Why Is My Hard Disk Not Detected On Mac

Summary: This post shows how to access a WD hard drive that's not recognized by Mac. To avoid data loss when fixing the unrecognized WD external hard drive, you can recover lost data from the WD hard drive for free with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

1. Why Is My Hard Disk Not Detected On Mac Computer

1. Sometimes, the hard drive not showing up in File Explorer because it is not assigned a drive letter. In this case, you only need to assign a drive letter to the hard disk to solve this problem. Detection of antivirus. If the hard disk has got infected with virus or malware, you should run anti-virus software to detect and repair the.
2. Perhaps you are trying to looking for solutions to this problem. The disk not showing up issue can be fixed in most cases, and the following content will help you dig causes and solutions. Reasons why hard drive is not showing up in Windows. There is a variety of reasons why Windows or BIOS cannot detect the presence of your hard.

To summarize my whole story: the internal hard drive couldn't be detected, even in Disk Utility. OS Installs didn't have a disk to install. I was really scratching my head; my google searches led me to finding it was not an uncommon issue on older computers where it was the result of a bad cable from the hard drive to the mother board, but this. Pick the one that cannot be detected by your machine. It should be indicated as Unallocated partition. Right-click on it and select Change drive letter and paths. Click on Add to open the Add Drive Letter or Path window. Choose Assign the following drive letter and click the letter to name your drive.

Just like Seagate external hard drive not recognized on Mac, WD hard drive not recognized is a question frequently asked by Mac users in Apple related forums. It happens to WD My passport, WD My Book, WD Elements and Easystore, etc.

If you are one of those who are wondering:

• Why Mac won't recognize my WD hard drive?
• How can I make the WD hard drive detected and work on Mac again?
• Can I fix this issue without losing my important data?

You are in the right place for a solution!

First, See How Mac Recognizes a WD External Hard Drive

The process of Mac recognizing an external hard drive is a little complicated even though you can't see it. Specifically, when you plug a WD hard drive into a Mac computer, macOS would be notified. Then macOS will call all related hardware and software to read, recognize, and show this hard drive on the Desktop and in Finder, so that finally you can access your data on the drive on your Mac computer.

So, we usually simplify this process in 4 steps:

1. The WD hard drive is supplied with power, so that Mac can detect this storage device.
2. macOS reads partition information of the WD hard drive.
3. macOS recognizes the file system of each volume.
4. Users access data on the WD hard drive.

However, if any part of this process goes wrong, hard drive problems like Mac won't recognize your WD hard drive would occur. As a consequence, you can't access, copy, write to or transfer data stored on it.

Now, Follow the Guide to Fix WD hard drive not recognized issue on Mac

So, based on the process of Mac recognizing a WD hard drive, we need a thorough check to know which part makes the WD hard drive not working on Mac, and then fix it.

1. Try Quick fixes when WD hard drive is not recognized by Mac

A proper connection is the most basic condition that Mac can access the WD hard drive. Or else the external hard drive would not even show up in Disk Utility. When your Mac can't recognize an external hard drive, you can always do the following quick fixes at the very beginning.

• Make sure the WD hard drive is externally plugged into a wall outlet if it's a WD desktop hard drive like WD Elements Desktop and My Cloud.
• Connect the WD hard drive directly to the computer and do not use a USB Hub.
• Try a different USB cable and port for power and data supply, especially if the My Passport external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility.
• Try a different USB-C adapter to connect the WD hard drive if your Mac only has the Thunderbolt 3 port.
• Try to connect the WD hard drive with a different Mac computer to check if the WD hard drive can be recognized on that Mac.
• Try to plug the WD hard drive in to a Windows PC to check if the file system of the WD hard drive is not compatible with Mac.

The WD hard drive lights on but is not recognized by Mac still?

Wait! Do you allow your Mac to show the recognized WD hard drive in the Finder and Desktop?

