2

I have a Toshiba StorE Art, 3.5” external drive and a Dell XPS l702X. The problem is I just got the laptop and now the HDD doesn’t get recognized on the machine.

All my USB drivers are correctly installed and there is no yellow symbol on any of the devices in device management. Also the disk is not listed in Disk Management. I have enabled hidden devices and still no solution. I have tried every possible thing I can think of:

  • The drive works on my very old Desktop computer—running Windows 7—but not on the new laptop.
  • I have now tried the drive tools option that cleans the registry, but it didn’t work. I think it is because this laptop is brand new.
  • After trying all these suggested problems my drive is still not working.
Improve this question
8
  • I have to ask: Being a 3.5" drive, I checked, and it has an external power source. Is it plugged in?
    – KCotreau
    Commented Jul 13, 2011 at 6:17
  • @KCotreau Yes it is plugged in, and I understand the need to ask, I know there is quite a few noobs out there in this world
    – Armand
    Commented Jul 13, 2011 at 6:34
  • Have you tried a different USB port or a different USB cable?
    – Michael K
    Commented Jul 13, 2011 at 10:16
  • @michael yes I did try all the USB ports and different cables.
    – Armand
    Commented Jul 13, 2011 at 11:02
  • 1
    1. Do other mass storage devices like a USB stick work? 2. Have you checked you drive management?
    – Michael K
    Commented Jul 13, 2011 at 12:53

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
2

i think that if it is spinning then its ppbly not getting a drive letter allocated to it.

do this. right click "my computer" -> manage -> in the left tree-pane click "Disk Management"

if your drive shows up in the right pane & has no drive letter assigned to it, then you can simply right click your drive & assign a drive letter to it. your drive should show up after that.

Improve this answer
2
  • Unfortunately, OP said: "Also the disk is not listed in Disk Management"
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Commented Jul 13, 2011 at 18:28
  • @ksheer Yes it is a good first step, that is why it was the first thing I checked. But if you check the question you will see that I did mention that I checked Disk Management. It is not listed at al.
    – Armand
    Commented Jul 13, 2011 at 21:12
0

I have seen an issue where the drive has an issue due to existing registry entries. I had a drive that would not work in one system but was fine on many others. Some digging led me to this site DriveTools The tool is called DriveCleanup and has worked several times for me. Unfortunately, not always.

Improve this answer
1
  • I actually had hope fot this one, but unfortunately it didn't work.
    – Armand
    Commented Jul 13, 2011 at 21:13
0

Its a simple fix right click on Computer and go to manage

enter image description here

Now click on storage->disk management you should see your disk as disk 1, now right click on disk 1 and navigate to properties->driver, simply uninstall the driver, remove your hard drive and reconnect.

enter image description here

Problem solved...external hdd will get detected automatically....from my experience it is the driver that gets corrupted, so reinstalling the driver should solve the issue :)

Improve this answer
0

Had a Toshiba Netbook that would not recognize a Toshiba Canvio 1.5TB USB 3.0 external hard drive. Seemed like a USB power issue. Tried using a USB 2.0 cable and whalla, problem fixed.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .