Fixed: USB/External hard drives showing in Device Manager instead of “This PC”

My USB/External hard drive only shows up in Device Manager, how can I get it to show in "This PC" or "File Explorer"?

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"Hey everyone, do you know how to get an external hard drive to show up in Windows 10's 'This PC' or 'File Explorer'? I've run into an issue where my USB external drive is showing up in Device Manager, but it's not appearing in File Explorer."

"I have some important files saved on my USB drive, so I need a secure way to make it visible in 'This PC' without losing any data."

Is your USB or external hard drive having similar issues on Windows 10, 8, or 7? Don't worry! This article will walk you through a comprehensive 3-step solution. Follow the instructions to fix the error where your "USB or external hard drive shows up in Device Manager but not in File Explorer" and recover all your data with just a few clicks.

Note: If you had important data saved on the external hard drive or USB, make sure to check if the data is still accessible. If not, use professional file recovery tools to access and retrieve data from the USB or external hard drive after it shows up in Disk Management.

You may also be interested in: How to Fix Hard Drive Not Showing Up or Recognized Issue in Windows

Ready. Check if the USB/external hard drive is detected.

When your USB drive is not showing up in My Computer (Windows 7), This PC (Windows 8.1/10), or File Explorer, you should first make it detectable in Disk Management. The tips below will help you achieve that:

Step 1: First, plug in and connect your USB drive or external hard drive to your computer.

Step 2. Check if it appears in Disk Management.

If not, try the following suggestions:

Step 1: Press the Win + X keys and select Disk Management. Check if your USB or external hard drive is listed under Removable Disks.

Method 2: Plug the USB device or external hard drive directly into another USB port on your computer instead of using a USB hub.

Method 3: If the external hard drive was turned off, turn it back on, and try connecting it to another computer.

When your USB or external hard drive shows up in Disk Management, you can first use a data recovery program to get back your files and then take effective methods to fix the “USB/external hard drive not showing up in This PC” issue.

Step 1: Access and retrieve data from the USB/External Hard Drive

As long as your USB flash drive or external hard drive is showing up in Disk Management, you can use the Data Recovery Wizard tool to access, export, and recover all the data from the device.

Flash Drive Recovery Software Tools

When facing data recovery issues, you can download and run the Data Recovery Wizard tool. It can recover data from any device, including restoring emptied Recycle Bin, formatted hard drives, lost partitions, NAS, and more.

Step-by-step Guide:

Step 1: Select and scan the 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 "External Devices." Then, click on Scan for lost data.

Step 2: Review the scan results

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

Step 3: Preview and recover the data

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

This software enables you to recover data and fix undetected USB flash drive or disk with just a few simple clicks.

Video Tutorial: How to Recover Data from USB/External Hard Drive

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Step 2: Fix USB/External Hard Drive Not Showing Up in File Explorer But Device Manager

If your USB flash drive or external hard disk is not showing up in File Explorer on your computer, you can try the following three solutions to fix this issue:

Option 1: Use a USB/External Hard Drive Repair Service

The most effective way to fix the error "USB appears in Device Manager but not in This PC" is by using a professional Data Recovery Service. With the help of experts, you can easily repair your damaged USB or external hard drive.

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Tool Data Recovery Service

Contact our experts for a free assessment.

Consult with Tool Data Recovery specialists for one-on-one manual recovery services. After a free diagnosis, we offer the following services:

• Repair damaged RAID structures, unbootable Windows OS, and corrupted virtual disk files
• Restore/rebuild lost partitions and reformatted drives
• Unformat hard drives and repair raw drives (including Bitlocker encrypted drives)
• Fix disks converted to GPT protective partitions

Method 2: Update or Reinstall the USB/External Hard Drive Driver

Step 1: Connect your USB drive or external hard drive to the computer, and go to Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus controllers.

Step 2. Right-click on your USB or external hard drive and select “Eject” > “Remove the device.”

Step 3. Reinsert the USB flash drive/external hard drive, and go back to Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus controllers.

Step 4: Select the USB component you want to update.

5. Right-click on the USB device and select “Update driver software” from the drop-down menu.

Step 6. Follow the on-screen instructions in the Update Driver Software wizard to update the USB or external hard drive driver.

Method 3: Assign a New Drive Letter to the External Hard Drive

Step 1. Press Win + X and click Disk Management.

Step 2: Right-click on your USB device or external drive and select “Change drive letter and paths.”

Change drive letter to show USB or external hard drive in "This PC"

Step 3: If the drive doesn't have a letter, click “Add.” To assign a new letter to the drive, select a new one, and then click “OK” to save all changes.

Method 4: Format or Create a New Volume on the USB/External Hard Drive

After that, you can format and reset the file system of your USB flash drive or external hard disk to NTFS using the following trick:

Note: This method might delete existing data on the storage device, so make sure you've backed up any important data to a secure location. If you haven't, recover the data beforehand using a Data Recovery Wizard tool.

1. Right-click the Start button and select "Disk Management."

Step 2. Right-click on your USB drive or external hard disk and select “Format Volume.”

Step 3. Change the file system to NTFS, click OK to confirm, and save all changes.

If your USB flash drive or external hard disk is showing as unallocated space in Windows 10, you can create a new volume on the disk to make it usable for storing data again:

Step 1: Press Win + X and choose Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click on the unallocated space on your USB drive or external hard disk, and select "New Simple Volume."

Step 3. Assign a new drive letter to the disk so that it becomes visible in This PC/ File Explorer again.

Bottom line

We hope that after reading this article, your issue of USB not showing up only in Device Manager has been resolved. The entire process of fixing the problem is to first check if your USB or external hard drive can be detected in Disk Management. Then, use any of the three methods we've provided to resolve the issue. Lastly, recover your USB data with the tool, Data Recovery Wizard. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our support team at support@tools.com.

"Frequently Asked Questions: 'USB not showing in My Computer but appears in Device Manager'"

In this part, you will get to know more about the “USB device showing up in Device Manager but not in My Computer” error.

How to fix the USB not showing up issue in Windows 10?

If you're getting the USB not showing up in Windows 10 error, you can try several methods to fix it:

1. Seek USB flash drive repair services. 2. Update the USB drive driver. 3. Reinstall the disk driver for the USB flash drive. 4. Create a new partition on the computer.

Why isn't my USB device showing up on my computer?

There are several reasons why a USB device may not show up on your computer.

• 1. The USB connector might not be seated securely in the USB port.
• 2. Some USB devices have a power button that you might need to turn on.
• 3. You're using a damaged USB drive.
• 4. The USB port on your computer might be broken.

How can I recover lost data from a USB drive?

You can use the Data Recovery Wizard tool to restore lost data from a USB flash drive.

1. Launch the "Data Recovery Wizard" tool and insert the USB drive. 2. Scan for lost or deleted files on the USB drive. 3. Preview and recover the lost files.