2. Show the WD hard drive in the Finder and Desktop

Sometimes, you think WD hard drive is not recognized by Mac because the WD external hard drive isn't showing up on Mac, neither in Finder nor on the desktop. However, the fact is that the WD hard drive is detected by macOS but it is not set to show up on Mac.

In this case, you can show the WD hard drive by changing the preferences:

Step 1: Go to Finder > Preferences > General, make sure the 'External disks' option is ticked. This will make the recognized WD hard drive show up on the Desktop.

Step 2: Select Sidebar tab on the top, make sure the 'External disks' option under Locations is also ticked.

The WD hard drive is not working on Mac still?

Well, it seems that Mac really can't recognize the WD hard drive. We need to take advantage of some tools for further check.

3. Update incompatible WD Apps with WD Discovery for Mac

WD Discovery is a desktop software for Mac and Windows for delivering WD software, updates and notifications for WD external hard drives.

When WD hard drive is not recognized, you can download WD Discovery for Mac to update WD Drive Utilities, WD Security, WD Backup, etc. Possibly, your Mac doesn't recognize the WD hard drive because the WD software is not compatible with your macOS.

4. Check if the WD hard drive is password locked

If you are using WD hard drives like My Book Drive and it is not recognized by Mac now, you can check if the hard drive is password protected. macOS can't read the partition information and mount the volumes if the WD hard drive is password locked. You can download and install WD Security to unlock the WD hard drive if a password has been set to protect the hard drive.

The WD hard drive is not encrypted? Then the reason for Mac not recognizing the WD hard drive is that macOS fails to access the partition and file system information. It could be a problem when WD external hard drive used on PS4 extended drive but not recognized.

5. Repair the unrecognized WD hard drive in Disk Utility

Disk Utility is a built-in disk management and repair tool on Mac computers. When a WD hard drive is not recognized or not working due to inner disk errors, you can try to repair the unrecognizable WD hard drive with Disk Utility.

Tips: Before you try to repair the unrecognized WD hard drive in Disk Utility, if the WD hard drive shows up in Disk Utility but not mounted, you can select the Mount option first then the WD hard drive will be mounted on the Desktop.

Step 1: Go to Applications > Disk Utility.

Step 2: Click 'View' and choose 'Show All Devices'.

Step 3: Select the unrecognized WD hard drive from the sidebar.

Step 4: Click on First Aid on the top. Wait while First Aid verifying and fixing possible errors of the WD hard drive.

If First Aid can't repair the external hard drive, or Disk Utility doesn't recognize the volumes of the drive, probably, the WD hard drive could be corrupted caused by bad sectors.

6. Use WD Drive Utilities when WD hard drives not working on Mac

WD Drive Utilities for Mac is a specialized utility for WD hard drives to run drive diagnostics (fix potential drive failures, slow disk performance, and bad sectors), Manage RAID configuration (For RAID supported models), Erase and format WD hard drives, etc.

If a WD hard drive won't work normally on a Mac due to bad sectors or other parameter errors, you can download WD Drive Utilities for Mac to have a diagnosis of what happens to your hard drive.

Step 1: Install WD Drive Utilities on your Mac and then launch it.

Step 2: Plug the unrecognizable WD hard drive into the Mac.

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Step 3: Click on 'Diagnose' and choose 'Run Quick Drive Test' to check the WD drive completely.

7. Fix the unrecognized WD hard drive by reformatting

If the unrecognizable WD hard drive can't be repaired by WD Drive Utilities, the file system of the WD hard drive might be seriously damaged or corrupted. In this case, you have to reformat or erase this WD hard drive. Before that, it's necessary to recover lost data from unrecognized WD hard drive with free hard drive data recovery software for Mac, like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac, to avoid data loss.

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is professional in external hard drive data recovery on Mac. It supports Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, Samsung, and hard drives of other manufacturers. This data recovery software can recover lost data when hard drive is unrecognized, unmountable, unreadable, corrupted on Mac. Besides, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac can recover lost data from Macintosh hard drive, USB drives, Pen drives, SD cards, memory cards, CF cards as well as other storage devices.

