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external hard drive not recognised on laptop windows 11. any help please?

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boatgirldaniella

PCHF Member
Feb 14, 2024
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#1
My external drive has stopped working on my lap top on windows 11.
I have tried lots of things and watched lots of youtube fix videos but nothing has worked or even seems relevant to my drive.
On disk management it comes up like this. not as the named drive but as (disk partition 1) and (disk partition 2).
At this point I would accept losing my files to re-format it but everything is greyed out when i right click it.

I am sorry if this is super obvious i just really am out of my depth here so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks so much and I hope you are all doing well and good out there x



screenshot.png
 
#3
PeterOz said:
You say it has stopped working yet it shows up in disk manager????
Please try this and see what it shows.
Click on me

WHY?
If it is failing, then the last thing you want is to keep on using it.
Click to expand...
thanks Peter, I'll give that a shot.

It doesnt show up in widnows finder or anything but it shows up in disk manager.
I would like to get the files off of it mainly. and then Im going to try to return it because its less than a year old. It shouldnt be failing like that.

Thanks for your help my friend
 
#4
you could also try using a ubuntu os to see if it reads the drive.
I normally use this to take files from a non booting computer.
Should still work for an external - copy to computer.
NO INSTALL NEEDED.
Just have the external drive connected before booting ubuntu.

Do you have any data you need to get off this computer? If yes then make a ubuntu bootable usb or dvd
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview NO install needed

Or here is a Youtube on how to make the usb


Copy your data to an external drive or another computer/nas.

Insert the usb or cd/dvd and boot your system. You may have to change bios settings to boot from the usb or cd/dvd(every computer is different) We can help with this.

If you are copying to another usb drive plug it in before booting.

When the computer boots choose TRY UBUNTU and let the system boot.

When booted look on the left-hand side of the screen and click on Files icon

1707964632047.png


Then click on Other Locations

1707964662835.png


Click on your drive for example Win 7
1707964693299.png


You should now see your data e.g Documents Pictures etc.

Copy your data to an external drive or another computer/nas.

When finished Click on the shutdown icon in the top right-hand corner Click on Power Off
 
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#5
It may be the drive in the enclosure or the enclosure itself.
If the above advice from Peter doesn't yield results, I would be removing the drive from the enclosure and either insert it into another enclosure or whack it straight into a desktop PC.

This will determine if it's the actual drive that's gone bad - which is high on the guesses as with the drive being external, they simply get knocked around more, and if that happens when the drive is connected, it's even worse.

How old is the external drive?
SSD ort HDD?

But yeah, +1 with Peter - if the drive is faulty, all trust in it is gone and you need to get a new one. (y)
 
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