External hard drive not recognized after removal [Solved]

Solution: Format the corrupted external hard drive

If Disk Management fails to fix an unrecognized external hard drive after an unexpected disconnection on Windows, your last resort is to reformat the damaged external hard drive. However, formatting will erase all data stored on the external hard drive. In this case, use a data recovery wizard tool to get back your files. See more methods...

Fix - External hard drive not recognized after disconnecting

This article is meant to help those who accidentally pulled out their external hard drive and then found that Windows no longer recognizes or detects it, or that Windows can still read the drive but prompts you to format the disk before using it.

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Encountering any sort of dilemma after improperly ejecting a commonly used external hard drive is unforeseen. Typically, unsafe removal of an external USB hard drive leads to severe issues like the external hard drive not being recognized or becoming inaccessible after unplugging. On this page, you'll find the best solutions to address issues with unreadable, unrecognized, or inaccessible hard drives, including detailed troubleshooting steps and a data recovery solution to export data from the externally disconnected hard drive that you currently can't access.

How to Make an External Hard Drive Show Up Temporarily

Neither of these methods guarantees that Windows will recognize the drive the next time you unplug and reconnect it to your computer. You can use them as a temporary emergency solution to retrieve important data from a failing storage device.

Method 1: Assigning a Drive Letter to the Drive

First, please check if the drive is visible in Disk Management or Device Manager.

• To open Disk Management, press Windows + R simultaneously, type diskmgmt.msc in the Run box, then press Enter. • To open Device Manager, press Windows + R simultaneously, type devmgmt.msc in the Run box, then press Enter.

If you can see the external hard drive, you're lucky – getting it to show up on your computer is a simple matter of following these steps.

Step one: In “Disk Management,” right-click on the external drive (it should show as “unallocated”) and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths.”

Step 2: Assign an unused drive letter, such as E, F, or G, to the current drive, and then click OK to save your changes.

Method 2: Update or Reinstall the Drivers

Step 1. Open Device Manager and expand the "Universal Serial Bus controllers" section.

Step 2: Right-click on the external drive and select “Update driver software.”

Step 3: Select “Search automatically for updated driver software,” and Windows will help you install the latest drivers.

How to Recover Data from an External Hard Drive

As soon as the hard drive appears again on your computer, download and use the Data Recovery Wizard tool to export your data from the hard drive to a different secure location.

Given that the hard drive might have bad sectors or other hardware issues after an unexpected disconnection, it's recommended to perform data recovery instead of backup. You can use data recovery software to recover data from SD cards, memory cards, SSDs, USB flash drives, camcorders, hard drives, and other storage devices.

Download this external hard drive recovery software to get your lost data back.

Step 1: Choose and scan your external hard drive

1. Download and install the Data Recovery tool on your computer or laptop. 2. Connect the external hard drive to your computer. 3. Run the Data Recovery wizard and select the external hard drive from the list of drives. Then, click on 'Scan' to search for lost data.

Step 2: Review the scan results

• Data recovery software will immediately scan all data on the selected drive, including deleted, corrupted, and existing data.
• You can use the filter feature to quickly locate a specific file type, such as images, Word, Excel, PDF, videos, emails, and more.

Step 3: Preview and recover the data

• Double-click a file from the scan results to preview it. • Select the files you want and then click “Recover”. • Choose a location different from the original drive to save the recovered files.

Solving the “Hard Drive Not Detected” Error Permanently by Power Cycling

Welcome to the final part of the solution for when your external hard drive becomes unrecognizable after an unexpected disconnection. According to feedback from people in similar situations, modifying the registry can help your external HDD show up properly on your computer and permanently resolve the undetected issue.

Step 1: Press the Windows key + R, type regedt32, and click OK.

Step 2. Back up the registry by selecting File Export.

Step 3. In the left pane, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

Step 4: If you see UpperFilters or LowerFilters, remove them.

"People also ask"

**1. How to fix the issue of an external hard drive not being recognized after disconnecting it on a Mac?**

Frequently removing an external hard drive without properly ejecting it first can cause damage to the drive, resulting in the Mac not recognizing it when you plug the storage device back in. If your Mac isn't displaying the drive correctly, try using a different cable, a different USB port, and restart your Mac several times.

Why is my external hard drive not being detected?

Most of the time, Windows fails to detect an external hard drive due to user error, a malware infection, or software/hardware damage. If you can't find the connected drive in File Explorer, try checking Disk Management to see if it can locate and display the drive properly. Learn how to fix an undetected external hard drive.

**3. Is it bad to eject a hard drive without unmounting it first?**

Many people will say that they never had problems with removing a connected hard drive, USB flash drive, or SD card directly from their computer without ejecting it first. Of course, sometimes yanking out a drive without safely ejecting it might not lead to any bad consequences, but it's only a matter of time. The more often you do it, the higher the chances of your drive getting damaged and causing errors in the future.

4. How to format an unbootable hard drive?

To format an unallocated hard drive, you should try to find the drive in Windows Disk Management.

• In Windows 10, go to This PC → Manage → Disk Management.
• In Windows 7, go to My Computer → Manage → Disk Management.

Right-click on the hard drive partition and select "Format..." Follow the formatting wizard to complete the process.