Tutorial to recover lost data from unrecognizable WD hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac

Step 1. Download, install, and launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

To recover your important photos, videos, music, documents, emails from this unrecognizable WD hard drive, you can free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac.

Step 2. Scan for lost data on the WD hard drive.

When the data recovery software is launched, you will see your unrecognizable WD hard drive in the interface. You need to select this corrupted WD hard drive and then click the 'Scan' button to scan for data on this drive.

Step 3. Preview and recover files.

When WD hard drive is corrupted, you can't access your data on this drive. But you can use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to preview the data on the drive, which will help you make sure your files are not corrupted before you finally click 'Recover' to recover them.

Tutorial to reformatting WD hard drive that is not recognized by Mac

1. Go to Disk Utility and select the unrecognized WD hard drive from the sidebar.

2. Click on Erase on the top.

3. Follow the instructions to finish the reformatting process.

After reformatting WD hard drive process finished, you will hopefully see the WD hard drive recognized and showing up on Mac correctly.

However, if the external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility at all, the great chance is that the WD hard drive is physically broken. As a result, Mac can't read and recognize it. In this case, we advise you to check if the serial number of the WD hard drive is still in warranty so that you can ask for a repair or replacement service.

WD provides no-limited warranty unless your WD hard drive was purchased from an authorized distributor or authorized reseller like Amazon. So, if your WD hard drive is dead for disk corruption, please free free to contact their support team for warranty status review and product replacement.

Conclusion

In the issue of WD hard drive not recognized, be it on Mac or Windows, data rescue should come first. This is also important when USB flash drives, SD card, or other external hard drives that are not showing up on Mac.

You can recover data from the unrecognized hard drive with free data recovery software like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac. Then, you can fix the error in different ways without worrying about data loss.

Mac or MacBook Doesn't recognize External Drives. Troubleshooting tips

Macs like most other computers are well working hardware which includes all the newest technologies, unfortunately sometimes hardware and software miscommunicate and causes issues in proper work. There is a lot of cases when you can fix their communication by your own just following some easy tips. For example external drives are widely used invention which nowadays helps a lot of people save money while trying to expand their drives or data storage without a high-priced upgrades. Also it helps to share large size files in a much easier way. Unfortunately in some cases Macs encounter problems while trying to detect some recently plugged in devices. You may face this issue any time you try to connect your external device, even if it worked well several times before.

There are plenty of reasons why this may happen. Probably the most frequent is that we disconnect them straight from the port without ejecting in our operating system first, this results in our drives being still in the run mode while they are out of use. Also the connector or wires might be broken, frayed or worn. Sometimes it's a power or connection problems, sometimes errors in the system preferences. There are cases, when you had well working plugged in device, but once your computer went to sleep with connected external drive, after waking up drive is no longer available. Here we describe the most popular issues and tips how to solve them. Before we start the troubleshooting work, first try to reconnect you external device several times, quite often it helps to solve this problem.

Table of Contents:

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Connections rules

Its really quick and convenient just to plug in and out your devices, usually this task for your mac is to easy, but there are cases when it couldn't recognize your device or drive. Even manufacturers declare it is an plug-and-play. However this work most cases but not all. The best way is to follow recommendations how to connect devices to Mac.

The most reliable path to connect external drives is following these steps.

• Turn on your mac device
• Connect usb cable into computer then to device
• Turn on your external drive.

The super slow plug in

A lot of people declares that their usb flash drives works only when they connect them to computer very slow. If they try plug it in a usual way devices can't detect the drives. Only a slow connections allows to detect them and this case appears in any manufacturer computer, doesn't matter its an apple or windows operating system.

