep their assigned letter. At least that’s how I think it works. If you don’t assign a letter then the computer will just assign the external drive to the next available letter. I’ve had problems on my work computer sometimes because we have a bunch of network drives and then when I get a few external drives connected it can really cause confusion in the letters. Hopefully you get some sort of stability in your drive letters so you won’t have to mess too much with your applications having to relink paths.

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.

@TheRenderQ My external works on my laptop but not on the computer that was just upgraded (hardware). It is still Windows 10 Pro but the external isn't even listed to change the drive letter or assign one. I am still at a loss as I had backed everything up to it that I needed for the upgrade. Help??

Thanks man really appreciate it.

Thank you for this video it solved my missing hard drive problem in windows 10 by manually assigning a drive letter like you suggested :)

I watched over 6 videos and couldn't figure it out, thankyou soooooo much W video.

Hi thanks for tutorial , my drive doesn't show on device manager windows 10, I plug it to macbook pro and it shows also on disk utility tool , I can format it as well to msdos, extfat and various journaled macos ,any of those formats work on my windows laptop there's not option to format it to nfts , how can I do something in order to make it showing up on windows 10 ?

Thanks so much for the help it worked❤

Changing letter worked for me. Thanks

@TheRenderQ

Ай бұрын

Nice! Glad the simple solution worked!

Massive thanks...this worked for me...assign a drive letter.......Really appreciated....Brilliant...

My disk manager will not allow me to assign my external hard drive a path or letter. I did format it for my Mac OS and currently do have backups on their but I was wondering if I could use the hard drive for both OS or would I have to format it to windows and lose all my backups.

@TheRenderQ

11 ай бұрын

There is a way to make the external drive work on both Mac and PC. But it will require formatting and erasing everything on it. For it to work on both operating systems you need to format the drive to ExFAT format. But I emphasize that this will erase everything on the drive. Make sure you’ve backed up your data before proceeding.

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.

ThxXx alot ur video helped me ‼️ ✌🏻😃✌🏻

thanks so much. worked perfectly.

please help, when I try to initialise my disk it comes up with data error cyclic redundancy check and won't initialise.

That did the trick! Thanks! 👍🏻

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Sir my Extrnal hard disk is not showing up in the disk management tool bar too. Please suggest any methods you have.

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

Will you be able to get your files back using disk drill or any recovery app after formatting it completely?

@TheRenderQ

4 ай бұрын

There is no way to recover your files after your format your drive. Formatting a drive will permanently erase all your data. There is no way to get any files back after you format it.

Thanks for the vid awesome job

OMG thank you so much! Now my drive really shows up. But I have this question: when I connect my external drive to my computer, 2 others drive name USB Drive (D) and (E) show up. Both "No Media", one EFI System Partition, other Primary Partition, both shows their storage and free space on Disk Management but not show on This PC. Can you explain what are those drives?

Thank you so very much.

thank you man, good video

Thank you very much Method 2 worked for me.

@TheRenderQ

2 жыл бұрын

Excellent! Glad assigning a drive letter got your hard drive working again! Thanks for watching!

Changing the Drive Letter is Working for me.. Thanks good strangers..

@TheRenderQ

4 ай бұрын

Excellent! Changing the drive letter is easy and I’m glad that helped get your drive working again!

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.

I changed the cable and successfully working fine, Thanks.

Thank you! Windows 10 does this alot!

thank you so much...fixed my external hard drive wd element.......

Thank You!!

thank you so much it worked for me

you've just saved me man..Thanks so much