Eject in a safe way

As it was mentioned wrong unplugging could be a reason for your issue with external drive. Your friend might tell that he never ejects his drive, but there always are a chance that this time will be lucky one and after unplugging your drive will be no more detectable. Always perform a safe remove, which you can do in a very easy way. Just right click on your external drive and select Eject device or if u prefer you can just drag your device to Trash which is going to replace to eject symbol while you drag on. This will turn down your device from any tasks and will ensure that it will be available next time you connect it.

If you can put it on it doesn't matter it fits

Just like in most cases, this rule is valid there. If your connection is dirty or loose it may cause a problems to detect and mount your drive. For that reason you should ensure is your hub clean and connection is tight. Check your cable's condition, if it's damaged, frayed or worn may also be a problem while your mac trying to detect or mount your device. Also these reason may cause an disconnection issues. What is more additional hubs can help you to connect but also there is a possibility it cause an connection issue, so you should try connect directly without any additional hubs.

Power issues

Some cases when you face and issue with your external drive, is caused by lacking of power. Some devices often have their own power source, and while receiving enough power they mounts on its own. If your external drive doesn't have own power supply try plug it in a different usb port if it still not working try use and self-powered USB hub. Quite often case when macs doesn't provide enough power into built-in USB hubs, so additional self-powered hubs helps to solve this issue. Alternatively you can try plug in your power cable into computer and reconnect your drive.

Check your settings

If none of those check works mentioned above could help, begin a bit more complicated solutions. Before starting a troubleshooting steps, check the base mac system preferences. Open your Finder then locate for Preferences. Under both General and Sidebar tabs search for the section Show these item on the desktop (or sidebar). Ensure that External Disks and Hard Drives have a check mark in the box. If you found them disabled, click on the white box to enable icons on desktop.

Run Disk Utility

Launch Disk Utility and look up if your external drive is visible here. To open up your Disk Utility go to Applications then open Utilities and there look for Disk Utility. If your drive appears here but shows its not mounted, select the mount option in top-middle, which should mount that drive. To ensure click on the Apple logo in your screen's top left corner and select About This Mac. Inside select the Storage tab and search for your drive. If you can't find it there, come back to Disk Utility and select your external drive from sidebar. Then click on First Aid or verify(repair) disk. This option should find and solve your drives issues.

Check your external drive format

If disk utility tools couldn't solve your problems you should check format of your drive. Ensure that it isn't listed as NTFS format, otherwise perform a reformat using the erase function in Disk Utility, the new format you should choose is exFAT, Fat or Mac OS Extended.

Use terminal to solve your issue

First you should check if you mac detects your drive is plugged in. To do this open About this Mac and storage tab. For more detailed information choose System Report in Overview tab. In sidebar select USB from hardware section. There you will find all devices connected via usb which your mac detects. If you found your external drive connected in system report but you can't reach it, try disconnect it and remount using Terminal. To open terminal in applications window select Utilities then Terminal. Write down command diskutil list in the terminal. Terminal should display you basic information about all available drives and volumes connected to your mac. In the list search for section labeled /dev/disk_ (external/physical). The disk_ part is the physical disk identifier in a operating system, and the underscore is a number or digit assigned to this drive. Write down whole line including the number or digits which goes after word disk. If your drive has several partitions an letter s follows the disk identifier. The number after letter s is a count of the partition.

Once you got your external drive name in terminal you can use another command diskutil info disk_, ensure you entered your drive symbol instead of underscore. This command opens up detailed information about the drive, including its manufacturer name, its size and is it removable, and more facts.
Furthermore you're sure your disk is viable in system, use Terminal to eject it by using command diskutil eject disk_. Don't forget to replace underscore with your disk identifier symbol. After executing ejection command, check is it really removed by typing diskutil list command again. When you're sure your drive is ejected, disconnect it physically from your computer. This should fix your issues.

Reset NVRAM

NVRAM (non-volatile random-access memory) is small part of your Macs memory that stores certain settings in a location where macOS can access. In this memory is stored information like your computer’s speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and any recent kernel panic reports. To reset the NVRAM shutdown your Mac. Turn it on and after loading chime hold down together Option, Command, P and R buttons. Keep holding this combination at least 20 seconds. This should make a view like your computer is restarting and if you hear start up chime again release the buttons.

Does your MacBook shuts down when you plug in your external drive?

You might face this issue when your drive draws too much power from an usb port. Your Mac's SMC shuts down the computer to protect itself. If it happens frequently, try connect your external drive to its own power source if its supplied. In case it's impossible for drives like thumb drives, connect it to another usb port or change the cable you're using. If none of those options available, try reset your Macs SMC.

Resetting SMC

If the battery is integrated:

Why Is My Hard Disk Not Detected On Mac Computer

Shut down your mac and unplug the power adapter. Hold down Shift, Control and Option buttons together with power button for 10 seconds. Then release all buttons and reconnect your power adapter. Turn on your mac in usual way.

If the battery is removable:

Shut down your mac, unplug power adapter and remove battery. Press and hold power button for 5 seconds. Replace the battery and and reconnect your power adapter. Turn on your mac in usual way.

Inspect your external drive via Console

In times of trouble, Console might be really useful app which displays list of log and error information that helps you or the service provider to troubleshoot problems of your Mac. However Console can't fix your issues, but information displayed in it might help find a solution. Let's check your what's going when you plug in your device via Console. First open up a Console, which can be done by accessing Applications then selecting Utilities and finally a Console. In opened window select Error and Faults tab. Then connect your external device and look for a changes in console. If it detects your device or if displays an error about it. In case no changes in console appear the problem is not your usb device.

Video Showing how to troubleshoot external HDD detection problems:

Summary :

Are you still troubled by the issue 'hard drive not showing up'? This article will show you how to slove the probelm 'hard drive not showing up'. In addition, the issue 'hard drive not showing up' may lead to data loss. But, don't worry! MiniTool Power Data Recover, a piece of profesional data recovery software, can help you to get the lost data back.

Quick Navigation :

Hard Drive Not Showing up

Hard drive containing massive important data is not showing up in My Computer or Windows Explorer? Have you ever encountered this problem?

It is believed that many users have encountered the situation mentioned above. Let's see a true example from answers.microsoft.com:

My 2nd hard drive isn't showing up in my computer. The hard drive was a slave I took out of my old XP machine after it crashed. I had installed it into my new vista machine before and it was working, but then I had to reinstall the OS and ever since then it has not shown up. I have double checked to make sure it was set as a slave drive and it is. It shows up in the Bios, the device manager, and in Disk Management, just not in my computer. Nothing is showing up as unallocated in disk management and the drive says it's healthy. In the device manager it says the device is working properly. I've tried to just give it a drive letter in disk management, but when I right click on it the only option I have is help. I've also tried to update the drivers, and it says they are up to date. I've tried disabling and enabling the hard drive. I've even tried uninstalling it. When I restarted it did detect it and reinstalled the drivers, but I still can't get it to show up in my computer. answers.microsoft.com

Why does hard drive (including external hard drive or, USB hard drive) not show up in My Computer or Windows Explorer? Do you know how to deal with this issue? Besides, can we recover data from hard drive when it is not showing up?

Want to know answers of these questions? Here we are!

Why Hard Drive Isn't Showing up and How to Fix

According to the questionnaire survey and the result of experiment, we find there are many factors that can cause the 'hard drive not showing up' issue, including mistaken operation, computer virus invasion, and hard drive letter missing, and so on.

Let's discuss the details.

Case 1- Hard Drive Is Not Initialized

As we know, once hard drive shows as uninitialized, we are unable to see it in Windows Explorer, and cannot access its files. And many reasons (such as virus invasion, master boot record corruption, bad sectors, and so on) can lead to disk not initialized issue.

Solution

To solve this issue, you can right-click the uninitialized disk, and then choose Initialize Disk to initialize it to use it again.

Note: During initializing process, you will be asked to initialize to MBR disk or GPT disk, as shown below. In this case, you can choose appropriate partition style according to actual needs. (Here, I guess, you might be interested in this post 'How to Convert MBR to GPT without Data Loss in Windows 7' since it not only explains what are GPT disk and MBR disk but also shows how to convert MBR disk to GPT.)

If your disk is not initialized anymore due to sudden change, we don’t suggest you to initialize the disk immediately. Conversely, you had better recover all your missing data from it, and then initialize it to make it usable again. Otherwise, the original data will be lost forever. Here, if you don't know how to perfectly recover lost data, you can try using MiniTool Power Data Recovery because of its excellent performance, simple operation and high security.

Related: Solved-Disk Unknown Not Initialized Issue on External Hard Drive

Case 2 – Hard Drive Letter Is Missing

A drive letter is a single alphabetic character A through Z that has been assigned to a physical drive or drive partition in the computer. And if you want to see your hard drive in My Computer or Windows Explorer, you should assign it with a drive letter. Once the drive letter is missing, you will encounter the 'hard drive not showing up' issue.

Solution

To solve this problem, you can assign a drive letter for it. Windows built –in disk management as well as partitioning software like MiniTool Partition Wizard can help to add a new drive letter on it.
Click here to learn several ways to get missing drive letters back in Windows.

Case 3 – Hard Drive Is Hidden

Now, some users want to turn to third-party software like MiniTool Partition Wizard to hide their hard drive to protect data. However, once accidentally hide a drive containing massive important data, what should we do since this drive isn't showing up in Windows Explorer?

Solution

If drive is hidden by mistake, what should we do since Disk Management only offers Delete Volume feature as well as Help feature, as shown above? Can we delete the hidden volume, and create a new one? Of course, we can! But, this method will cause data loss.

Warning: You had better recover data from the hidden drive before deleting it to create a new one.

Note: Alternatively, you can try using MiniTool Partition Wizard to show hidden hard drive in Windows without losing data because this tool can help you hide/unhide drive conveniently and safely.

Case 4 – Hard Drive Becomes Unallocated

Let's start with a true example:

My external USB 3.0 HD was working perfectly well yesterday. However, today suddenly became an 'unallocated' drive without even a drive name. I'm able to detect the drive but I have no way of accessing it.

The only solution that I've tried so far is to access the HD with another computer. But, the results are the same with those computers. I haven't done anything else..

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Here's a screenshot of the problem:

In this case, what should we do? Can we effectively solve this problem without losing original data?

Solution

If your hard disk space turns into unallocated, you are allowed to create new volume on this disk and make it appear in Windows Explorer. However, this solution will cause data loss forever.

In addition, you are highly recommended to recover data from unallocated drive ahead of doing anything else. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is recommended here since this all-in-one tool has been awarded as the top 10 data recovery software on TOPTENREVIEWS.

Case 5 - External hard Drive Is Not Recognized

There's also another situation where the hard drive (especially external hard drive like USB hard drive) is not showing up in My Computer or Windows Explorer. And, you will receive a warning that saying device not recognized.

As a matter of fact, this issue can be caused by various reasons, including the currently loaded USB driver has become unstable or corrupt. For more information about the device not recognized error, please see Error: 'USB Device not recognized' when you try to access a USB external hard drive.

Solution

Here, to fix the 'external hard drive not recognized' error, you can try the below methods.

Method 1: Restart computer

Unplug your USB, restart your computer and plug in and see if it works now.

Method 2: Update device driver

Open Control Panel > Printers and devices. Check if you can see any entry for Unidentified USB device or Unknown Device. Open its Properties and update its driver, if an update is found to be available.

...

Tip: Our previous post USB Flash Drive Not Recognized – Don't Worry Too Much is recommended here to help you get more details about this issue.

Case 6 – Hard Drive Has Wrong File System

Last but not least, if your hard drive is partitioned with the wrong file system, you cannot see it in My Computer or Windows Explorer. For example, you may have formatted the drive with the ext4 file system from Linux or the HFS Plus file system from a Mac. Windows can't read these file systems. But, you can see this drive in Disk Management as shown below:

Solution

To solve this issue, you can delete this drive, and then create a new partition with the newer NTFS file system or older FAT32 file system so Windows will be able to recognize it.

Note: You are strongly suggested to recover data from the drive with wrong file systems at first. Otherwise the original data could be lost forever.

Here, we want to share another case to you.

Sometimes, you will find you cannot access your NTFS drive from another device, such as a DVD player, smart TV, game console, or media center device. This is because that many devices, even Microsoft's own Xbox 360, can't read the Windows NTFS file system. And, they can only access drives formatted with the older FAT32 file system. To fix this problem, simply convert it to FAT32.

After seeing why hard drive isn't showing up in Windows and how to fix this issue, let's move onto the next part.

Recover Data from Hard Drive Not Showing up

From the above description, we can see several factors can cause the hard dive or external hard drive not showing up issue. Although you can fix the 'hard drive not showing up' issue according to the solutions we mentioned above, we advise you to recover data at first. Otherwise, the original data saved on the drive which is not showing up will be lost permanently. However, how?

You are probably wondering:

'How do I effectively recover data from hard drive when it is not showing up?'

Right now, MiniTool Power Data Recovery (PCWORLD, a professional IT magazine, speaks very highly of this data recovery software) can help you effectively recover lost data because of its powerful functions.

Now, let’s see the detailed steps.

Download MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trail edition.

Launch this professional tool to get its main interface as follows.

4 different data recovery modules are listed in the main interface of this all-in-one data recovery software.

• This PC focuses on recovering lost or deleted data from damaged, RAW or formatted partitions. And this module is selected by default.
• Removable Disk Drive is designed to recover lost photos, mp3/mp4 files, and videos from flash drives and memory sticks.
• Hard Disk Drive can recover files after partition loss or deletion.
• CD/DVD Drive helps to recover data from formatted or erased CD/DVD discs.

Here, you can click the Hard Disk Drive to recover lost data. After selecting this module, you will see the following window.

Now, select the target hard drive which is not showing up in Windows Explorer, and then click Scan button. In this window, you are able to click Settings to specify needed file systems as well as file types.

Wait for the full scanning finishes to get the best recovery result.

Finally, select all needed files, and save them. It is recommended to store needed files on another drive. Otherwise, the original data will be overwritten.

The trial edition of MiniTool Power Data Recovery can only scan lost data. If you need to recover more data, please choose the paid edition. Here, you might be interested in this post: MiniTool Power Data Recovery License Comparison.

Conclusion

Are you still worried about the 'hard drive not showing up' issue? Now, after reading this post, I guess you might have a basic understanding of how to fix this issue.

Should you have any question or suggestion about the hard drive not showing up in This PC or My Computer, please feel free to send your email to [email protected].

Hard Drive Not Showing up FAQ

1. Hard drive is not initialized.
2. Hard drive letter is missing.
3. Hard drive is hidden.
4. Hard drive becomes unallocated.
5. Hard drive has a wrong file system.

How do I fix my hard drive not showing up on my computer?

1. Initialize hard drive.
2. Assign drive letter.
3. Hide hard drive.
4. Recover hard drive partitions along with data.
5. Format hard drive.

How do I get Windows 10 to recognize a new hard drive?

1. Right-click This PC.
2. Choose Manage.
3. Click Disk Management.
4. Right-click the new hard drive.
5. Choose Initialize Disk to initialize it.

If the drive letter of your USB is missing, drive is out of date, USB drive is damaged, your computer mat cannot recognize your USB drive. You can go to Disk Management to check the status of your USB drive, and then fix this issue.